Last Friday me and James were invited along to try out the menu at Vapiano Oxford Street. Vapiano is a chain of restaurants that specialise in quick service Italian food in a very laid back environment.
When we arrived we were greeted by the manager who gave us a Vapiano card. She explained it’s used to register what you order as the chef prepares your food. We were then taken to a table. It was a really busy Friday night as you can imagine. But there were a range of seating options, from more relaxed leather chairs to long tables on which multiple groups of people could be seated.
There was lots of choice on the menu, from pasta to pizza, antipasti and salad, you selected what you fancied and then headed over to the chef at each individual station. They then prepare your food in front of you, so you really have a say in exactly what goes into it. If you want an ingredient removed or an extra added it’s no problem. After the Chefs have finished preparing your meal you put it on a tray and return back to your seat.
For starters James opted for the Bruschetta and I chose the Caesar Salad, both of these were huge portions, so you definitely get a lot of value for money. I was already feeling full and I hadn’t even reached the main menu yet!
Yum
After the starters had gone down we both decided we’d like to try a pasta dish. The pasta at Vapiano is made fresh every day, and they even have a special “pasta machine” or a manifattura at each location. So you know it’s going to be good! In addition to this there were some fresh herbs on the table for you to add to your pasta/pizza and so on, if you so wished.
I chose the Pasta Bolognese and James went for the Carbonara, again massive portions plus each plate came with 2 pieces of bread. James managed to eat all of his but I couldn’t manage all of mine. Luckily the helpful staff asked me if I’d like to take it home, and they gave me some nice tupperware to put it in!
There is always room for dessert however, and we finished off with some tubs of ice cream! I think next time I will definitely opt for one of their homemade desserts – the death by chocolate cake looked amazing.
Thanks to Vapiano’s card system you can pay for everything that you’ve eaten at the front till when you leave. Overall I’d say everything was reasonably priced with pizza ranging from £6 to the more expensive options around £10 and pasta ranging from the £6-9 mark. Great value when you consider the size of the portions you get.
We had a great time and will definitely look to pop in again soon next time we are out in Oxford Street – thanks Vapiano!
