Vapiano - Garden City, Upper Mount Gravatt, Brisbane
October 06, 2018
Since its opening in Garden City, we actually never end up dining here due to the many restaurant options now, we end up going elsewhere. But since I wanted something Italian, we thought we'd come and try this branch and maybe compare it to the CBD branch. However, it has been a while for us dining at Vapiano.
'Con Carne' Pizza consisted of smoked Aussie ham, spicy pepperoni, salami, BBQ sauce on homemade tomato sauce and mozzarella First thing first, it took them a while to make this so we basically had to wait at our tables.. When we received it, it was practically burnt? very fired up pizza. At an instance, you were able to tell that they've left it either for too long or they just went all out on something making the pizza's surrounding before the crust be that burnt. It didn't taste nice, I can tell you that. The amount of ham, pepperoni and salami was also not very tidy.. or let me say, balanced throughout. Some slices had a bigger slice of ham but only a very tiny salami or pepperoni whilst some had a big pepperoni, half a salmi and a shred of ham. Very un-organized pizza, or maybe just in a rush.
The BBQ sauce on homemade tomato sauce, I couldn't really tell if it was homemade or not to be honest. It just felt as if the tomato sauce was barely there and all we could taste was just tomato paste. Sad to get a round 'burnt' pizza around the sides, makes us not able to actually eat it whole or just a disappointment. Although we did try to eat the whole slice, the burnt BBQ sauce or some what random parts of ham or dough, just didn't taste that nice.
Hoping that the pasta would be better than the pizza so that the dinner won't be a full failure but sadly, it didn't. 'Pesto Rosso' was a sun-dried tomato pesto with pine nuts, chilli, ricotta and cherry tomatoes. We also added chicken breast on top of that to add to the dish.
First thing we noticed was how dry the whole dish was, especially the past. My previous experiences in Vapiano was that the pasta at least had some sort of sauce or coating of sauce but this one, nope, none of that. Although it was freshly cooked, we weren't sure how long it was sitting there on the bench. As when we started mixing the grated cheese together within the pasta, it seemed a bit stuck and dry throughout. The slices of chicken was not much and the amount of pine nuts also, I wished that there was more.
Yes, there was a slight hint of chilli but another, not so good dish. The bread was also dry and a bit tough, it did not feel or smell as fresh as it used to be back then when dining here.
Sad to leave this place with a disappointment of not one dish but both, most likely not planning to come back anytime soon. Maybe one day we'll come back but, not sure when.
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