While looking for a quick dinner after meetings at Warsaw Marriott Hotel, I ended up with colleagues at the Vapiano Pizza Pasta Bar across the road.
The heritage building exterior masked a casual cafe restaurant with whites and reds mixed into its modern contemporary decor. It reminded me of an hip and cool airport lounge with its reception counter, bar and internet kiosks.
The dining area upstairs features long communal wooden tables and 3 stations dishing out salads, pastas and pizzas. The concept came across as a hybrid of Marché Restaurants' use of chip cards with an up-market IKEA cafeteria. The difference of this European cafe restaurant is that it served made-to-order hand tossed pizzas and gourmet salads, and house-made pasta.
Vapiano did a good job at providing tasty Italian meals with friendly service at reasonable prices. The staff were smiley and made effort to communicate my order in English as I could not speak adequate Polish to order water.
All of us enjoyed the pasta with shrimp and vegetables in tomato sauce, chicken salad and thin crust pizzas with shrimp and salami toppings. It was an excellent alternative to the local Polish fare.
Looking around at the clientèle around me, it seemed the concept was popular with the young working professionals, families and females in Warsaw who were hanging out after work and relaxing over a meal and drinks.
I was surprised to learn that VAPIANOs exists in more than 70 locations worldwide with more outlets opening in the United States, Europe and the Middle East. The location of this outlet was convenient, just minutes walk away from the Warsaw central train station or Warszawa Centralna.
