Pizza Express (Bloomsbury)

In short, a pizza chain that serves reliably good and tasty individual-portion pies, even though they are baked in round pans rather than directly on the oven floor. Not as wet and sexy as pizzas you might find in Naples, New Haven, Boston or New York, but definitely edible-plus. The business was started by film director/producer Mario Zampi in Soho's Wardour St in the early 1960s, then taken over by Peter Boizot (1929–2018), who made it was it is today, starting in 1965 in Coptic Street, located just around the corner from the British Museum. The company now operates several hundred international outlets, all tastefully decorated in a style that is both recognizably Pizza Express and unique to the location. This was always the restaurant chain that chain-haters said broke the rule. And it got even better and more modern with the addition of the Romana option, in which any of the menu's pizzas can be stretched to a crisp and light 14" diameter using the same amount of ingredients, for a small fee (well worth it). Soho branches: 10 Dean St, 20 Greek St, 29 Dean St. In 2015 Pizza Express received negative publicity with staff publicly claiming that the company misused tips paid with credit cards.