Pizza Express

[Silly Yak]

..eating out ...
Posted by Lucy - N.London on 8/12/2006

GF board

Last weekend my 8 year old coeliac daughter had 2 great eating out experiences ...(one was)
..On Friday she was taken to see Peter Pan on Ice at the Crystal Palace sports arena. I did some investigation first and there was a pizza express across the road. A quick call to the restaurant by me totally reassured me that they were on the case. So she went along armed with a GF pizza base and was delighted to have it served hot in a restuarant. Apparently the staff were falling over themselves to be helpful and on a Friday evening too!

[Silly Yak]

I received this from Pizza Express - they were very helpful!
QUALITY & SAFETY
Pointers for Gluten Free Eating – Customers Information

If you suffer an intolerance to Gluten, then you will need to avoid our pizze base and anything that is made from the dough such as dough balls / sticks, garlic bread and bruschetta, as this will aggravate your intolerance.

Our salad items are fine to order, but you will not be able to have the accompanying dough balls, croutons or salad dressing (made with English mustard). Our honey & lemon dressing is suitable as an alternative to our house dressing and caeser dressing.

Please, do not order any of the pasta dishes, Tortellini, Ravioli, Pasta con Salsiccie Cannelloni & Lasagne as these may contain thickening agents, which could aggravate the intolerance. The Melanzane Parmigiana is also unsuitable due to the presence of maltodextrins.

With regards to the desserts, positano bomb (strawberry) contains wheat protein, our chocolate fudge cake, pear tart, cheesecake, banoffee pie, summer pudding, chocolate glory and tiramisu all contain wheat flour in one of their ingredients (however small the amount) and therefore are not advised. As an option you will be able to have caffe reale, vanilla ice cream, ravello (chocolate), anacleto (coffee and hazelnut) bomb with no wafers and cherry glory.

If you want to take in your own pizza base, then we advise you to follow these pointers: -
• Please ensure you telephone the branch and speak to the manager.
(This may be advisable to call outside of lunchtime hours)
• Please inform them that you have contacted restaurant support and you are OK to bring in your own pizza base as well as your gluten-free flour that are commonly available from most Health shops. We can suggest you to contact Gluten Free Foods Ltd on 020 89534444 or on email [e-mail]
• The regular toppings of tomato sauce and vegetables are all safe for gluten-free eating.

When visiting the branch, please make sure you stress to the manager the importance of your intolerance and ask them to ask the Chef not to use the dusting flour for the pizza as mentioned before, as this will aggravate the intolerance.

Please note that by our very nature of business, PizzaExpress restaurants do have a lot of flour present in their kitchens.

[kickingfrog]

Response from Pizza Express
Posted by Sharon (William's mum) on 17/9/2011
GF board


Hi all, received this response from Pizza Express regarding GF options.



Thank you for your enquiry. The provision of gluten free products on our
menu does present certain challenges to us, our menu is predominantly
Italian in origin and the majority of Italian dishes such as Pizza and
Pasta are wheat based and therefore unsuitable for Coeliacs or customers
with a Gluten intolerance.

We know that even the smallest amount of flour could cause discomfort to a
customer who is actually gluten allergenic or a Coeliac and with our rich
environment we are unable to promise a wheat free environment even for a
wheat free dish.

Having said this we are completely aware of the rising occurrence of wheat
allergies and we are constantly adapting our menu to ensure everyone can
dine at PizzaExpress. Hopefully in the near future we can provide a greater
selection of recipes for you to choose from.

However, we do allow customers to take their own gluten free pizza base. If
you want to take in your own pizza base, then we advise you contact the
restaurant manager prior to your visit.

For more information regarding the suitability of our menu, please visit
our website at www.pizzaexpress.com

I have passed your email onto our menu development team, who will take on
board your comments.

I certainly hope you find this information useful and if I can be of any
further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.


Regards

Katrina Lister
Quality and Safety Support Manager