A few weeks ago I was invited to review the new Autumn
menu from Pizza Express at the Newmarket branch, near Cambridge. I was really
excited to get the opportunity to review something in my home-town as I’ve
never had a blogging opportunity there before:
I find that all Pizza Express restaurants are clean, well-decorated and have a great variety of sizes of tables, perfect for two people to dine or twenty. I had browsed the new Autumn menu before our meal and I immediately knew what I wanted to try – the menu was full of some of my favourite things. To start, I was pleased to see that Calamari has made its way onto the menu as I absolutely love fried squid. It can be hard to get right in the UK, and I am very picky as a result of spending my summers since childhood eating fresh Calamari throughout Greece. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the Calamari at Pizza Express, they were slightly chewy but the batter was very good and the dip was delicious. I also thought the fried squid were well priced for a fish starter, at just £5.75, and they were an enjoyable start to the meal. They went really well with the Soave DOC I had chosen, a new Italian white wine added to the menu which was crisp and refreshing.
For my main course, I chose the Autunno pizza. If I could
design my own pizza with any toppings, this would probably be the pizza I would
choose; butternut squash, goat’s cheese, chorizo and plenty of chilli. It was delicious;
full of heat which I love when the weather gets colder and on a light and
crispy base. There were so many toppings on the pizza, every bite was slightly
different and I wouldn’t hesitate to choose this pizza again. My friend Katt
from What Katt Eats chose the Pennette Bolognese, which was also new to the Autumn
menu, and she also really enjoyed her main meal. Thumbs up on the main courses!
The salted caramel profiteroles were my choice for dessert,
accompanied by a mocha. I was feeling pretty full by this point and I always
like that you can choose a smaller dessert and coffee in Pizza Express. I was
really excited to try the profiteroles but unfortunately they were my least
favourite dish of the night. I had envisaged traditional-style profiteroles,
with salted caramel rather than chocolate smothered on top, but these were
entirely encased in a very sweet caramel-flavoured exterior. They somehow just
didn’t taste fresh and I think I should have chosen something less sweet to
finish my meal, as it left me feeling a little stodgy and full of sugar. If you
have a sweet tooth, these would be a perfect dessert but they just weren’t for
me.
The waiter was obviously fascinated about blogging and I actually
headed back to Pizza Express the following day, thanks to a birthday voucher I
had received entitling me to a free bottle of prosecco – sign up to their newsletter if you haven’t already! It was great to see that everyone was being
treated with the same level of service as I had received the night before and I
was happy to get to answer a few questions the staff wanted to know about the
crazy world of blogging. Overall, I was really impressed with Pizza Express and
their new Autumn menu; there are an impressive range of new dishes and drinks
and each one has clearly been designed over a long and careful process to
create creative dishes full of flavour.
Have you tried the new Autumn menu at Pizza Express yet?
Jess
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