Chains changed: Pizza Express

The Pizza Express in Milton Keynes mall is trialling the new spring menus - and... well, the news isn't great. The concept is "lighter", which means they've had to come up with a cute way of making the pizzas less calorific.

How have the done it?

By, erm, cutting out most of the centre of the pizza and dumping a salad in the middle of it. (And also making the pizza smaller in the first place.)

It's a pity, as the toppings sound great - asparagus and peppers, a really fresh-sounding margherita. But half your pizza replaced by lettuce? What sort of a half-assed concept is that?

Chains changed: Pizza Express

The chain restaurants have shed their skins (and wings) and launched their new menus.

At Pizza Express, the Northern Italy themed offering has gone, replaced by Rome - it's all nicely done and well thought-out (the menus are tricked out like busy, snatched holiday snaps) but the pizzas aren't as nice as the Northern ones - the loss of the Funghi Di Bosco is a bit of a blow, especially as the replacement vegetarian offering is one of those "bits of everything" lobbed on which ends up being a bit of an unsatisfying mess.

It would also be nice to see a themed pasta dish on the the menu, too. If you hadn't seen Northern Italy, this would have seemed appealing, but Rome can't compete with the tales of truffle-hunting pigs and donkey festivals. The big city just doesn't have the charm.