Vapiano, Sydney CBD

After hearing about the opening of the new Italian restaurant Vapiano from NessyEater, I wanted to check it out myself. Armed with a few of my girlfriends, we decided to make a date night out of it :D

What's great about Vapiano is that they make their own pasta in store and many of these I hadn't even heard of before! Tell me, has anyone heard of camponelle before? Though my clear lack of pasta knowledge didn't really matter as we had the wonderful Chef Kuz recommending the pasta for us. Everything is cooked fresh to order and literally right in front of your eyes! What else is different about this restaurant is the use of the buzzer method where all your orders are charged onto one of their store cards and you pay at the exit when you leave.

Pollo e spinaci, $19.50

Mention basil pesto to me and I am sold. Say cream stirred through and a sprinkling of pine nuts? Even better! Though I do wish there was a tad more seasoning - just that extra pinch of salt would've done wonders. The camponelle pasta was cooked so that it had just enough bite, but not too al dente. Just the way I like it.

Ravioli con carne, $17.90

Yes, we chose two cream based pastas... It couldn't be any other way ok? This one packed more of a flavour punch from both the bolognese filling and the awesome creamy tomato sauce. And look at the huge mound of parmesan cheese!

Calzone folded pizza, $19.50

Calzone is one kind of pizza I hadn't tried yet so I was eager to sink my knife and fork into this when I spotted it on the menu. And it definitely sounded like meat heaven with a double meat combo of ham and pepperoni and a variety of other fillings like mushroom, olives, onions and mozarella. But the calzone turned out to be more like bread than anything else with the crust being quite chewy, and the fillings were quite sparse and lacking. Which was quite a shame because I was expecting an awesome filling to crust ratio when I saw the size of the pizza. Turns out it was just the crust puffing up :(

My friends and I settled in upstairs after our meal in the bar area with a bottle of moscato and talked the night away. The ambience of this place really is very nice! Next time I'll be back to try more of the pastas, but I may give the pizza a bit of a miss.

Vapiano
King St Corner King And York St
Sydney, NSW, 2000
In the Grace Hotel 

Opening Hours
Sunday - Thursday: 11:00am - 11:00pm
Friday - Saturday: 11:00am - 12:00 midnight