Vapiano: Great Portland Street

We were very lucky to take a trip to London a couple of weeks ago with our friends, the Rooks and we had a very lovely lunch at Vapiano in Great Portland street.  It’s the perfect place to “carb up” the night before the Marathon and it was the perfect place for our “carb up” for our London day trip! 

We went before when Isla was very young and so I was looking forward to taking the children now they are older and also the eldest Rook who is 5 – I knew it would be a lot of fun for her. When we first got there the staff explained to the Rooks how the system works, it was great to have a recap as we haven’t been there for a long time. The eldest Rook was very excited about choosing her lunch and being able to see it being made directly in front of her. The adults were very excited about lunch too, we are all huge Italian food fans, so this restaurant is a dream for us all. Vapiano, we really want one in Cambridge please! 

 Yet again the restaurant was very busy, which is great, I am glad we had a table booked though – lots of people and lots of staff to deal with the people. But despite the groups of people and the restaurant filling up around us, we didn’t have to queue for any great deal of time and waiting for our food was still a lot quicker than in a conventional restaurant. It’s a win win situation in Vapiano. 

The great thing about Vapiano, that I experienced more so on this visit, is how perfect it is when you are dining with your children and your friends – and in fact your friends children. You can literally fill up your tables with whatever you want, share whatever you want and there is no panic of waiting for all your food to be ready in the kitchen. Trying to entertain young children when you are all waiting for food can be a nightmare and with Vapiano we didn’t have that worry at all. 

The mummy’s took their cards and went with the oldest Rook to order the kiddies meals, they were all off the colourful kids menu and we had 3 pizzas and a pasta dish on the order. I am still amazed that the kids meals are so reasonably priced, in a fab restaurant like Vapiano you would expect a lot higher prices. The meals are a perfect size for the little ones, I can imagine as the children get older though they will want to share more. 

 It was great watching the pizzas being created, not only were we wowed because we could watch the chefs at work, but they also made the pizzas into rabbit shapes. I was completely amazed, they looked fantastic and the children loved them. It was fascinating to see the eldest Rook’s face and how amazed she was. She was asking a lot of questions about what was in front of her, ingredients, the oven and she was engrossed in the whole experience. It was really great to see her so intrigued. 

There were herbs and ingredients all along the customer counter and the eldest Rook was asking what they all were, learning as she was waiting. It is a great way to visually learn about the foods you eat and it’s even better because someone else is cooking it and therefore allowing you to keep control of your children at the same time. (If you have that problem!)

 The food was yet again, fantastic, perfectly presented and very well cooked in the kitchens. The meals are great for carbing up before those marathons, or bike-a-thons and charity fund raising events. I would completely recommend this restaurant and so did the Rooks! They want to go back again, and soon. 

For more information on the Vapiano restaurants and meals, please visit their website: www.vapiano.de.