if you want to know the truth about pizza express, i'll tell you everything

i wasnt necessarily saying california pizza kitchen and pizza express are exactly the same, just giving US peeps a point of reference since we dont have P.E. here.

Tracer, u mad. Favorite pizza ever was from Time Cafe: red sauce, gorgonzola, red onions, Canadian bacon, sliced apples, and a drizzle of honey. A more perfect union.

Tracer I can't eat salad - I'm allergic to lettuces.

Man I've just had dinner and Laurel's pizza is making me salivate.

Louis I've had that garlic chicken pizza and its the exception that proves the rule as far as Zero Degrees' awesomeness is concerned. I managed to get about a quarter of the way through it before I was all "too... much... garlic... must... stop... now". Ugh.

The Pinefox and I have watched many a Spurs game in there as well, its kind of my local.

Pear and gorgonzola done right. No pizzas involved.

The one time I went to La Porchetta I thought it was kind of overrated, but at least it was cheap and huge. Although their house wine is beyond vile.

Yeah, it's vile, but it's great vile.

Ah jeez, well, maybe I have a strong liking for garlic, or maybe you were just unlucky that they gave you a particularly strong one. I have tried a few others (usually when the rest of my family can't finish theirs), and they are superb, but the RGC is a cut above IMO. I'd be up for diversifying, though. Do you recommend any of the newer ones?

It's a great place to watch football. I really like the atmosphere, above all.

red sauce, gorgonzola, red onions, Canadian bacon, sliced apples, and a drizzle of honey

that sounds fckn awesome.

I don't really understand why people go seeing as every high street or town centre you care to name has at least four Italian restaurants that aren't Pizza Express/Ask/Strada.

i get this, cos i'm guilty of this: you end up somewhere, you don't know what's good, and say fuck it, with p-express you know what you're getting and it's never too bad. i think this is one of the good things about modernity tbh.

mind you i don't know if every town centre *does* have that many 'real' italian places.

but i can recommend papa del's on archway road as an actual proper they-make-the-dough type place in n london.

I wonder where o-ess thought the chicken would have come from? The only other answer if you want to pay the prices that they charge is Thailand.

All the PE (and afiliates)dough is made in a factory in Oxon btw.

Stradas and a few other smaller chains are made in Hampshire.

Order from a menu today and chances are the food on your plate has come from one source: 3663. This behemoth supplies a quarter of all Britain's catering needs

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2528251.ece

T/S: 3663 vs. Cearns & Brown vs. Sodex Ho vs. Brake Bros

Actually, there's a good chance that (at least) one of the above owns (at least) one of the others.

AnItalian workmate of my friend's has commented that Zero Degrees is the only place he's found in England that does pizzas properly. So there you go.
Pizza Express does tend to be of different quality whenever I go in there (which is not that often) but when it's good, it's OK.

Awesome! I feel fucking vindicated. Especially given that there are only THREE outlets in the entire country (Blackheath, Bristol and Reading).

"T/S: 3663 vs. Cearns & Brown vs. Sodex Ho vs. Brake Bros

Actually, there's a good chance that (at least) one of the above owns (at least) one of the others."

nope, not the case

the four horsemen of the apocalypse

poisoning schoolkids since thatcher

Haha, if you knew how many restaurants got their dry goods off 3663...

not just dry....

a lot of their stuff is pure distribution though - they have customers who go out and find the products they want to use then their manufacturers/importers/whatever have to send in their wares to the 3663 dc that handles that particular account.

Pizza Express. Every time I'm dragged into one by someone, I feel as if it's an hour of my life I'll never get back. Just horrible pizzas--all the other upmarket Italian chains manage to do it ok, why can't the people who invented the notion? I mean, I'd honestly think the Pizza Hut makes higher quality pizzas. Their mascarpone+baby fig pudding is the only reason I can tolerate them.

this thread is sadly lacking in "truth".

I always seem to end up in a Pizza Express when wondering around some town (or bit of London I don't know) with a large group of friends all with different tastes before a gig. You can't really go wrong with it.

well, you feel robbed but you've still eaten something.. okay.

This is a great thread - there's never been a 'where does your restaurant food come from?' type thread on ILE to my knowledge. Which would bother me more if I was the sort of person who cared where my restaurant food came from. I R food Poptimist clearly.

"Truth" = they wank on the pizzas before serving, that sort of thing, right?

I have tried a few others (usually when the rest of my family can't finish theirs), and they are superb, but the RGC is a cut above IMO. I'd be up for diversifying, though. Do you recommend any of the newer ones?

Parma ham, mozzarella and rocket one fucking owns, my favourite football-watching pizza. The three Italian sausage one is good as well.

It's a great place to watch football. I really like the atmosphere, above all.

OTM. Somewhere on ILE is the magical story about the time I saw an Arsenal fan get dumped by his girlfriend, just after the last goal went in during last year's Carling Cup final. It's one of my favourite places to spend an inebriated Sunday afternoon.

I shall try that pizza next time!

Your story is absolutely wonderful, and I have seen it before on here. Didn't she dump him because he was swearing so much?

"Truth" = they wank on the pizzas before serving, that sort of thing, right?

no, not really what i was thinking of.

Where do we stand on Firezza? Somebody told me it was the best pizza place in London, but the one I had was shit.

Been there once, v disappointing. Big on the World Fusion toppings, I went for some New York thing that was basically spag bol on a pizza, wtf. Definitely not crispy dough.

Firezza = very hit and miss. but when they hit, very mmmm

This is insane!

btw
I quite like Pizza Express (who have the much better name of Milano in Ireland

this is where I work. Milano are actually meant to be alot nicer than Pizza Expresses, which I would believe.
Many tourists from the UK come in and do not register, despite identical branding and menu, that they are in Pizza Express. Most Irish people would believe Milano is an upmarket chain, which is fine for me.

With recent menu changes, they can no longer use a 'regional' approach, as they have run out of regions of Italy that do not hike up the price and expertise. Emphasising too much on the south of Italy would require a return to using buffalo mozzerella, making good pizzas and better vegetables.
Their latest attempt at a new menu contains only new spicy meat dishes, as 'winter is coming, and people want to be heated up'. We will no longer have anything to do with parmesan, and legally cannot say these words, as what we will be using and offering will be a low cost alternative, I think called 'grano padana'.
We do not serve San Pelligrino as it is too expensive. Our mineral water retails at around €3 a bottle, but a box of twelve is less than 50 cent.

The new menu booklets ignore completely that Irish people would not be impressed with the phrase 'the best thing to hit the UK, since, I don't know when'. Also, ranting about how the new Italian sausages are better than Cumberland sausages is a bit bizarre.

Many nights we have run out of tomato sauce, most of the frozen desserts. And yes, they cannot make the dough, as they do not know how and we would not be allowed to.

I know that this is the same with most restaurants of a similar nature, basically all of their competition.

We have 'How To' cards for everything, from making pizza boxes, slicing cucumbers, greeting customers, and yeah pretty much everything.

Enough of this rant...I wasn't anticipating such a response.

How is this different from any other chain restaurant then? Impersonal, huge mark-up on drinks, pre-prepared food? I mean, I know you said "I know that this is the same with most restaurants of a similar nature", but to home in on Pizza Express (other than that you work there) seems unnecessary. I could tell you the same shit about Little Chef, JD Wetherspoons, Garfunkels and many other places that I, or friends, have worked. You're paying for the uniformity, you know what you're getting.

whoa spill the beans on little chef please!!!!!!!!! little bastard more like amirite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"You're paying for the uniformity"

my question is, why would anyone do this?

Many people believe that this isn't the case with Pizza Express/Milano. I don't know anything about the places you mentioned, what do people consider the standard to be. This level of food processing entering the restaurant sphere in Ireland is new I imagine, as people are willing to fork out for basically frozen pastas they can buy in Tesco.
There is a big effort within the company to ensure it is not impersonal, and this is working...
I thought people might like to know, is all.

o-ness, this is very interesting, and if anyone did think Pizza Express was somehow high-rent and unique then it must be a bit of a shock, but you're not really saying anything bad about the place as far as I can tell!

a low cost alternative, I think called 'grano padana'

Um, it's cheaper than parmigiano reggiano, and not quite as nice, but it's hardly "low cost" - it's a proper cheese made to proper standards in the same region of Italy. I guess it's cava rather than champagne, whereas you're making it sound like Asti Spumante.

"You're paying for the uniformity"

my question is, why would anyone do this?

Tracer, do you know why Mcdonalds is the world's biggest restuarant chain?

"o-ness"?

"You're paying for the uniformity"

my question is, why would anyone do this?

-- Tracer Hand, Monday, November 5, 2007 10:49 AM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

seriously? practically everything else about industrial/urban society tends towards standardization and uniformity... why not food?

i don't know what "open-plan fern bar chainstore vibe" but p-express goes for it *less* than some places. wagamama kind of aestheticizes the canteen feel. i don't see the problem.

so far the 'truth' of this thread is at a "did u know that pubs are dominated by the major breweries" level of mindblowingness.

Really there is no room for anything 'bad' to occur, due to open kitchens and stringent guidelines on everything. we even must provide our own float. I get that beyond the shock factor there is really nothing.
People expect to read things about spitting, wanking etc but it doesn't happen. Really the worst you're going to get is changed day dots or a hungover waiter washin' your lettuce.
These days people want and expect fresh, however, especially with the high prices they pay.
I do enjoy working there, and I don't know anyone there who doesn't, but that is thankfully due to the good morale and tips, not due to the cunting customers.

so far the 'truth' of this thread is at a "did u know that pubs are dominated by the major breweries" level of mindblowingness.

I'm really into that these days too...

ok i guess if i decide to be willfully disingenous i should be willing to be condescended to

let me rephrase: why do YOU do this, i.e. pay for the uniformity, though you know the ingredients are bad?

So far the 'you can take the kids there without it feeling like a big deal' argument is the best defence I've seen on this thread. Part of the reason restaurants like Pizza Express exist is to fill this niche, because eating out, especially at independent restaurants, is still considered kind of a big deal in Britain in a way it just isn't in, say, France.

I made a fucking wicked king prawn sag balti for dinner on Friday, and I have leftovers to eat cold with chapatis for my lunch today: is it too early for me to eat it already?

I just picked the first food-related thread I saw to ask that, btw.

though you know the ingredients are bad?

Who knows this? o-ess and porkpie know what they're talking about and cheap and frozen != bad

so it's a place where people feel ok about annoying everyone else with their mewling brood

man this place just sounds better and better

xxxpost haha mark are you serious??

let me rephrase: why do YOU do this, i.e. pay for the uniformity, though you know the ingredients are bad?

-- Tracer Hand, Monday, November 5, 2007 11:18 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

cos going to restaurants where they source fresh ingredients from the market that morning = $$$; it's kind of why high-end places are high-end.

a lot of places, including independent places, get their ingredients from big distributors.

there are obviously independent places that are better than pizza express; otoh you can't compare "independent places" with a chain, because there's huge variation in the first category. and that's why people go with the second.

i've been annoyed by children in all sorts of places.

so it's just a money issue. if you could, you'd eat somewhere else.