PizzaExpress is a restaurant group with over 400 restaurants across the United Kingdom and 40 countries overseas. Inspired by a trip to Italy, this chain was founded in 1965 by Peter Boizot, who opened his first restaurant in London. For this, Boizot got himself a pizza oven from Naples and a chef from Sicily.

PizzaExpress becomes a staple whenever one visits London, and so when I am invited to a tasting session, I am both excited and curious to see how the Indian operation matches up with their London one. Well, after tasting a wide section of food, I can say it is pretty close.

I start the tasting with one all-time favourite of mine, the crispy-outside-soft and chewy-inside dough balls "Pizza Express" (Rs 165) served with garlic butter to dip. The quality of the dough is very good, and matches that of their overseas setup. Bruschetta originale "Pizza Express" (Rs 235) has their classic dough topped with tangy imported santos tomatoes from Santorini in Greece, red onions, garlic, pesto & fresh basil. While the base is as good as ever, the topping has something lacking. Maybe a dash of balsamic could provide depth to the taste – just a suggestion. 

Goat Cheese Salad (Rs 375) is a chargrilled Italian vegetables salad of warm aubergine, red & yellow pepper, santos tomatoes and marinated artichoke with soft goat cheese, roasted tomatoes, cucumber, lentil and  lightly tossed in mixed leaves, mint, basil with olive oil & red wine vinegar dressing is fresh and flavourful. Here while the salad is fresh, light and crisp as it should be, somehow the hero of the salad, goat cheese is missing its bright and lemony taste.

Polpette (Rs 310) is a chicken meatballs starter is tender and juicy.

It is time to check out the pizzas. The restaurant serves two crusts, Romana thin crust and the Classic regular Napoli crust. In the Romana range of pizzas, the interesting ones for me are Apollo (Rs 610) which is an interesting and desified tandoori chicken, spicy green chillies, and Sweet yellow pepper with mozzarella pizza; Padana (Rs 595), a combination of creamy goat cheese with spinach, red onions and mozzarella cheese topped with freshly made in house caramalised onions, and made for chilly addicts like me, Calabrese Pizza (Rs 750) from Calabria region in Italy, with a fiery combination of Italian & spicy sausage, red chillies, jalapenos, roasted red & yellow pepper & mozzarella, finished with baby mozzarella, fresh rocket leaves. However my absolute favourite is the classic crust Margherita (Rs 395) for its sheer simplicity and the perfect crust.

In desserts, chocolate fudge cake (Rs 275) is a gooey treat, and banoffee pie (Rs 275) is competent but the shining star is their vanilla cheesecake (Rs 295) which has the toothsome delicious taste of home.

I am definitely coming back to PizzaExpress as a customer. High on my list of repeats are the dough balls, classic margarita pizza and cheesecake.

Please note: This review was done on an invitation from the restaurant to taste their food, and no bill was presented to the author. While the author assures you of objectivity, the review may be influenced by the personalized attention the author got.

Ratings (Out of 5)

Food: 4.0 | Ambience: 4.0 | Service: 4.0 | Value: 3.5 | Overall: 4.0

Meal for two: Rs.3000 | Alcohol: Yes | Credit Card: Yes | Wheel chair friendly: Yes

Address: 3rd Floor, Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi Tel: 011 33105791