Va-Va-Vapiano

Lo and behold, Europe’s most spoken of restaurant finally sets foot in Egypt and it has come to save our lives with crusty saucy pizzas and its famous well-crafted pastas.

Red carpets, spotlights, and lots of people taking photographs, we take a stroll down Cairo Festival City to get to the opening night of Germany’s highly acclaimed restaurant, Vapiano, to see what all the fuss is about. We enter the place heading straight over to the pizza oven which had fun-looking chefs preparing pizzas for all the attendees. We took our barbecue chicken pizza right away (good thing we got it right away before we started to drool over in public because of the irresistible aroma) and put it on our table. We then took our Crema Di Funghi pasta which had the right amount of cream with an loads of fungi and cheese. And not to forget the antipasto salad, which had very fresh ingredients and some perfectly-cooked shrimps to top it off.

So how did we find it?

Well, let’s start with the pizza. It’s a thin crust pizza with an under-layer of barbecue sauce that is only made to be rolled, shoved in and left to unfurl inside your stomach Ain’t no other proper way to eat pizzas, no? We then emerged in a world of saucy stars and rainbow-coloured veggies (did we just get high?) but seriously, the pizza was something to be admired; excellent support to the well seasoned dough and provocative texture that makes you want to crave more and more of this beastly pizza, we soon realized how bad we missed real pizzas. The topping sauce and vegetables were finely picked, they were fresh, tasty and on top of all, clean enough and didn’t give us abdominal issues.

Meanwhile the Vapianisti (Vapiano chefs and employees) were very delightful and celebratory. They put up a colorful show for everyone that night. They danced, air-guitarred and sang along. Then, they all left their spots and headed over to CFC’s infamous fountain and did a Step Up-like choreograph for all the CFC people to watch how cool the Vapianisti are; a very warm atmosphere to indulge us all in!

The pasta had the perfect homemade taste and texture. Overall, the dish with its lukewarm well cut fungi and exquisite cheese topping would make Gordon Ramsay himself proud.

The ambiance was made up of warm lighting, creative interiors and neatly polished tables which all-in-all would make the perfect Instagram photo for everyone. On the whole, the entire experience reminded us of the good old days when we set out on our Euro trip and everyone insisted that we visited Germany’s Vapiano which doesn't differ much from Egypt’s by the way. Most of the chefs are not Egyptian. We met Celestine who has been a German Vapianisti for quite some time now and he complimented us on our social and endearing population. Good. Keep the Vapianistis and similar exquisite restaurant chains flooding in. Yum. 

Follow them on Instagram: @Vapiano_Egypt