Before I went to Jamaica I was invited to Pizza Express' Summer Tour and boy, I was excited. I love food, as most of you will know by now, but Pizza Express has always been a favourite lunch-time eatery of mine (apart from when they took my favourite pasta off the menu, but that's a long story for another day). Italian food is my favourite food so I was excited to head down to their restaurant and see what their Summer Tour was all about... Let's eat!
Let's start with the outfit. I wore my favourite new crop-top from Lavish Alice, with my white Topshop Joni jeans, (you do have to wash them all the time, look how baggy and awful mine have gone after only a few wears!!!) my favourite Zara leather jacket (similar here and here), Zara leather bag (similar affordable version on Missguided here) and my beautiful new Birkenstocks. I went for the black and white look which is probably my favourite look of all, firstly because it looks so clean but also because it's just so easy to do. I love minimal things. My tan is natural, hooray.
The back of the Lavish Alice top has a zip down it so you can wear it open, closed, half open, however you fancy. I've got a gorgeous matching skirt too, look out for that as it'll be featured on my blog soon.
I couldn't not put my LVNDR giraffe ring on.
I was kindly sent these gorgeous Birkenstock's by Cloggs. I always wanted the double strap ones but they're out of stock everywhere at the moment and to be honest, these are just as nice. I did set a few tweets asking about Birkenstocks as I was scared that they'd be too chunky but I absolutely love them, they're just minimal, clean and easy to wear. I did order my standard shoe size but they were far too big so I would suggest ordering a size down if you get some Birkenstocks. They're super comfy too. I absolutely love Cloggs, they sell the most amazing brands and I always find myself lusting over everything on the site.
It was time to put them to good use and go for a quick walk around my local little city, York before we headed to the tour...
I always pop into York on weekends, usually with my grandparents. I love it when the food market is on. Even though I live really close to York, me and my boyfriend are thinking of booking a hotel there so that we can have a local get away.
York looked extra pretty too as it was rearing and ready to go for the Tour De France.
A quick stop off at my favourite fudge making kitchen...
and a stomp to find some freshly squeezed lemonade, it was soon time to head to Leeds for the Pizza Express Summer Tour...On arrival we were handed the new menus, I nearly cried with happiness when I saw the Hugo 'PizzaExpress' on the menu, prosecco with elderflower, fresh mint and lemon over ice. Probably my dream drink. PizzaExpress are finally getting with the times, they do fancy, instagrammable cocktails - hooray. Naturally I Instagrammed (emshelx) a photograph of it as soon as it arrived. It was delicious and oh-so refreshing, just what you need after on a hot Summer's day.
A band called 'the Doughballers' played throughout the evening and they were absolutely epic. I need to find out their real names so that I can hire them for my wedding in 10 years time.
It was food time...
Olives and tomatoes to start...
With some mozarella, tomatoes and pesto.
and my holy grail of starters, the bruschetta Pizza Express.
Pesto chicken pasta for a main... with extra chillis to transform the dish into a super hot one (the chefs at Pizza Express are always so good, I ask for some weird things and they always do it for me!)
I was in health mode with only a week to go until Jamaica so had one of their American Hot pizzas but the healthy less than 500 calories version (I love that Pizza Express have a healthy option), they're half the calories because they're extremely small and not really filling but it's a nice light, guilt-free snack. I actually wrote my own healthy pizza recipe here, I love thin, home-made pizzas.
Healthy diet out of the window, we sampled the new desserts. I enjoy that you can just get a mini one with your hot drink if you're too full. I ordered what I thought would be white chocolate but it was more of a nutty, creamy tower, just as nice though.
My favourite, green tea to end the night. Oh, aren't I a party animal.
All in all the Pizza Express Summer Tour was a way of introducing bloggers to the new Summer menu at Pizza Express. It was a fun and delicious evening where I fell in love with the band, ate my favourite healthy pizza, devoured my long-time-favourite starters and got to catch up over one of their new incredible cocktails with my Mum. I didn't appreciate the manager of the restaurant calling me 'one of them' when he asked if I was a blogger, he exclaimed 'oh you're one of them' in a highly disapproving manner, but I guess some people just don't really understand blogging yet! We better teach them!
My outfit:
Thanks for having me Pizza Express (and please bring Piccante Pasta back on the menu!) Do you like Pizza Express? Have you heard about their Summer tour/new menu? Have you ever visited York? Do you like my outfit?
Lots of love, Em x
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