Pizza Express iPhone App

Regardless of how you feel about Pizza Express, you have to admit two things – their dough balls are amazing, and this App is extremely forward thinking…!    

There are a few key features of the App that make it so useful. Firstly, before heading off to the restaurant you can save your Pizza Express voucher code (which let’s face it – there’s always one around!) in the App. You can then browse through all of your voucher codes and select in the restaurant which you want to use. No more printed voucher codes!

At the beginning of the meal, show the waiter the code in the App (I didn’t do it until the end and they didn’t make a fuss, but let’s play by the rules) and then go about enjoying your delicious dough balls!

When you’re done, you request the bill as usual, showing them the voucher code. They’ll delivery you a receipt and then you’re done with human interaction; way overrated anyway! Turn to the app and enter the 12 digit code from your receipt and it’ll bring up the details of your bill. Select the voucher you’d like to use and then check out with PayPal and you’re free to wonder off without waiting for 18 tables to share 1 card mobile card reader!

This is the first App of it’s kind and is truly a fantastic idea; this is the direction that everyone should be heading in! That said, given the effort that they’ve gone to in setting up this system there are some no-brainer features that would have multiplied it’s usefulness thousands of times! Most notable by it’s absence is the main benefit of getting bills digitally and paying electronically; splitting the bill. I’d love go see two people being able to enter the same receipt number and select the items which they each had, splitting the bill easily and avoiding the social taboos of seeming like a penny-pincher.

Also, the voucher code needs to be entered on both ends with the app really only acting as a notepad. Allowing you to apply this to the meal on the app (potentially unbeknownst to your dining partner?) without interacting with the waiter, partnered with the bill-splitting features above could allow Pizza Express to destroy every awkwardness of restaurant dining while losing none of the personal service elements.

Great work Pizza Express and I’m sure they’ll take it to the next level soon!