Pizza Express
6, Greenwich Church St, SE10
It's a Pizza Express. There's little more to say than that. If you know the chain, you'll know the restaurant. Geared primarily to tourists, it does pretty well on the corner opposite St Alfeges Church. It's your usual bright, modern, clattery-type restaurant with inset lighting, wooden floors and metal-backed chairs which does your usual range of not-bad pizzas and the odd pasta dish and salad (I rather like the nicoise.)
The Pizza Express restaurants were started back the 60s by Peter Boizot and they were really cutting-edge and fresh for the time. What he did really well was combine his love of pizza with his other big obsession - jazz. Jazz and pizza were synonymous with the chain - and it was extremely chic back in the 60s & 70s.
The logo survives in all its mid-century glory, at least. And right into the 90s the entire chain continued to have live jazz, but these days only the Dean St and Pizza on the Park really do much in the way of music - though the Maidstone branch still occasionally has acts. The Greenwich branch stopped doing regular music in the early 2000s - yet another sell-out for live music in the town. I haven't been back since.
The only way I can be reasonably confident about the place is that apart from the odd special the menu never changes and the service tends to be similar. It may no longer be terribly exciting, but at least you know what you're getting - and you can see it being prepared, for which, if you've read Kitchen Confidential, you may well be grateful. It always seems fairly full.
Anyone been recently who can tell me it's changed in any way whatsoever?
It's a Pizza Express. There's little more to say than that. If you know the chain, you'll know the restaurant. Geared primarily to tourists, it does pretty well on the corner opposite St Alfeges Church. It's your usual bright, modern, clattery-type restaurant with inset lighting, wooden floors and metal-backed chairs which does your usual range of not-bad pizzas and the odd pasta dish and salad (I rather like the nicoise.)
The Pizza Express restaurants were started back the 60s by Peter Boizot and they were really cutting-edge and fresh for the time. What he did really well was combine his love of pizza with his other big obsession - jazz. Jazz and pizza were synonymous with the chain - and it was extremely chic back in the 60s & 70s.
The logo survives in all its mid-century glory, at least. And right into the 90s the entire chain continued to have live jazz, but these days only the Dean St and Pizza on the Park really do much in the way of music - though the Maidstone branch still occasionally has acts. The Greenwich branch stopped doing regular music in the early 2000s - yet another sell-out for live music in the town. I haven't been back since.
The only way I can be reasonably confident about the place is that apart from the odd special the menu never changes and the service tends to be similar. It may no longer be terribly exciting, but at least you know what you're getting - and you can see it being prepared, for which, if you've read Kitchen Confidential, you may well be grateful. It always seems fairly full.
Anyone been recently who can tell me it's changed in any way whatsoever?
Labels: Eating Out
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
08:39
8 Comments:
My dad used to take me to the original one in Dean street all the time as a child and my love of that one and Kettners their flagship remains to this day. All the rest are miserable, the noise in them is enough to make your ears bleed, you cannot have a conversation without screaming yourself and no matter what they say the pizzas are too small. The Greenwich one is no exception, the wait for your food is too long and the service is terrible. I much prefer Pizza Luna on the corner by the crossing from the Naval College. It's very basic, no artichoke toppings here but good pizza reasonable priced and a good size.
I hear the new build on Trafalgar (old pub site) will be a Pizza place (with flats above of course). Hope this is true as I've longed for an Italian along there for sometime.
MJ
It is, until July 1 at least, one of the few restaurants in Greenwich to be completely smoke-free throughout. This is a good thing. Quite why it should ever be acceptable to smoke near where other people are eating completely escapes me.
I would rather stick needles in my eys than eat pizza, soggy dough, strange toppings and dried herbs that stick to your teeth. Nevertheless I took my son to the Greenwich Pizza Express (because I love him)on Monday. They have about five new pizzas on the menu plus some new pasta dishes (which is what I generally go for). BUT they now have some rather tasty sounding salads. I had the ceasar chicken salad which was very nice, it was freshly made with lots of "torn" chicken. I still cannot say that it is my favourite lunch venue, but at least there is something decent for me to eat now. The service was great, fast and efficient although it was a lunchtime and only half full.
Rather like Pizza Express. Can't complain about the size, plenty for one one person, I think. Does what it says on the tin.
One thing I have used the Greenwich one for is a children's pizza making party.
We arranged one for my daughter's 9th birthday a couple of years ago.
It cost about £10 per child (or a bit less I think) for which they got to make their own pizza, with a drink and cake.
Very successful and the guy in charge kept them well entertained.
They'll only do it at off-peak times. We had ours at 4pm, after school on a weekday.
So, which place in Greenwich is actually selling Pizza one would want to eat?
AB
You know what, Andreas, I can't think of anywhere. Greenwich has a paucity of Italian restaurants. Soltieri - the family-run Italian on the corner - should be just the ticket, but in my experience it's really only average at best. We desperately need a good Italian restaurant.
Well that's just depressing. :(
We are moving to Greenwich this weekend, and I wonder how I can survive without my pizza fix!
Thanks!
Andreas
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home