London,

Vapiano

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Cuisine: Italian
Meal for two with wine about £30

19-21 Great Portland Street, W1W 8QB


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Phone: 020 7268 0080

Open: Mon-Sun 11am-midnight

 

 

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Fine feast on the cards

 

The staff at Vapiano cook your food up in front of you

David Davis would not be happy at Vapiano. The first thing they give you at the door is your own swipe card, which is your key to ordering anything, or indeed entering the restaurant at all. Will this relentless creep of the ID card never cease? Next you'll need two witnesses and a thumbprint to order extra pepperoni. Vapiano is a German chain with an Italian architect, so there's the European superstate on the march as well.

Never mind, it comes with a claim to be high quality and low priced, and is just off Oxford Street - a gastronomic desert where hungry shoppers wander unhappily in search of something that isn't an astronomical price or disgusting.

Downstairs feels like a café with well-spaced large wooden tables and plenty of oils, vinegars and basils in the middle for the children to make chaos with. Upstairs is further from the chefs but much quieter. If you're the kind of person who goes on budget dates, it's a top tip.

Now the chefs. They stand around the wall at various "mini-kitchens" marked "Pizza" "Pasta" and "Salad" and cook up your food in front of you. You get a menu which suggests combinations of ingredients but you get to do the really exciting bit of customising your lunch.

This takes some time for three adults with two very precise young children in tow: "The one with swirls. No, not the big swirls, the curly loops. I don't want that one. It's too long. You said I could have what I liked etc."

We brandished the card at the bar - there's a reasonable list of wines from just under £4 a glass: nothing special, nothing undrinkable either. There isn't tap water on each table (tut tut) but you can help yourself from a jug at the bar. They do try to foist bought drinks on you when you order your food, though, which is a bit irritating.

Fast food antipasti is usually a portion-controlled horror, so I was impressed to receive for a mere £8.50 a huge plate of mozzarella, pesto bruschetta, ham, salmon and crayfish. Don't dream of ordering one each - they are colossal.

By this stage the children had worked out the ordering business rather too well - not least because they liked the electronic tagging device you bring back to your table and which vibrates when an order is ready.

The pastas come in vast bowls: creditable Bolognese and a sticky Gorgonzola e noce. They are priced by group - £5.50 for Group A to a stonking £8.50 for the luxury of Group D. It's like choosing a hire car on holiday: you always want the next one up.

The pizzas are the only letdown. They have thin crispy crusts and good quality ham and cheese but an odd watery-thin tomato layer.

There is a small selection of good puddings - panacotta with strawberries, and a light chocolate cake which made us all swoon. And Illy coffee, which as everyone knows is the sort that tastes like coffee, even if, like me, you have wimped onto the decaffeinated sort.

The staff are cheery, while the restaurant is scrupulously clean and all the things a lot of fast food places are not. "Write down that we like the loos," said my children. They are indeed very grand for a chain, which encouraged my battalion of Von Trapps to wash their hands every half-hour.

Frankly, the card system is a bit of a nightmare as they insist on giving one to every adult - the number of bits of plastic that can go astray on a table featuring under-eights doesn't bear thinking about. I guess they know what they're doing with this system - but somehow we managed to defeat it. So when we marched to the till, everyone having stuffed themselves immoderately, the girl brightly pronounced that the total would be £11.70.

A frantic scrabble on the floor later, we found the other swipe cards and the bill came to a more rational £41: a good deal less than I would have expected for the huge amounts we had amassed. Lunch for five in the heart of the West End for under £45 and no queues at the loo? That's no small boast. Good to have it here.

Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.

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