American on a Romana Base

We have said many times that every year at C2C Festival we struggle to remember to get food! This is such a common theme amongst festival goers as we all want to catch as many shows as we possibly can and that is never easy.

We put out a click and collect food service article prior to the event to help out country fans who didn’t really have any plans to dine in anywhere but who also wanted to have a decent quick service meal.

However, many do make time to dine as want to take that opportunity to sit around with friends and have a proper sit down conversation whilst eating and drinking and for us this year, it was about making time to spend with the family.

The queues for dine in restaurants are always pretty bad at the O2 during C2C Festival and understandably so. It does make a difference though to book your table in advance (obviously) or choose an off peak dining time.

One place that is always packed is Pizza Express. We booked for 2.30 on a Sunday and it was nice to be able to not queue and get to our table right away.

Greeted with a friendly smile from staff we were seated immediately and within a minute our server was taking our drinks order and bringing our kids crayons.

The place was full but that did not deter the team from putting on an quick and efficient service to all their customers.

Handling the busy periods brilliantly, staff informed us of the big leap in customers they had from Thursday before C2C to all of C2C weekend and the major difference in takings from £300 to..well you can imagine it will be a significantly larger sum!

We ordered Dough Balls and Buffalo Mozzarella and Tomato Salad. (Buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes and basil & pine kernel pesto)

Both were delicious with the salad in particular hitting the tastebuds. I would eat it again and again it was so moreish. The pesto and basil really gave it an extra kick which complimented the tomatoes and mozzarella perfectly.

Buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes and basil & pine kernel pesto

The mains operated on a limited menu. I failed to ask why which was an error on my part but can only assume it is due to the fact it’s a busy event and it means a better turn around service for customers and no one has to wait as long. This of course is welcomed when you are in a rush to catch shows afterwards.

We opted for an ‘American’ Pizza (Pepperoni, mozzarella and tomato on a Romana base)

and a Cannelloni (Spinach and ricotta filled pasta with passata, béchamel, mozzarella, garlic oil and Gran Milano cheese.)

For the Pizza you can choose a different base – we opted for the Romana Base which is thinner and crispier and does come with a small additional cost of around £1.95 but worth it.

The pizza was extremely tasty and large and I wasn’t able to eat it all as there was so much but the staff kindly let me take the rest home in a pizza box. This is a great service to remember especially at C2C so you can save it for later.

Cannelloni

The Cannelloni was sensational! Piping hot for some time, it was everything and more that you would want in a Cannelloni. The blend of flavours were sublime and it was a very filling meal leaving no room for a dessert sadly but also great for event purposes.

Overall the experience was wonderful and we did not feel like we were in the middle of a very busy weekend. Yes we dined later than the average lunch time setting but the restaurant was still packed with long queues outside but you wouldn’t have known unless you were paying attention.

The staff were not overwhelmed at all by the crowds and as a team they worked extremely well together. Being able to see the kitchen staff cook is a nice addition and their calm approach helped make the experience so much better for both customers and staff. The entire staff clearly have a great teamwork system in place.

Plates were cleared right away and food was brought out in good timescales.

We highly recommend Pizza Express to be on your list at your next C2C Festival or O2 event as we were in and out in no time but on our own terms. If we wanted, we could have stayed longer but having great quality food and great service in great time enabling us to watch great live music afterwards was, well….great!

Pizza Express often have great offers on so do download their app. You can get free doughballs when you dine in and the app also offers a loyalty scheme.

We will be back there for next C2C Festival for sure!