Manchester is seeing a bit of an invasion at the moment – chains such as Hawksmoor, Burger & Lobster, Bill’s, Iberica and Fazenda are opening up all over the city. They’ve noticed that we’re fond of our food here too, and are taking advantage of the gentle boom in our spending, and our move away from quantity into quality.
The latest to head our way is Vapiano – an Italian style eatery originating in Germany. A little cautiously, curiously, accepted an invitation to visit some of their London based eateries, to check them out, and preview the concept ahead of their Manchester opening.
Vapiano opened it’s first venue in Hamburg in 2002, and since then has grown across 4 continents and 29 countries with around 150 venues in total.
The concept is, a little different. You arrive and receive a card. Instead of holding cash, like a gift card, this card will hold your debt – so, as you approach the different stations, to select from the pasta, pizza, salads and desserts, you hold your card against a screen, which adds your selections to your bill.
At the end of your meal, or once you’ve received your takeaway, you take your card holding this debt to pay on the way out. It definitely has it’s positives. No faffing trying to split the bill, or arguing when that person who had more wine than anyone (or less for that matter) wants to be difficult. Sorry, I’m a big believer in just splitting it down the middle – even when I’ve had less booze than anyone else (it does happen).
Now to the important bit. The food.
And again, things are done a bit differently. Vapiano believe in freshness (something a lot of chains could learn from). You wander to the station you want to order from. Chat to the chef, who will not only take your order, but also adapt it to your tastes – more garlic? More chilli? No problem. It will then be cooked in front of you.
Fresh pasta, freshly made pizza dough, fresh sauces, all ready to go. And specials are sign posted on boards, so you can take advantage, like we did, of the British asparagus season, with a beautiful pesto dressed salad featuring them, rocket, new potatoes and Parmesan shavings (we may have asked for extra cheese). Delicious.
We also sampled something a little more meaty – antipasto featuring, parma ham, bruschetta, chorizo, salami, mozzarella, slivers of Parmesan and griddled vegetables. Great quality, great flavours.
The pasta is good too, and again you get that element of choice. Select the dish, and which pasta takes your fancy One dish we sampled was a very simple one I make at home – linguine aglio e olio – the pasta is tossed in hot olive oil with crisp just cooked garlic and chilli.
The pasta is cooked al dente, with a firm bite (just the way I like it). We also loved the salsiccia con ficci, one of their most popular dishes, mixing spicy Italian sausage with soft fresh figs. A great combination of spice, soft fruit and tomatoes. I may have to try to recreate this one at home.
Pizzas are a little different. To save you hanging around waiting for your pizza to be shaped, topped, and cooked, you get a buzzer – head back to your table (or order more bits and pieces) and when it’s ready, your alarm will go off, and you can head back and collect it.
More figs, this time in the form of the crudo e fichi – ham, figs, honey and mozzarella – crisp base, gooey cheese. Pretty darned good.
Following the theme, desserts too are freshly made, in house. Classic house style tirimisu – much gentler than I expected, pannacotta, and crema di fragola – strawberries and mascarpone cream. Deceptively simple but a lovely finish to your meal.
The one that won us all over, however, was the baked lemon and vanilla cheesecake with fresh strawberry sauce. So easily made grainy or too dense, this carefully walked that tightrope, resulting in a rich buttery dessert, and the fresh acidity of the fruit kept it from being overly heavy.
Full of food, the journey home to Manchester gave us time to reflect. I love the concept, the freshness, the simplicity. The venues too, are easy on the eye.
Whether it’s the openness of the London Bridge site, the ambient lighting of the Soho restaurant, or the bustle of their busiest London venue Great Portland Street – the central theme has been adapted to suit the space.
I must admit to being intrigued to see what their Corn Exchange site is going to look like. Luckily, I’ve only got a few months to wait.
With thanks to Vapiano for introducing me to their venues in London and their food. And yes, I know, it is a chain, but as I’ve mentioned before chains have their place, or they wouldn’t exist.
I’ll be intrigued to see what Manchester thinks.
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