The brand gradually loses its shine, but there are many worse pizza houses

A strange thing once happened to me in a Pizza Express. The waiter drifted over to me nervously, and said I could have anything as long as it wasn't pizza. Dough supplies had apparently reached zero. And many years later the supply problems don't seem to be getting much better. Tonight it was pasta. And olives. And watercress.

And decent furniture. Someone at Pizza Express has clearly had a moment of madness because nothing else could explain the decision to chuck the exceedingly comfortable wood/leather chairs and replace them with the pink plastic bottom bruisers which have now arrived. The waiting area too has been turned into a dismal plasticated experience more akin to waiting for a root canal treatment than a good night's nosh.

Where Pizza Express does score is in the food (if they can find any) and the staff. It's great to find that freedom of speech extends to waiters quietly agreeing that HQ's furniture policy is insane, and full marks to the chap tonight who poured me half a glass of Valpolicella when I just asked for a taster. The new 'Pinglestone' pizza (smoked pancetta, egg and watercress) was definitely a hit, although the poor chap in Alresford who apparently invented it will be deeply unhappy that his watercress had to be replaced by rocket, especially as he won some award from the British Watercress Society (can there be such a thing?) for his miraculous concoction. The 'American' was a bit less spectacular, and not particularly spicy, but still a decent pizza.

One bonus at the city branch: much fewer screaming children than in the Bay. It's just a shame you have to shield your eyes from the pink chairs all the time instead.