The Radical Design of PizzaExpress | Hacker News Reader

The Radical Design of PizzaExpress

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59 pointssavebykilling34 comments

As a parent to 8 and 4yo children, fundamentally what they have right is the experience for families. My kids are entertained with colouring while they wait for food, which they love, almost all kids love pizza. It makes them feel they are in a "proper restaurant". While my wife and I can have a nice drink and good food and it doesn't break the bank. Catering to both kids and adults well is hard, that's what makes it a winner in our household.

Ask my kids where they would like to go out for dinner, it's always PizzaExpress.

> Yet many British chains have had zero impact on culture ... There are two big exceptions to this rule: Wagamama and PizzaExpress.

Can't believe they've forgotten about Nando's!

Easily the most culturally significant restaurant chain in the UK, from grime music to the ubiquitous "cheeky nando's" phraseology

Wagamama and Nando's are arguably the only two big casual dining chains that people actually enjoy eating at. All the others are pretty unpopular (and rightly so, the food is often terrible): Pizza Express, Frankie and Benny's, Pizza Hut, Chiquito...

Nando's social media and culture presence is impressive for a restaurant chain of its size.

You can't put Pizza Express in the same category as Pizza Hut!?

And as a data-point I enjoy Pizza Express - and I've had "proper" pizza to compare it to.

Pizza Express is a known good. It's not the best, but it's guaranteed to be consistent everywhere. It does the job when you just want a "good enough" pizza with little fuss.

In contrast, searching for the best pizza carries a risk of getting something subpar and much worse than even Pizza Express.

It's not much different - Pizza Express isn't anywhere near as posh as it thinks it is, and I'd bet the average spend per customer is lower thanks to the constant Tesco Clubcard deals.

Nandos was in South Africa at least 10 years before it got popular in the UK. I was pretty disappointed when I went there.

I always saw Nandos as a bit more “fast food” than Pizza Express or Wagamama?

More like a (much) better KFC

Nando's isn't a British chain though.

Ah, there's me confusing 'British restaurant chain' with 'restaurant chain in Britain'.

I'm sure the UK is by far their largest market though, and it has had an impact on 21st century UK popular culture far away and above any other restaurant.

Largest market yes, by far no. The UK has around 400 Nandos, South Africa around 350.

It's a cornerstone of the British high-street. We've embraced it and adopted it as ours.

If I went to a town and they didn't have a Nando's I'd treat the place with suspicion.

Given your nickname here, you might be conflating London and the South East with the UK generally.

Signed, 'Haringey' :)

Not really.

Listen to county cricketers talking about travelling. Nan os get mentioned by many at least in the Midlands.

South West here and Nando's is very much culturally important.

Dishoom is one of the experiences I miss most having moved away from the UK. It took this article to make me realise I feel the same about Pizza Express. At least I still have Ippudo, which I'd fit into the same mental space somehow.

I too love the food at Dishoom, but they're lack of table bookings and food delivery makes things difficult.

Every time I want to go there on a Friday/Saturday evening there's always a massive queue outside.

The other things I put in the same group would be Pret A Manger (more of a takeaway/cafe) and also Cranks. I was in London at the same time as these chains were taking off before they spread to the greater UK. Cranks was such a great healthy / vegetarian cafe with a few shops, everyone loved their food but I think when they tried to expand it all went wrong. If I'm somewhere and want decent simple food and can't be bothered to work out where will be good, especially with kids I'd always go for Pret, Pizza Express or Waggamammas

Re: the forgettability of other chain restaurants in the UK, note that most are "sockpuppet" brands for one of two big groups: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casual_Dining_Group or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchells_%26_Butlers

I've not been to Pizza Express in years, but as a student I was a big fan of this one: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g186225-d73734... with neoclassical frontage and mirrored dining room, originally built for the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Pitt_Club

You've missed out The Restaurant Group: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Restaurant_Group

Which once huge, now looks like is almost entirely propped up by Wagamama's.

If you like this sort of thing, see QSR magazine, the trade journal of the fast food industry.[1] Similar discussions, but from the seller side.

[1] https://www.qsrmagazine.com/

At someone in their 30s now, PizzaExpress was somewhere me and my dad would go as a child. It gave me the feeling of being a grown up, eating at a "real" restaurant.

As an adult now, me and my wife still go because it's good and consistent!

PizzaExpress was ahead of its time with its design and fast casual positioning

I loved the PizzaExpress in Oxford in the early 90s. One of very few reasonable places to eat in that town.

I think that’s one of the angles they miss in the article: food in the UK in the early 90s was atrocious, especially outside of London. Pizza express was at least a guarantee of a decent pizza.

I was quite young at the time but even in London pizza express felt really fancy and stylish compared to any other restaurant I’d been to (at about 8 years old). I guess it was very competitively priced too because my middle class but not particularly high earning family of 6 were able to eat there as an occasional treat!

We used to go to the one on upper street Islington, and it’s etched in my memory. Still a big fan, I’ve never been let down by them.

Yes. In Cambridge at the same time, the chains were Garfunkels, Pizzaland, Pizza Hut, and PizzaExpress. PizzaExpress (particularly "7a") was head and shoulders above the rest, though Pizzaland's endless shower of half-price vouchers admittedly got people through the door. I don't think anyone ever went to Garfunkels unless the parents were down.

There were a handful of enjoyable local restaurants/cafes that were just one step above a greasy spoon, though.

Talking about big chains coming and going, I hope we’ve hit “Peak Pret”. there seems to be one every 200m in London now, it’s getting stupid

When did Pret's fayre become so banal? I walk into one every month or so to see if they have anything interesting. They haven't for years.

Same for me as M&S - it seems like they've foregone variety and interest to have the same bleak sandwich range, but duplicated across this-free or that-free.

Sandwich ranges have been triple-hit by reduced demand due to covid, increased costs, and prices squeezed by supermarket "meal deals" which have generally gone up less than inflation.

Quality of sandwiches generally have completely disappeared as a result.

It's hardly a surprise that the market for a £6 sandwich just isn't there, so they have to cut costs to get back to a point people will pay.

Always thought the pizzas were a bit small.

Domino's is lot better, more tastier pizzas.

They're fundamentally different products. If I went to PizzaExpress and was served pizza like they made in Dominos, I'd be hella disappointed.

It's like comparing instant coffee to a barista-made espresso. Yeah, technically both coffee but they're not the same.

Rizzi's are nice for eating out.

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