Last week, myself and T were invited to one of our local Pizza Express’ to try out their Piccolo menu and brand new activity packs that come with every children’s meal. We’ve been going to Pizza Express for a number of years and this didn’t stop when we had T.

We’ve always found Pizza Express to be incredibly family friendly, from their welcoming staff to their menus that are mini adult meals as opposed to “kid friendly” plates of grease that you often get in pub chains. As parents who did baby-led weaning, their variety of food was perfect.

the Piccolo Menu

The Piccolo menu is a three course meal consisting of a dough ball starter, a choice of pasta, pizza, or salad, and then a dessert which comes with a complimentary babychino. I absolutely love this as there is no fear of little ones going away hungry. Looking at the menu, I saw a lovely choice of meals but these could also be amended to suit the child’s needs.

We attended with our friend Chelle and their two eldest children, and it was with them that I saw that staff were more than happy to edit Fizz’s pizza (no tomato sauce!) which made the whole experience relaxing and enjoyable for everyone. Zero stress! For us, T was asked whether he liked his meal and whether he needed any more crayons (of course he did).

For T, I ordered a pepperoni pizza for his main and a chocolate brownie for pudding. With every portion of dough balls comes a side salad of cucumber and tomatoes. There’s also a fab selection of drinks available, from milk to Cawston Juice.

I had Nduja Arancini (Risotto Balls) for my starter – which came with the most delicious pesto dip (T enjoyed helping himself to this by dipping his dough balls in), a Pollo ad Astra pizza for my main, and a Honeycomb Slice for my pudding. I had every intention of taking half my pizza away in a doggy bag, but this didn’t happen! I’m not even sorry. It was delicious.

With every course I was really impressed with the portion size and despite the restaurant being quite busy (it was also half term in the middle of Brighton) we didn’t feel like we were being rushed through the courses to free up our table. If anything, we were all encouraged to take our time.

Piccolo Activity packs

In between courses, the children enjoyed their activity packs which came with a pot of Crayola twisty crayons and the traditional Pizza Express hat to draw on too – there was no way that anyone was going to be bored at our table! Each activity pack has stickers within and folds out to almost a quarter of the table size once unfolded all the way.

I decided to give T one half now and one half later, and the whole pack (once fully unfolded) when we got home. There was lots off things to do within the pack, from colouring in to a variety of puzzles.

We really enjoyed ourselves at Pizza Express and will no doubt visit again soon. During this particular visit we even had a free caricature done of T and I which was a fun touch to our visit.

The portion size for the children’s menu is just right (although doggy bags are available) and the atmosphere is spot on. Thanks to the Piccolo packs, it means that Sharon and I can enjoy T’s company as well as our own.

We were invited to Pizza Express to try out their new menus, but with no obligation to write a review. All thoughts, opinions and photos (unless stated otherwise) are our own.