Pizza Express Live - Coming to High Holborn Soon

Imagine a Friday or Saturday evening - you want to go to your local Pizza Express for pizza and a few drinks, listen to the background music and then either go on somewhere else or make your way home.  What if that could change?

Let me start by telling you about the pizza making evening I was invited to at Pizza Express at the High Holborn branch.  Easy to reach from the Central Line Underground Station, a few hundred metres from the entrance (99 High Holborn actually). This branch has recently undergone a refurbishment and the downstairs has had a complete makeover including comfortable upholstered seating and bespoke artwork - keep reading to find out all about that.

Most branches of Pizza Express offer pizza making parties especially popular with children but also great for office team building, hen parties and in this case a group of bloggers. I recently wrote about my granddaughter's birthday party at a Pizza Express - you can read it by clicking here.

It's always fun when you are with a group of bloggers - as food is put on the table all the phones and cameras come out and no one touches anything until we have all taken our photos.

There were ten of us and after a few glasses of Prosecco, olives and the famous pizza dough balls

we put on our aprons and seriously stylish hats and started to learn the basics of pizza making.

Let the pizza making begin!

Ready to do the toppings.

Now to bake

and finally eat our creations.

After our creations were made and eaten we went downstairs to see the new venture! It's called Pizza Express Live.

This is the latest one in a series of innovative space changes in the Pizza Express family.  The Pizza Express Live Holborn will open early September.  You will be able to book a table for a great night of comedy live and a great selection of live music acts (in fact every kind of music except jazz as this is the specialty of Pizza Express Jazz Club Soho) and once seated at your table the full Pizza Express menu and drinks menu will be available so you can sit back and enjoy the evening.

Sit around the stage

or take a table, enjoy the entertainment, food and your companion(s) company.

The bar is fully stocked

The sound system is state of the art producing a crisp and clear sound to ensure you don't miss a beat or a joke!

I will certainly be taking Mr R to Central London as soon as we know the list of performers and can book tickets.  What could be better than entertainment, pizza and prosecco?  Will you give it a try?

I was a guest of Pizza Express and was not required to write a positive report of my evening.  As usual all opinions are my own as well as photographs.  No photographs may be reproduced in any way without my express written permission.

A Birthday Party at Pizza Express

My granddaughter (Little Miss) recently turned nine years old.  Where did the time go? I remember being handed a little 5lb12oz pink bundle and suddenly she is fast growing into a gorgeous young lady!!

Little Miss's mother is a Manager at Pizza Express in Milton Keynes at the Hub. Pizza Express do birthday parties for children where they get to make their own pizza, have it cooked then sit down to eat it.

Little Miss invited several of her friends as well has her two cousins, Big and Small and her step sister and two step brothers.

Sitting next to her best friend from school is a very happy young lady.!

All the ingredients are ready and the dough has risen ready for pizza making.

A quick lesson from Mum how to treat your dough to get it ready to toss in the air.

"Look kids, this is how you toss a pizza". They all thought that was great fun!

Small is certainly having fun.

"Ta-Dah" as Big presents his dough ready for the tomato sauce.

Little Miss gets shown how to spread the sauce by her mum.

"Look Nanny I made a pizza" chirped Small.

Pizzas all cooked and time to settle down and eat their creations.

Time for the birthday girl to blow out her candles.

And a final dish of ice cream before all making our way home, the children clutching the pizza that they couldn't eat there.

If you have 'Little People' and are looking for an alternative birthday party give Pizza Express a thought.

I did not receive anything from Pizza Express and was not required to write a post about the party.  As usual all opinions and photos are my own.  No photos can be reproduced without my written permission.

Review: Pizza Express Winter Menu

I always love having a meal at my local Pizza Express. Pizza Express opened it's first restaurant in 1965 in London's Soho and have not changed their menu much whilst at the same time have kept it up to date and interesting.

The current menu includes the classics and has several new items added.

I went with Mr R for a quiet Saturday evening out together, something which doesn't happen often due to my hectic schedule.

For starters Mr R had the new Risotto Mio, lovely and creamy with mushrooms and a drizzle of truffle oil.

I had the new Calamari, rings of really tender squid covered in breadcrumbs and served with a Caesar dressing.  I almost expected to find an onion ring inside as I am used to calamari coming in chunks.

Mr R had the new Soho pizza designed to celebrate the original menu of 1965 and opted for the extra selection of cured meats. He picked the classic base not being that fond of the really thin pizza bases.

I wanted to have a new item but the Pizza Express Calzone is my all time favourite and I am afraid that I had to have one of those.

Calzone means pocket in Italian and this is a pizza that looks like an over sized pasty filled with tomato, salami, spinach, cheese and herbs. Mmmm, delicious as usual and far to big to finish so I have half of it to take home.

Mr R ordered the new mini potatoes from the menu and because it took a bit longer than the manager liked he brought us over a huge piece of mozzarella cheese covered in pesto and sweet mini tomatoes.

The Noci potatoes followed shortly and Mr R also called the Potato Monster got stuck in.

Dessert time and neither of us wanted a really heavy pudding.  The two new additions to the dessert menu were perfect.

Bombolini - little doughnut bites filled with strawberry jam surrounding a dollop of vanilla bean ice cream.

Salted Caramel Profiteroles - just three little filled profiteroles dipped in a caramel icing with little bits of honeycomb accompanied by a cafe late - the prefect way to end the meal and the evening.

All the while our waiter, Fabrizio looked after us perfectly, not ignoring us nor being too pushy and recommending his favourites as well.

We slowly waddled our way back to the car park feeling full and satisfied.

We were guests of Pizza Express and as usual all opinions and photos are our own.

The Christmas Menu is coming from Pizza Express

Pizza Express has been in the UK since 1965 when they opened their first restaurant on Wardour Street in Central London.  Since then they are gone from strength to strength becoming a familiar sight on most High Streets with over 430 restaurants.

I was invited to a special event to taste their Autumn and Christmas menu items.  What a fun surprise to arrive at the chosen venue near Liverpool Street Station and see a lovely Christmas tree all ready for the festivities.

Staff walked around with each item whilst others refilled our glasses (There will be Bollinger on the menu this festive season) and we tasted our way through so many delicious new starters, main courses and desserts (I could only manage to taste two of the desserts I was so full!)

There is a range of gluten free pizzas with lovely toppings including aubergines, pancetta and eggs.  These make sure that diners with a gluten intolerance are catered for and don’t need to feel left out.  There are vegetarian options as well.

The Calzone, the Carbonara pizza was a big hit, pancetta and an egg in the middle, tuna with prawns in a spicy sauce and a shredded duck were the evening favourites with everyone talking about these the most.

Carbonara Pizza

My favourites were the Melanzane starter (baked aubergine with a lovely tomato sauce and topped with melting mozzarella cheese),

the Calzone pizza filled with spinach, ham, basil, pepperoni and lovely tastes)

– Calzone is a pizza that is filled with loads of goodies and folded in half – calzone meaning pocket in Italian so you have something to carry your pizza to work in your pocket, very much like our traditional Cornish pasty.

The puddings were truly scrumptious, a honeycomb cake, chocolate mousse torte, Christmas pudding cheese cake, seasonal chocolate rolls and a sweet dough ball.  What to choose?

 

 

We were given our goodie bag in a Christmas stocking as we left, I didn’t feel conspicuous on the train home with my furry Christmas stocking!!

Many thanks to Pizza Express for inviting me. I did not receive payment to attend and as usual all opinions and photographs are my own.