Vapiano Garden City — Restaurant in Brisbane City

Toilets; I gotta start here. Relatively clean. Smelled like a sauna, though—make of that what you will.

The upstairs outdoor terrace, wow. Heated. Cozy. And the modern décor upstairs has an intimacy the downstairs area just doesn’t quite capture.

Navigating a larger dining table for a special event downstairs, however, was like trying to cross a crowded dance floor and without any dancing.

I literally had to wait for a waiter to call out three meals and find their recipients before I was acknowledged and given space to pass. When another waitress pushed through - and past me I might add I might add -, I shamelessly followed,

“Excuse me, how rude, I’m coming through too" and had to hold my hand hand up from him giving out another meal—only to later find out that waiter was actually the manager.

Speaking of him, he did come over later to clarify if we wanted our dessert after dinner (apparently dessert-first is a thing now?). Points for attention to detail. Minus points not acknowledging the hold up earlier.

And the same waitress that pushed past me? Came to dump our shared jug of long island iced tea on our table with grunt like she was holding a grudge because I took too long to get through the tight spot before. How absolutely

Now, onto the main event: Spaghetti Bolognese. Beef, pork, onions, carrots, cherry tomatoes—an Italian staple. But what I got? Heinz spaghetti in disguise.

The first dish was claggy two-minute noodles, and the sauce? Watery and utterly devoid of substance. Even my nonna, who told me to “shut up and eat,” would’ve questioned this one. And I pleaded with them to try it, because I wanted to know if it was normal for it to be this way.

Yes, I left half of the remade dish behind to save room for the Panna Cotta & Pistachio Pizza, but truthfully? I couldn’t force myself to finish it anyway.

When Grace asked how everything was, I nearly bit my tongue. But here’s my advice: don’t.

If you’re wondering whether your taste buds are broken or the dish really is off—ask. Because when the server carried my bowl over to the manager and they both looked horrified, I knew two things:

My name is Chris, not Karen & They were about to fix it.

And they tried. They owned it. The road to redemption is long but it has been started in a world of “shrug and move on and please let us try."

Vapiano Mt Gravatt chose accountability. And honestly? That’s why we might just come back for a fourth round & to have a chance at completing this rating… but maybe not for the Bolognese.

The Pistachio menu however...

Update: June, 2022

The management kindly reached out and offered a generous voucher to try the place again.

So, my wife and I returned in June 2022 to retry the place. It moves from a 2-star review to a 3-star.

Ambience - the place is open and airy, and during the day has a welcome vibe to it. The service is top-notch. On both occasions we've been warmly greeted and seated.

Why 3 stars? Unfortunately, while the service was welcoming, the wait time was terrible - 45min from ordering to being served, and after asking the head waitress to hurry the order along (as we had to leave for school pick up). It looked afterwards that there was only one chef working the entire kitchen - perhaps due to covid knocking the team out. Poor guy! I think this also affected the quality of the food...

Ordered: Garlic Butter Gamberi - a combination of spaghetti with prawns, garlic, butter, lemon and parsley. This was ok. The pasta was overcooked and soft, and the sauce did not coat the spaghetti but pooled at the bottom - leaving it a relativley dry dish unless you kept mixing the bowl. The prawns were ok, and the overall flavour was also ok.

Pollo E Spinaci Risotto - This was creamy and delicious, though towards the middle of the meal it became one note.

I appreciated that management reached out to us - it was only the food that was a let down. Perhaps some time again in the future I'll try it when it's less busy and more staff are on hand.

TLDR: Wonderful customer service, average food.

My wife and I weren't sure what to expect, so when we entered Vapiano Garden City on a slow Thursday. We were warmly greeted by the manager and staff workers and had a helpful run down of the menu and ordering system.

We ordered from the lunch specials menu - which, if you put it out as a special, they better be a fair representation of your work. Unfortunately my aglio e olio was dry and uninspired. Medium heat translated to three slices of chilli which had very little kick to them. My wife's fungi pizza was ok, a nice crust but an uninspiring topping of sauce, cheese and mushrooms. We left thoroughly...

I've come here for lunch and dinner, and it has been an okay experience. I should also mention that this review is also exclusively about the upstairs seating area since I haven't dined on the first floor before.

The service done by people is excellent and deserving of 5 stars, however, you need to order from a QR code on the table. That, in my books at least, is deserving of a few docked points. Aside from that, the people are very nice and bring out your food as soon as they can.

Moving on to the food itself, or more specifically the carbonara and the pizza I have had both times as a recommendation from my father. Quite frankly, I'm someone who loves having a drink to go with any food I get, but with this food you are going to need a drink. This is because the food you get is a lot more... dry for lack of a better word. The pizza, which was a meatlovers, was overall pretty good, it just needed a bit more sauce and cheese in my and my mother's opinion. The carbonara on the other hand, I'm not even sure what to do to make it more moist and less rubbery, but it does taste good.

The atmosphere upstairs is also pretty good, when there are others then it's lively and can be a pretty great experience. Inversely, when there is barely anyone else there it becomes a nice place to just chill/relax/vibe in because the music choice so far has been great, and even if you don't like the music, it's easy enough to drown out with regular conversation.

Overall, this is a good place to come with people, not so much when...