There were a couple of reasons why I chose to visit Vapiano for dinner. First and foremost, it's really close to our hotel. In this ice cold weather, location means everything. Then, of course I thought we had way too much French food in the last 48 hours so switching to Italian comfort food would make everybody happy.
Vapiano, who hails from Cologne Germany, is a restaurant chain that specializes in Italian dishes such as pasta, pizza and simple salad. They are quite serious at what they do as the pasta they use are all made in house right behind these glass walls. Based on the figures today, they have more than 200 branches in 33 different countries. I guess business must be pretty good then.
This branch near famous Champs Elysées is decorated like a chic market place.
The place is split into two levels. I didn't get the chance to check out the basement but trust me, it's huge and very spacious.
Everything here is more or less self-served like a food court. We ordered directly from the counter with our chef and paid with the special credit card we were given at the entrance door. We would then pay at the cashier counter before we exit from the restaurant. For the most part, it's pretty slick. But the wheels were about to fall off from here.
Bolognese - We ordered this for our little guy and while it looked and smelt perfectly delicious, it proved to be exactly otherwise. As soon as I started working on those linguini, I realized they were all sticking together. I thought that's "Cooking 101" - How to avoid pasta from sticking together. Not good.
Carbonara with salmon - Pretty much the same thing. Again most of the pasta were sticking together to a point where they became really hard in texture making it very difficult to eat.
While I have nothing bad to say about their service (since it's all self-served), I was frustrated with the fact that this kitchen touted for its casual and heart Italian fare didn't know how to make a decent pasta. In a hindsight, I should've stuck with French food throughout our stay in Paris.
Food Rating: 2.5/10
Price: €€
Address: 36 Rue Marbeuf, 75008 Paris, France
Closest Metro Station: Franklin D. Roosevelt
Tel: +33 (0)1 8414-6301
Website: www.vapiano.fr
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