On Sunday, as the piece de resistance to an utterly AWESOME half-term October week, we were invited to have dinner at  Pizza Express, trying out the new Autumn specials on the menu.

We had just come from a ‘Snooze At The Zoo’ experience at Paradise Wildlife Park and then hopped to watch Zippos Circus at Brent Cross, so we had worked up a hunger to be reckoned with and were more than ready for the challenge.

Watch our vlog of the visit here…. then prepare for some hunger inducing pics!

Kids being kids, they don’t generally stray far from the familair path and ordered their failsafe favourites, so it was left to us adults to up the ante and try something new.

I was there with my friend Kirsty and her son Kai, plus my two, as she was my partner in crime for the weekend on our blog-tastic adventures.

For starters, whilst the kids plumped for those ever-popular doughballs, I tried out the new Risotto Fresco – a mouthwatering mix of oak-roasted peppered salmon and risotto rice. The peppercorns pimping up the salmon had just the zing needed to set the flakes off to perfection and a dash of chilli oil gave it a tum-warming touch.

One epic fail I made was not realising it had onion through it –  although it  was stated on the menu – and I’m not a fan of cooked onion but luckily I was able to  pick it out in the main and still thoroughly enjoy the dish.

I also ordered a side of sunblush tomatoes – by now you  will know all about my tomato fetish, if not, read all about it here!

Next up was our pizza perfection, kids conjuring up their favourite combos with added toppings, nothing was too much trouble for our lovely waitress.

Kirsty chose boldly but wisely with the new Basilicata Romana, a heady mix of lamb, mint and chilli meatballs on a pepper and tomato base which I wrinkled my nose up at the thought of but Kirsty loved it and demolished the lot. One note was that the chilli element of the meatballs wasn’t particularly strong and she loves a bit of spice so could happily have handled more of a kick but that said, it was a winner.

Personally, I Gok’d up my Rustichella Romana with chicken and pepperoni because I love a bit of meat and the Pancetta which adorns it potentially wouldn’t have been enough for my carnivorous palette. I felt rather saintly as my pizza was liberally sprinkled in rocket so that was one of my five a day ticked off and in my mind, offset the cheeky (and oh-so-delicious) glass of red I had to accompany my feast.The combination of tastes I had on my plate tickled my tatsebuds and hit the spot.

So the Autumn offerings also include a couple of sides, namely Polenta Chips and Coleslaw ‘PizzaExpress’ which look epic but in my haste I didn’t notice them on the specials menu at the time. Kicking myself now that it’s approaching lunchtime and my hunger is building as I write this post. Wish I was in a Deliveroo area, they could pop the lot to my door!

As our waitress offered us the dessert menus, it seemed rude not to go the whole hog and get our cake on, so we did – and what a treat we had! We ordered a selection between us to cover all bases.

The new chocolate fondant was a gooey gastronomical gift, a snowy sensation which was a hands down winner. Not too heavy but just the perfect pitch of indulgence to make us hope it becomes a regular fixture on the menu.

The honeycomb cream slice was a crunch-tastic affair as the salted caramel layer gave just the right amount of bite for our buck. A ripple of chocolate pieces on top sealed the deal.

The classic favourite of mine in Pizza Express is the warm chocolate fudge cake. Paired with their scrummy vanilla ice cream, it evokes memories of my childhood, family and good times so I had to order me some of that.

I hope you are enjoying these mouthwatering pics because it’s doing nothing for my stomach pangs right now!

What’s your favourite dish from Pizza Express? Do you always play it safe or do you go out on a limb with a new flavour combo?