Prezzo Italian Restaurants > Reviews (27)

Prezzo Restaurants

Restaurant Reviewed
Pinner Branch
High Street
Pinner, near to Harrow on the Hill
Free parking on the high street after 18:30

Introduction

We downloaded a Money Saving expert voucher which gave us a two for the price of one discount at a Prezzo restaurant. I have read some reviews about this Italian style restaurant chain that have a number of restaurants across the United Kingdom. Asides from the discount offer, we also wanted to visit a nice upmarket and well presented pizza and pasta restaurant that was well located close to where we live and we took it from there. My siblings have visited other locations of Prezzo in the past and were pleased with there previous visits. A friend of mine, did however note that the restaurant does get quite busy especially in the evenings and it is a good idea in avoiding some disappointment, to telephone the local restaurant and book a table in advance. My parents went away and we decided that a good value restaurant visit was on the cards at this particular Prezzo restaurant. This particular restaurant is located on Pinner’s high street where there are a lot of wining and dining facilities. Other competitors on Pinner high street include Chez Brassiere which looked really inviting from an outside look through their windows. The prices of Chez brassiere do by comparison tend to be higher than Prezzo and Pizza Express. Another thing of interest is that this is an Italian style of restaurant and naturally the foods on the menu include pasta, pizza, grilled foods, salads as well as good starter dishes. A slightly off topic, yet factual point to note is that Pizza Express restaurants do not have a presence even in Italy. Somehow I would doubt that Prezzo restaurants have an outlet in Milan or Rome. I also have visited the Prezzo restaurant in Horsham in West Sussex which was fairly similar, just that the Horsham restaurant I found was more openly presented in terms of its tables and chair layout. The food quality I found slightly consistent to the quality of the Pinner restaurant visit.

Ambience and Décor

On the whole I found this to be nicely inviting on first impressions. The lights were dimmed during our evening visit. I would guess it would make a perfect lunch time treat, though we visited it during the evening, where it was quiet at first, though after we sat down for a few minutes plenty of customers were entering this restaurant. The slow music was played nicely and not too loud which enabled us to have a nice conversation between us and we were made to feel very relaxed and unrushed in terms of the service we had received. There were nice seating chair arrangements that were largely metal tables and chairs. The chairs had a ‘wicker’ seating effect and the table had a wooden top which we found good in that it complimented the walls and the place generally. The whole restaurant had a rustic and modern feel to it, the floors were wooden throughout the restaurant which also were spotlessly clean and tidy.

The walls in the middle part of the restaurant were painted white, and to the left and to the right of the restaurant were brick wall features that resemble the Harvester restaurant slightly. I also noticed that the ceilings in the middle of the restaurant were quite low which slightly devalued the appearance of the restaurant ever so slightly. The restaurant also had some pictures that were interesting to look at, and this was also consistent with the rustic and modern presentation. To the centre of the restaurant on the right hand side was the bar area which was very well presented indeed. There was a full stock of wines and spirits and other beverages that were nicely displayed and fully stocked, which gave another good impression about the overall housekeeping and general organisation that can be found at this restaurant in particular.

Menu and the Food Ordered

First the dinner menu had a black border, with white background and the descriptions and details of the menu were typed in black. The menu was fairly big though about the same size as that of the Harvester restaurant. I found ordering starters, main courses and drinks very easy to order as the menu was also clean and tidy in appearance.

The choices on the menu were good overall. There was a good selection of starters, pizza’s, chicken breast, pasta choices as well as a selection of salads as well as deserts.

For our starter choice, we ordered one lot of Calamari, which is also a popular Greek starter as well as Italian from what I learned by visiting here. The price paid for the Calamari was £4,95p and my feelings were slightly mixed here. The breadcrumb squid rings were slightly small compared to what I have tried in Cyprus. We felt that this variety was slightly a frozen processed choice that was not really worth the price. We also ordered some garlic bread with mozzarella cheese £3,05p. This was freshly made and had a fluffy and slightly crispy texture on the bottom of the bread. My only negative feeling towards the bread was that with the cheese contained it was ever so slightly greasy.

I ordered a Napoletana pizza which was really authentic in it’s presentation as well as in taste. It was a good size portion indeed and well worth the money paid for this indeed. I could not have ordered and paid a Dominoes pizza for what is in my opinion as much better in quality, presentation as well as detail as contained on the pizza. The Napoletana pizza contained a nice base which was quite soft in terms of taste, the crusty part of the pizza was in fact soft compared to other frozen pizza’s and other pizza restaurants that I have tried in the past. Other main ingredients included olives, a nice blend of tomato sauce which tasted really nice, the red onions, green capers, as well as the yellow fin tuna all combined well in this quite big pizza. I felt full after eating this portion and had no ill effects afterwards and felt that it was money worth spent. My only negative with the pizza is that one of the olives I tried did contain a pip seeds and the rest were pip less which did not spoil the overall pizza.

My brother had a Quattro Staggioni pizza which translates to four season’s pizza which contained the similar base and appearance to the Napoletana pizza, and contained nicely chopped mushrooms, pepperoni, olives and prosciutto ham which really was quality and was tasty according to my brother Robert. This pizza however was £1 more expensive than the Napoletana, however the inclusion of such a quality ham ingredients did perhaps warrant the extra £1.00p paid for this pizza.
My sister had spaghetti with tiger prawns costing £9,95p.

My sister Marie, did enjoy her selection, though she could not finish this, as the portion sizes were generous as well. The spaghetti bowl contained a nice amount of tiger prawns, with a tomato and chilli sauce and spinach. The menu states, baby spinach, red onion and red chilli in a tomato and garlic sauce. The garlic sauce with the chilli was present in the actual dish which kept it spicy, the taste of which was slightly too spicy at times, though she knew about the spiciness before ordering at this visit. She informed me, that this was an al dante or al dente. The taste was not too chewy and it is not too soft (the spaghetti). The spaghetti had a nice sauce which complimented the rest of the spaghetti bowl.

We also shared a salad £8,95p, which contained a range of ingredients, notably an excellent inclusion of having Italian style bread called Focaccia with mozzarella cheese. The salad was again well presented overall and made to a very high standard. The salad included roasted peppers, caramelised balsamic onions, artichoke hearts, goats’ cheese, marinated olives and mixed salad. The ingredients were amongst the best I have tried and was a nice healthy treat.

Service

We arrived on time and with a telephone reservation and we found ourselves waiting for a few minutes to be seated, though we were dealt with in a nice manner by the restaurant manager who then found us a seat at the front of the restaurant. It was slightly cold in the middle of the restaurant; the heating was switched on a few minutes after we were seated. I did not mind the coldness of the restaurant, though I did hear other guests sort of mentioning the coldness of the restaurant is not how they like to dine. We were pleased with the quality of the service from our waitress, which was with a smile, cheerful and pleasant throughout. We received a polite check back about five minutes after our food had arrived which I considered well timed. Once we had finished our meals we were asked if we wanted desserts, we declined this part of the dining experience. We were pleased with the professionalism of our finished plates being taken away as well which was done soon after we had finished eating. I did not feel rushed or under any sales pressure at any stage of the visit, and we received an excellent level of service throughout our visit. We received everything we ordered correctly, and we had no issues with the food as it was all well cooked and well presented. The portion sizes match if not better the Pizza Express restaurant offerings from experience.

I liked that we were asked if we wanted to use garlic oil on our pizza’s which added an extra taste and fine touch to our dining experience. I found that the service overall complimented such an Italian style restaurant that was really nice and presentable as well.

Price Paid

We ordered between us one Calamari starter, one salad, two main courses in the form of pizza’s, one pasta, one garlic bread, as well as our drinks which were one bottle of Peroni beer, one glass of tap water, and one apple juice which all came to a very reasonable price of £32,55p. We had one pizza and a salad deducted from our bill which would have cost us around £15 more. The tap water we received was free, the beer cost £3,35p which is fairly competitive around restaurants in London. The Peroni beer which is not one of my regular brands of alcohol by any stretch of the imagination was light, crisp as well as refreshing. It did paint a good impression overall with having this beer with our food. The pizza’s £7,95 and £8,95 which is around £5 cheaper than ordering a Dominoes pizza which in my opinion lack an authentic taste. The ingredients of pizza are high quality indeed, compared to Dominoes pizza who like to add toppings and sauces which do not taste that great the quality of the pizza is in the prosciutto ham which is a quality ham in itself. The Calamari cost £4,95 which I felt was slightly expensive for what the portion size we received. The garlic bread was a good sized portion that was really well made and tasted and rates amongst the best I have ever tried thus far. We left a £3 tip as a thank you for the great service as well as the excellent food.

Extra Information

I have seen this company listing on the stock exchange and the shares are trading at around 34p a share on a P/E of 26.25 which I consider as slightly expensive, though their food is certainly not. I also visited the male toilets which were splendidly clean and well decorated and was in line with the decorations that can be seen around parts of the restaurant. I felt no need to include an about Prezzo section as a lot of the details can be found on www.loveprezzo.co.uk. The restaurant also have a main menu, lunch menu, desserts menu, children’s menu making this a family orientated restaurant as well as a wine & drinks menu. The website also contains offers and discount vouchers as well as more interesting information that people can look and decide for themselves if they need even more details. One interesting citing on the Prezzo website was that they import their ingredients from Italy. From what I experienced, this provided an authentic taste to the food and the chef certainly did an excellent job in preparing and producing great dishes.

Conclusion

I found this restaurant to be an excellent Italian style restaurant that is well presented inside and outside. The food I noticed to be slightly better in quality than Pizza express pizza, and with these discount vouchers I had brought to the restaurant with me, the price paid for three people was very reasonable and cheaper as a result.

The food portion sizes were also slightly bigger than Pizza express and the food quality I found tastier. This restaurant is really worth visiting as it gave me a very good impression throughout the visit as well as creating a lasting positive impression with me, that at some stage I will return to this or perhaps yet another Prezzo restaurant. Whilst I entered the restaurant with two two for one vouchers we felt that this was a highly recommended choice of restaurant that even dining without voucher special offers would still represent a great dining experience. I will not hesitate to return to Prezzo restaurants though perhaps I would re visit Horsham or a Central London restaurant of Prezzo. Also if I had to be nailed between a Prezzo or Harvester recommendation, I would have to say that Prezzo is slightly more expensive, yet I would still appreciate the much modern and rustic décor as well as the overall food and the service received so my vote goes to Prezzo more.

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Update
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I have just found out that this Prezzo restaurant in Pinner is a top table restaurant, which stems from an independent review site, that lists the top restaurants in local areas. I am pleased that I discovered the top table website, and have since visited a few other top table restaurants in my local area. Reviews with bad feedback on a restaurant or pub, would mean that the venue is de listed from the top table website. I truely beleieve that this Prezzo restaurant in Pinner deserves this high rating as well as a positive recommendation from myself.