One young student's delightful review of a Pizza Express has been described as "the greatest review of a restaurant ever" for its enthusiastic description of her dining experience.
The review, which was published on the Peterborough Today site, was glowing.
Her appreciation for the food is clear from the start. She is "delighted" when the garlic bread with mozzarella arrives, but although it was delicious, "the garlic was slightly lacking".
She then describes the pizza: "My first reaction when they put it down on the table was 'wow', as it looked perfectly cooked and quite big in size. One problem was that there wasn't an awful lot of cheese on the pizza, but the toppings compensated as there was plenty of ham and mushrooms to keep us happy."
But despite the pizza being "absolutely amazing and divine", the amount of tomato on the pizza base was unsatisfactory: "When taking a bite, it was overpowering, which after eating half of it, got too much for us, so we both had to scrape some of it off. Apart from that it was divine."
She concludes the review by saying: "Overall, our high anticipations of Pizza Express were met after this meal and it was good that we had a polite member of staff which made the visit all the nicer."
The review soon caught the attention from readers online who fell in love with the writer's wide-eyed description of the British pizza chain's food.
For those who haven't seen it - possibly the greatest restaurant review ever: http://t.co/K3VNu8ro3P
As a lifelong fan of pizza express there's nothing about this review I do not love. http://t.co/V3TBCR42jR
On a morning full of cynicism this is brilliant. No apologies needed, more journalism should be like this http://t.co/pllmzDX5Gt
If I reviewed restaurants... (via @caitlinmoran) http://t.co/itNmX6zyP4
My favourite restaurant review ever #pizzaexpressreview. A shining beacon in the age of cynicism. http://t.co/XPFlykP97s
Just imagine how great life would be if pizza express brought you this much joy http://t.co/k46dzkdZn0
Amazing review of Pizza Express 'My first reaction was wow'. I wish I loved pizza as much as this reviewer. http://t.co/OmJrHcGvVk
Editor's note: This review was written by a journalism student as part of a work experience programme. We appreciate it is in a different style to our regular reviews and – in hindsight – should have been labelled as such, which we apologise for.
But there was no need for the apology. People loved the review, which has inspired a lot of people to revisit their love for their local Pizza Express. The whole review can be read here.
The editor has left a new note on the website. This story couldn't get any nicer:
"There has been an extraordinary reaction to this review. I briefly took the author’s name off because I wanted to check that the student journalist who wrote it was comfortable with the situation. To her credit she is and we stand by her review. In hindsight I think I should have made it clear that the author was a student in the byline. That said the restaurant review is a personal piece and that was her opinion, and we stand by her all the way. I haven’t been able to reply to all the messages we’ve had, but thanks to everyone who got in touch. I for one am looking forward to going out for a pizza tonight!"
Pizza Express have also expressed their appreciation of the review:
If you haven't seen the fantastic #PizzaExpressReview from @peterboroughtel yet, here it is in all it's glory http://t.co/PU3NdYa7NC