Vapiano

I love pasta and therefore I like to go to Vapiano. The location is very convenient since its located very close to the Rotterdam Central train station, so before a long journey you can sit down and have a bite.
For me its important that the pasta is not overcooked and so far they have never done that. I love their pasta carbonara.
I have been to Vapiano in other countries/​cities and the concept is usually pretty much the same: you order at the till and they prepare the pasta in front of you (usually only 2 orders simultaneously). If you order a pizza, you get a beeper and when it beeps you need to pick it up. The concept doesn’t make it very suitable to go with big or uneven groups, since the food is not ready at the same time, which makes it less «gezellig».
Overall, Vapiano is a nice place to go to for a pasta (I haven’t tried the pizza) with a fair price.

I would like to give 3 stars and half to Va Piano, but at the end I will choose three stars!
I like the pizza here! It is not the best in Rotterdam, but it is quite good and it is relatively cheap. My favorite one is the pizza with pesto and basilico. They have some good wines and also the tiramisù I tried was quite tasty.
The atmosphere is friendly and I like the sentences written above the kitchen. Luckily I always ordered pizza, avoiding the long queue I always found for the pasta.
They came up with a smart system: when you enter they give you a magnetic card and everything you buy will be charged on that card, when you leave the restaurant you give the card back at the cash and you pay everything you eat and and appears on the card. It is half self service: you order the pizza and they give you a tool that will make a sound when the pizza is ready and you can collect it. You feel useful and they save time and waiters!!!
My experience at Va Piano was quite positive a part from last time, one month ago. After we order the pizza, one of us went to order the drinks. He waited for more 15 minutes before getting three glasses of wine. The staff was slow, unfriendly and not really professional. I was there looking, they didn’t even pay attention to the customers. They were doing other things, cleaning glasses and making order while the queue of customers was growing. People even gave up and didn’t order any drink. It was quite sad and disrespectful.
My positive opinion with the previous experience was changed by this last episode. I think it will take a bit of time before I will come back at Va Piano! :/

I generally love Vapiano. But this location is a bit of a disaster especially on the weekends. The service isn’t quite as friendly as the other locations and finding a seat can be challenging. The food deserves 4 stars but my last 3 visits to this location have been quite unpleasant specifically the service. My recent experience: the host wouldn’t let me in because the place was too packed. She then rolled her eyes on me when I told her I have a group of friends already sitting down and they’ve ordered my food. When I asked for the waiting time, she demeaningly said she doesn’t know and turned her back on me.
The service alone deserves a –5 stars. I hate giving a bad review. So hopefully this will be my bad review for a long while.
I feel the need to emphasize that this poor review isn’t about the quality of the dishes, but the whole restaurant experience all together.

I’ve been to several Vapianos around Europe, so I’m very familiar with the concept. I really like the Rotterdam location for a few reasons. First, it is always a bit less crowded than the Hague location; the queue area at the Rotterdam location was also designed much better than the Hague. Further, the Rotterdam location always seems a bit cleaner. I also love the fact that we can bring our tiny (well-​behaved) teckel puppy here without any issues.

A very good place in Rotterdam if you want to have very good Italian food along with an excellent self service experience. I Tried the Ravioli con carne: a Regal!

Nice and modern place, great to hang out if you love noisy and busy spots… Food was good, but stuff wasn’t that friendly at the bar, and coming from the States, I think customer service is very important to us. That’s only reason why I gave them Three stars; Its a big turn offff for me !!!

I don’t know why the rating is so low. Perhaps I was enamored the fact I was in Netherlands and everything was fresh and new, but honestly I like the concept of the place – get a pay card, order from the different stations where they swipe your card to log your orders, pay at the end. Simple.
Décor was nice, modern a little loungy on one side of the restaurant. Service was prompt and efficient. As for the food, I thought it was average barring that they do make their own pastas, which is a nice touch. My gazpacho was nice, but not amazing. The best little innovation I saw was the little plants of basil and rosemary at each table where you can pick off as much as you want for your dish. I personally wanted to take the whole plant. This idea would probably not happen at an American restaurant because it would be a frivolous sanitation lawsuit waiting to happen (see Liebeck v. McDonald’s Restaurants).