Pizza Express rolls out click and collect orders at its 13 reopened restaurants

HUNGRY diners can now dodge delivery fees when ordering food from Pizza Express as the chain rolls out a click and collect service at reopened restaurants.

The high street chain has already opened a small number of branches as the government eases its lockdown measures.

⚠️ Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest news & updates

Even though food chains were allowed to continue to operate a takeaway service, Pizza Express closed down all 400-plus branches while it sussed out how it could run under social distancing measures.

The 13 London branches that reopened on May 28 are part of a trial for the chain to see whether it will be able to open the remainder of its restaurants.

Until today, the branches only offered a home-delivery service and customers had to place orders through Deliveroo.

The third-party courier service charges around £3.49 for delivery, although this can vary depending on how close you are to the restaurant.

But now customers will be able to place their orders online through the Pizza Express website and collect the food themselves.

It means you can still enjoy your favourite Pizza Express meal even if you don't live within the delivery boundaries.

Customers will have to make sure they stay two metres apart from each other, while protective screens have also been put up to protect staff.

The chain will continue to offer the same limited menu, although this does include a range of pizzas, sides, pastas, and desserts, such as the American Hot pizza, dough balls and vanilla cheesecake.

Zoe Bowley, managing director at PizzaExpress said: "Our number one priority is to protect the safety and wellbeing of our teams and customers.

"Having undertaken a successful delivery-only trial in 13 of our restaurants, we’re pleased to be rolling this out further to click-and-collect customers in the same 13 restaurants only for the time being. 

"We know that people have missed the taste of our freshly handmade pizzas and by launching the next stage of our trial, we hope to gradually and safely begin to bring the PizzaExpress experience back to the UK."

Pizza Express wasn't the only high street food chain to temporarily close, with McDonald's, KFC and Nando's among those to shut up shop as well.

But the past few weeks has seen hundreds of chains slowly begin to reopen - see our full list of the food chains and businesses open now.

Unfortunately, many household chains have been hard hit by forced closures with speculation Pizza Express may keep some restaurants closed for good after lockdown - although it denies this is the case.

Pizza Express has been dishing out recipes for its most popular dishes, such as its Margherita pizza and dough balls during lockdown after it closed on March 20.