Perhaps I'm not as with it as I used to be,* but I've never heard of Vapiano. Apparently it's an…read moreinternational chain. I only knew it served pasta, and I was ravenous and walking by.
Upon entering, some guy just handed me a card of some kind and jabbered at me in German. Not wanting to seem like more of a moron than I am, I just nodded and walked past. Apparently the cards are like those punchcards you get at Katz's: the staff records what you ordered and you check out at the end. (Don't lose the thing, or you're going to owe them $50.)
In any case, you get in line, grab a tray and then order from one of the a la minute cooks. There's pizza and pasta, but I usually avoid pizza outside of NYC because I eat entirely too much pizza in NYC. You can choose from a host of different types of pasta, and then you choose your sauce combination from four different price tiers. The cook then makes it all happen in a [traditional Italian] wok. You then go grab a seat wherever you can find one, and stuff your face.
Strange ordering system aside, I see this chain taking America by storm because it's a fat man's DREAM. I know this, because I was even satisfied by the enormous portions, although the drastically overdressed salad turned me off a bit. However, the bread was excellent, the fresh pasta of surprisingly high quality, and the sauces we chose were not half bad. It is a cafeteria atmosphere, but the prices are correspondingly cheap, and I do like the touch of having fresh basil and rosemary on the tables for your use.
I'm generally not a fan of chains of any kind, but I've had much worse meals for much more money, and I'd do it again.
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*I used to be with it, but then they changed what "it" was. Now what I'm with isn't it, and what's it seems weird and scary to me.