PizzaExpress in Museum Street gets 1 star for food hygiene

PizzaExpress in Museum Street, next to Lendal Bridge and the River Ouse, received the rating after a visit by City of York Council inspectors.

Bosses at the restaurant chain said they were "extremely disappointed" by the rating, which they said was mainly down to maintenance issues. 

They added that action had been taken to address the concerns and they were confident of a much improved score on reinspection.

The restaurant has received rave reviews online with Tripadvisor rating it at four out of five and Google Reviews giving the establishment 4.2.

But food hygiene inspectors rated PizzaExpress in Museum Street as a one – meaning ‘major improvement necessary’.

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During an inspection on March 27, 2024, the restaurant was assessed and graded in three categories.

While hygienic food handling was considered ‘generally satisfactory’, the cleanliness and conditions of the facilities and building were less so with the food safety officers grading the restaurant as ‘improvement necessary’.

Pizza Express in Museum Street, York (Image: Google Maps)

Management of food safety was also found lacking, with inspectors saying that ‘major improvement was necessary’.

A PizzaExpress spokesperson told The Press: “We take the health and safety of our restaurants very seriously and have very high hygiene ratings across our 360 plus restaurants.

Pizza Express offers a multitude of different pizzas

 “In this instance, we were extremely disappointed to hear that our York Museum Street pizzeria received this rating, which is largely down to maintenance issues, and we have been working with our teams and EHO (Environmental Health Officer) to review and rectify the issues raised.

“Following the measures put in place, we remain confident that our pizzeria will rate highly once again once reinspection takes place.”

Pizza Express runs two other sites in York, one in St Sampson’s Square and the other at the McArthurGlen Designer Outlet, both of which have received a five star rating from the food hygiene team.