Review: Vapiano, Great Portland Street, London (although they are EVERYWHERE)

Italian restaurants are found all over London, from authentic Sicilian pizzerias to Milanese pasta houses. Vapiano is slightly different, an Italian street food/canteen experience. It's a chain, which isn't always a good thing, so when six out of ten visited on Friday night, we weren't too sure what to expect. After all, canteen style food conjures up images of secondary school cheesy pizza bread and deep fried everything served on a chipped plate with water-stained cutlery.

We visited the Great Portland Street branch, right next to Oxford Street's flagship Topshop store. It's literally a stone's throw from the building, so sees a mix of media and office workers and tourists grabbing a quick bite to eat. At 6:30pm it was bustling with people, and we were assured it gets far busier later in the evening.

Walking in, you're greeted by staff who'll hand you a plastic credit card. Basically, everything you want to buy, you stick on the card, from drinks to antipasti. It's quite a novel idea, but it was something else to worry about (along with shopping bags, wallet, keys etc) given that people wander about here, there and everywhere ordering food and finding somewhere to sit. I'm not sure what would happen if you were to lose or misplace your card. Eeek!

Seating is divided between casual wooden stools and red, plush sofas. This place is as casual as can be. The real difference is that you get your food by queueing up at the cooking stations, paying by swiping your card. So, if you want pasta, you pick a lane, queue, order and swipe. You can choose the type of pasta you want (all are freshly made that morning) and any additions like salad, extra garlic, extra chilli etc. It's made in front of you by friendly staff. And once it's ready you grab a tray and find somewhere to sit. Simple.

The food was delicious and made more enjoyable knowing you can see the chef making it. We tried a prawn pasta and spinach dish, which was huge, and a calzone. The pizza ordering system works a little differently. Becasue it takes longer to cook, the chef hands you a flashing, vibrating buzzer, so you can collect when it's ready rather than waiting 25 minutes at the station. When we buzzed, our pizza was burnt a little, but the chef did offer to make another. Not fancing a longer wait, we decided to eat it as it was. 

All in all, it's a nice experience, very buzzy and a great place for a casual, let's-chat-over-a-glass-of-red-and-pasta meal with friends. It did feel a bit like a posh canteen, but the quality of the food is worlds away from stodgy pasta and plastic cheese pizza. It's not even that expensive, with a glass of wine and main meal costing about £15. And yes, it's a chain. But with their ethos being that every one of their restaurants serves fresh, quality food, I'd definitely rather eat here than in any other international pizza or pasta franchise. Genuinely.

The only gripes we had were that if you're in a group ordering food, the likelihood is that you'll be eating at different times. With pasta taking about 20 minutes and pizza around half an hour, it's probably not ideal for a huge group of people as you'll spend most of your time queuing and waiting, eventually eating at different times. Oh, and we asked the lady at the bar for a glass Pinot Noir, which apparently they don't do. Going up to the bar a second time, there was a sign with prices for the red we'd wanted, so that was a little disappointing.

But it's well worth a visit, whether you find yourself in London, Bosnia Herzegovina, South Korea, Reunion Island or Azerbaijan.