One place that has been having a mainstay for quite a few years has managed to do so for quite a few reasons. The first one has to do with locations, being right in the central area of the central business district albeit down the lane (actually works in favour). A second and viable reason is because of how reliable it is. There is a heap of space around two levels, and it makes for a wonderful setting to either to socialise or have a business meeting in between times. Also, the real important reason is that many people agree the food tastes good. Also, the whole thing just runs so efficiently and has that hard-to-perfect appeal where both the casual and business suit kinds can intermingle and not look out of place.
It had been a while since I had met up with a friend of mine, who is often really busy. For once, I finally managed to get onto him and get a meeting that was seen through. This one was during the evening, just a bit after work, in the city. The whole idea was that he wanted to find somewhere to have a drink, I didn't drink myself but would always take up coffee, plus I had saved room in my stomach for food. As a result, the friend had a couple of ideas in mind and this ultimate place was one of them.
Vapiano is a massive place, right down the end of Albert Lane, it is wide open to the world. This place is three stories tall and open planned. Seating is casual, and is a bunch of long communal tables that all have small pot plants of herbs on them. This is great to season your pasta with; to make it cooler, one level has a tiny greenhouse that has all the herbs you could need to cook with. There is also the oil and balsamic vinegar to compelte it all.
Okay, so describing the service is going to be a bit different than I normally do. This has a fairly unique system where you are given a card that is used to store and tally up the bill on your end which is given at the end to pay for your meal. Then you are given agency to go around to the different stations, which resembles a combination of a cafeteria and a teppanyaki dining experience. Just to up to the appropriate station - whether it be for pizza, for pasta, or antipasti and go and place your order. It can be tailor-made to your requests if need be. After it if ordered, just touch and it is charged at the end. The rest of it is up to you since you take the plate and cutlery to your table. Upon finding out that this concept came from Germany, I am actually not surprised at all.
Getting onto the menu, this is a simplified Italian restaurant. The stations are an antipasti, salad, pizza and pasta, with a drinks one upstairs that also includes alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. "House" and "classic" options are in both the pizza and pasta sections as well as a few others. It caters to heaps of tastes without going overboard.
As usual, to start off the meal the first order of business was the drinks. By now, it is clear I am a fan of coffee, so no double guessing what I got. I can't remember what blend or bean they used to make this drink, but nevertheless this was a servicable drink - the extraction was done just right, the strength was adequate and it did not taste burnt. It was adequate coffee, and that is enough to satisfy me.
In getting there, the thing that I really felt a hankering for was some pasta. Looking at the menu, the one that sounded perfect was "Gamberi e spinachi". Another good thing about the menu is that with the pasta sauces, each one has suggestions of which kinds of pasta go best with which sauces - that is what I went with when getting my pasta with linguine. The sauce was a combination of prawns, onions, cherry tomatoes and a cream with basil pesto, Parmesan cheese, and fresh spinach. As an extra, I got in some chili to spice it up. In addition to that, they offered some bruschetta on the side of the dish. This was one fantastic dish, where there was not an overbearing flavour among them. The taste of chili was present but only added the needed heat. The creamy base of the pasta was brilliant and thick, plus it was contrasted with fresh tomato, onion and spinach, plus those prawns were great. They were plump and had a firm texture. More brownie points are given to not obviously skimping on them - that makes a heap of difference. This was all done on pasta done al dente. Enough to recommend to an Italian mother-in-law I shall say.
I managed to nick a bit of my friend's meal. He got the Caprese antipasti, which is ciabatta, buffalo mozzarella and tomato slices with basil on the side. The tomato was ripe and juicy, and the mozzarella cheese was some of the most tender that I have tried. These flavours were more subtle than most and were brought out well with the addition of basil and olive oil.
The 4.0 score is for a couple of simple reasons. One, I did not really try a breadth of things here so there is not too much substantial in the way of food to base a lengthy critique on, and second, because I feel this was food that was good quality and competently done, just not something that stands out in comparison to many other places. Prices might also put some people out of ease. If it does have something characteristic about it, whether it be service or the structure of the place among others, some points are also given and I feel that Vapiano has earned a couple of extra brownie points for the way it is set out. Vapiano is definitely a good fall back option, and there is definitely a reliability factor in on getting a freshly-made meal.
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