Pizza and pasta are pretty regular features on the meal plan in our household. They’re fail safe meals which I turn to because I know everyone will eat them. So, imagine my delight when we were asked* if we’d like to try out the new Piccolo menu and kids activity pack at Pizza Express! Our favourite kind of food and a night off cooking? With a newborn baby in the house this couldn’t have come at a better time.
We made a reservation online for our local branch (Cheltenham) of Pizza Express and headed down there as soon as Matt had finished work. Going out for a meal is always a little difficult with kids so we tried to go as early as possible to minimise the possibility of mid-meal meltdown. However, I needn’t have worried because as soon as we arrived at Pizza Express we were greeted by a very smiley lady who quickly showed us to our large table and handed Florence and Elsie an activity pack, the new Piccolo menu and a set of crayons.
The activity pack is all themed around Summer and you get a really cool set of stickers which are black and white ready for your child to colour in – I’ve never met a child that doesn’t love stickers….even Matt was having fun with them.
Florence really enjoys colouring anyway so she set about colouring her cut out mask which pops out of the card and is ready to use when you are. There are also tonnes of games and activities on the double sided sheet. It’s difficult to entertain Elsie, at just over 14 months, she’s not quite old enough to understand most kids activity packs but she loves scribbling and she loves stickers so whilst the kids entertained themselves we were able to choose our meals.
Kids can choose three courses from the new Piccolo menu for £6.95 and then you can add a drink on top. The menu choices are pizza, pasta or salad for the kids and then you can customise from there. There are also some fantastic kiddy friendly desserts such as real juice lollies, ice cream and chocolate brownie.
Florence had dough balls to start followed by a Margherita pizza and vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce and bambinoccino for pudding. Florence doesn’t actually like bambinoccinos (I think she basically doesn’t understand what it is despite us explaining) but Elsie had a good go at it! What really struck me was the quality of the kids meals. All too often kids meals feel like an after thought when you’re eating out but not at Pizza Express. Thanks to the activity packs keeping the kids entertained it didn’t seem long before our meals arrived.
Matt and I went straight for main course seeing as we felt as though we were already pushing our luck taking the girls out on a school night. Matt chose the Calabrese pizza and I went for the Pollo Forza-a spicy chicken pizza. We both like a bit of spice so we jazzed our pizzas up with a little chilli oil. Matt and I are always sharing meals and so we each ate half our meal and then swapped plates and I’m glad we did as my mouth was on fire and his Calabrese was delicious and had lots of pesto on which I absolutely adore.
We came away from Pizza Express with full tummies and a smile on all our faces. The service was very attentive, which is what you need when you have kids in tow, and the food was delicious and plentiful. We’d go back to Pizza Express without a doubt and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to our friends either.
*We were kindly sent a voucher to try out the new Piccolo menu at Pizza Express however all opinions are my own and I would only recommend products and services I truly love.
