Tonight I have handed the reigns over to Steve to decide where we shall eat………………….

Soho is full of life, hustle, bustle and more restaurants than you can shake a stick at, so it’s safe to say I had no idea what was on the agenda!

Vapiano is nestled on Wardour Street, the perfectly dressed window front caught my eye, with its potted herbs and bicycles, and then I realised we were heading in!

Greeted by the friendly staff at the front desk, they asked if we’d ever been to Vapiano before, to which I replied “No”. They gave us a quick run down of how it all works – You take a card and this is essentially where you charge all of your food to once you’ve ordered it, there’s no waiting staff. Dependent on what you want to eat, depends on which counter you go to.

Grabbing a couple of menus we headed to the table nearest the window, so we could people watch all of the weird and wonderful types Soho has to offer.

Vapiano is a pretty impressive space, sprawled across two floors are lots of big wooden benches and stools, those fresh herb plants I had spotted in the window where also on every worktop throughout the restaurant, and one whopping great Olive tree (which apparently, is 100 years old ). A really cool, rustic, super clean, fun feel to the place.

 “chi va piano va sano e va lontano” – “more haste less speed “

The menu  is broken down into sections –

• Specials
• Antipasti & Insalata
• Pasta
• Pizza
• Dolci

Starters always seem the best place to start, so we made our way over to the counter – Antipasti & Insalata

We ordered – Piatto Antipasti – Proscuitto tipo Parma, salami, pepperoni, roasted vegetables, homemade pesto, Grana Padano D.O.P, buffalo mozzarella, bruschetta

We asked for the grande to share and were quickly advised that the regular would be more than enough for two to share (and they were totally right). It was freshly prepared in front of us, and whilst you are waiting there are an array of dips on the counter with freshly sliced bread. Needless to say we devoured quite a bit.

Everything on the plate was so fresh, this is what I call fun finger food. Get stuck in, no knives and forks needed, cramming as much as possible on to the freshly baked bread and dropping bits all over the place, as you attempt to bite off as much as possible.

For the main course it was a toss up between Pasta & Pizza, but given these guys make 11 different types of Pasta fresh everyday on the premises, coupled with a home made sauce, it would be super rude not to try it out.

So I’m off, heading toward the back of the restaurant to the Pasta counter, where I ordered some Internationally inspired dishes –

Estiva – Chicken breast, ginger, chilli, mint, sun-dried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, rocket

Filetto Di Manzo Rucola  – Strips of fillet beef, mushrooms, fresh vegetables, rocket, white wine

Once you have picked your desired combination, you then choose which type of pasta you would like. They will also recommend a pasta for the dish you have chosen, and for ours they elected Campanelle.

    

You wait no time at all for the food to be cooked, and it’s actually quite a treat with all those wonderful aromas coming from the hot pans, certainly gets the mouth watering!

All the flavours are pretty punchy in their own right, the stand out for me was the ginger, not something I would’ve put with pasta, but it was extremely tasty. The bowls are huge, and its really rather moreish, I found myself full but unable to stop eating.

You can imagine with all the bread and pasta, it was a carb overload, and the idea of dessert was a pretty daunting one, so we decided to share because we absolutely couldn’t leave with out trying the “Death By Chocolate” Cake.

It may not look much, but it didn’t need to, because what it lacked in appearance was made up for in the rich chocolaty (not sickly) taste! I’m pretty glad we stuck around for this one.

Feeling totally full, I was dreading the walk to the tube, I’m sure they would be fine with me borrowing the bike in the window, right……………………..?