Vapiano, Sydney CBD

Vapiano is conveniently located on the corner of York and King Street in Sydney CBD so it's a great place to meet for lunch/dinner. However, be wary of the long queues during peak (meal) times:

Pasta Queue

Pizza Queue

Surprisingly, on a Wednesday night, the pizza queue was near non-existent while the pasta queue was loonnnggg - my friend waited in line for ~15min before placing her order. It turns out the wait is because they cook the pasta in front of you and serve it to you immediately, whereas with the pizza, you just place the order and return to the counter when the handheld buzzer rings/flashes.

Kitchen Section for Making Pasta

Pasta

Pesto Basilio ($17) - Freshly Made Basil Pesto and Roasted Pine Nuts

This one was voted the best of the two pastas that we ordered - the pasta is cooked to al dente and mixed with a basil pesto sauce and covered in roasted pine nuts and mozarella.

All'Arrabbiata ($16) - Onion and Garlic in Spicy Homemade Tomato Sauce

Also cooked al dente and then mixed with a spicy tomato sauce infused with onion and garlic - the spiciness is mild so okay for those that can't handle the heat. The All'Arrabbiata was recommended by one of my friends (she always orders this one when she comes) but apparently it didn't taste as good tonight.

Pizza

Verdure ($18) - Grilled Eggplant, Capsicum, Zucchini, Mushrooms
on Homemade Tomato Sauce and Mozzarella

The toppings were rather sparse and I personally didn't notice any/much grilled eggplant in the mix (do I spy a small diced portion near the centre of the pizza??).

Bruschetta ($18) - Garlic Marinated Tomatoes, Extra Virgin Olive Oil,
Fresh Rocket, Parmesan on Homemade Tomato Sauce and Mozzarella

To be honest, the pizza base didn't seem any different from the other pizza. Also, it was rather difficult to eat the pizza by hand as the centre was weighed down by the toppings and the base wasn't crispy (rather limp, really).

By the end of the meal, we were all too full and didn't have any room to try out the available desserts, which do look tempting (I wonder if they do takeaway??):

Dessert Options ($7) - Tiramisu, Tim Tam Smash,
Panna Cotta, White Chocolate Cheesecake, Nutella Cheesecake

Overall, the pasta were definitely better than the pizzas - as evidenced by the much longer queue, I would say that a lot of other customers concur - but the portions are rather small for the (high) price you're expected to pay for the fresh pasta.