For some reason, finding a place to get lunch becomes a greater challenge the longer you spend time in a place. Your desire to try new places becomes less as you have been burned too many times, and you get tired of going to the same five or six places. Vernon and I needed to grab lunch one day and we had a completely outlandish plan of him going to Viga, and me going to Boloco (as he wanted pasta, and I wanted a burrito). We told Kenny, and he decided to tag along, and as we walked towards Viga/Boloco Kenny made the infamous statement, “Hey, there’s that new place – Vapiano”. Vernon and I looked at each other, and that was where the disaster began. If you’ve never been to Vapiano, it’s kinda different experience, or so the hostess at the door told us. She gave Vernon and I a menu that we looked over and after overcoming the sticker shock, she started asking us probing in-depth personal questions such as “what are you guys looking for?” She looked at Vernon, who is Asian and said, “you want something Asian?” If she wasn’t Asian, I’m pretty sure we would have been harping about how racist that was. Why would we go to an obviously Italian restaurant wanting something Asian when there is Chinatown two blocks away???

After that fiasco, the hostess explained how Vapiano “worked”. Anytime you go to a restaurant that has to explain how it “works”, you should turn around and go home, because the restaurant is obviously based upon a gimmick designed in an upper level MBA course. Vapiano “works” by giving you a card, and you take that card to various stations where you then make your order and the chef puts that order onto your card prior to making your meal. You then get your food and leave, but pay at the front where they read what was put on your card. Kenny made the wise decision not to order anything here, and created a hubbub as he didn’t receive a card. The new hostess asked Kenny where his card was, and he said he didn’t get a card because he didn’t get anything, and she said “Everyone has to have a card”, obviously harkening back to her days as a Gestapo officer.

Well, that’s great, but how was the food, you ask? Well, surprisingly, the food was actually pretty decent, despite paying $14 for a half plate of pasta. The pasta was fresh, and the sauce very tasty. I had a spinach and cheese ravioli in tomato sauce and Vernon got a pesto pasta. My ravioli was obviously freshly made (or at least relatively fresh), while Vernon’s pasta was fresh and the pesto’s nutty texture scored it many points.

While the food is pretty good though slightly overpriced at Vapianos, you must really ask, “what is the real price?” Is it worth having pretty good pasta at the cost of your soul? Do you want to go to a place where everyone must have a “card” or they cannot enjoy the company of diners? And why should we tolerate a system that creates more barriers between us and food? In days of yore, you could just go to a farmer and give him a daughter in return for a meal! Now, we have to get a card, have people authenticate it, then pay money with a separate card? Call me old fashioned, but I can only give Vapiano’s two cheese sandwiches.

UPDATE 5/2/11: I returned to Vapiano as a farewell lunch to a member of my lab, as she requested it.  Apparently, Vapiano has introduced a lunch special, where you can get approximately the same amount of pasta as well as a half salad for only $5.99.  However, they still have this ludicrous card system, and people just get a card as soon as they come in (irrespective of their eating there or not).  Think of it as a “food passport”.  The food at Vapiano is actually not bad, and they’ve made the prices more reasonable, but their card system is still obnoxious.  So, for the reduction in price, I’ll add one and a half more cheese sandwiches.  Vapiano gets three and a half cheese sandwiches.

Vapiano
191 Stuart Street
Boston, MA 02116 
(857) 445-0236