There was a time when Pizza Express was untouchable.
It was the ultimate fallback for first dates, birthday dinners, or post-shopping pit stops. But walk past one now and it’s hard to ignore the empty tables.
So what happened?
This video breaks down the slow, painful unraveling of one of Britain’s most iconic high street chains…from billion-pound debt and brutal competition to post-COVID fallout, PR disasters, and a pricing model that backfired hard.
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:31 The Good Old Days (When Pizza Was a Vibe)
2:03 The Cracks Before the Collapse
3:20 The Pandemic Wipes the Plate Clean
4:23 The “Profit Paradox” and a PR Nightmare
5:45 The Vibe Shift: “Why Is It So Expensive?”
7:12 The Last Slice: Will It Survive?
28 Comments
Pizza express won't offer pineapple, I won't go to pizza express but good luck to them.
I did try them not so long ago, while abysmal in choose, the pizza I had to have , due to that limited choice was actually pretty good. However with such a limit choose and a massive bill, I won't be going back. Pity though considering the good quality…
Alley Cats is my local
Never understood going out to eat with those prices for just pizza. Pizza is so easy to cook at home and for a fraction of the price plus you can drink as much alcohol as you like.
cheap and Dominos in the same sentence?
Is this AI?
They sell Pizza express pizza in Sainsbury’s..L why would I pay 4 times as much to eat the same thing in the restaurant.
Private equity enters chat ….
You can guess where this is going
I've not set foot in a Pizza Express since the 1980s. But it is Prin… Erm, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor's favourite scapegoat. 😅
0:24 That's the store in Ruislip.
Been there like once
Pizza Hut is the same. I genuinely think going out for a pizza is nothing special anymore. I feel that you can get 2 pizzas a side and a drink in somewhere like asda for £10. Why would you bother? That said i have nothing wrong with Pizza Express but Pizza is not the first thing i think of when wanting to go out for a meal and if it was there are many decent Italian family run businesses I would love to give my money to.
That's a good vid, I enjoyed it. I hear Andrew like Pizza Express.
That and the whole Prince Andrew thing has turned the brand into a joke in the eyes of the general public.
Pizza Express has very poor service in their so called restaurants and their head office. Combine this with high prices, limited menu and a poor revamp of their rewards scheme, it's no wonder they're struggling. And they don't listen to their customers. Avoid.
“If you want a cheap pizza.. you’re ordering from Domino’s” no you’re not.
Olivelli, The Cut, Waterloo, SE1. My favourite place for pizza and Carbonara. Thanks for the film.
Make your own pizza at home
When I worked there the manager and another member of staff (jobsworth) would always change the expiry date on desserts so they could continue selling it to customers, and when I disagreed with it they got so worried I would say something they told many lies about me and even though I provided written proof along side a recorded conversation with the member of staff saying they lied about me.. head office still fired me. Of course I have never eaten there or bought their products in supermarkets since and I’d be delighted if they went extinct
What are you on about? My local ones are always packed!
The ones in Birmingham are busy ,but we have much better options
It was originally the battle between plain boring English style pizzas or the new spicy Italian pizza from Pizza Express – the staff and pizzaiolo would be Italian, there were bottles of chianti in wicker baskets – the vibe set by locations in Dean Street and Coptic Street – it was good value – today it is incredibly expensive, it’s Italian as a Tikka Marsala , it has so many items on the menu – none of them with any real authenticity that you can find in the new dedicated style pizza shops.
Weirdly Bath a city of less than 100k people has 2 branches of pizza express and both always seem busy. Pizza express must be popular with Lib Dems
The ones in Central London are always packed on Thursdays, Friday and Saturday. On other days, they still do well with tourists.
The food is fucking awful especially for its price
They should sue the royal family, the public don't wants to go to P-Dough Express anymore.
I’m surprised they have lasted as long as they have because there pizzas are absolute rubbish
Way overpriced for what it is
I heard their toxic cheese clogged prince Andrew's sweat glands
I think the last time I went to Pizza Express was around 2017 or 2018, it was down my local area and surprise, surprise it closed down and now is Five Guys.