Vapiano is a chain of Italian restaurants, with restaurants in over 30 countries. I visited this…read moreparticular location back in 2022, after having a good experience at a now-closed Vapiano location elsewhere in the city.
This particular location is located near the Royal Palace of Amsterdam on Amstelstraat.
You go into the store, to a small counter area, where they seat you down, before going down the stairs or elevator to the main restaurant area.
Gone are the days of ordering your food with the chef, and letting them cook the food in front of you, and this system has been replaced by a QR code mobile ordering system, even as a tech-savvy person, I found the online system very difficult to use and get right, and in the end, it never generated me a confirmation or receipt, I had to ask a passing staff member whether they had or had not received my order, it turns out they had... but the QR code system never asked or confirmed my table number, so I felt concerned I would not get food at all.
Service was very slow, however, I did visit on a busy evening, I did however have to chase up my drinks, as they had not arrived for some good time, even after my food had arrived, considering they were pre-bottled and in the fridges, I found this to be unacceptable, they later told me they had "cleared" the order so had no record of it, after checking they ended up bringing my drinks anyway, but at a substantial delay and with no apology.
I ordered a gluten-free tonno pizza, which came with tuna and red onions, as this was my favourite order during my 2018 trip to The Netherlands, while I liked how the pizza was brought in a silver tray, presumably to limit cross-contamination due to it being a gluten allergy, there was nothing else positive to say about the pizza, it was really dry, and the flour from the base was coming apart at the bottom, making it really messy. It wasn't enjoyable at all.
Upon leaving the store, while I was waiting for the very slow elevator, a man pushed in front of me and became verbally aggressive and threatening, who was shouting across the entire restaurant, he later told me that he was the manager and was very nasty heckling me with threats and abuse, after reporting this to head office, they told me they would deal with the incident and offered me vouchers for my next visit and a refund, however despite chasing them up on multiple occasions, this was not actioned as promised.
Even if the food would have been outstanding, due to abusive and threatening staff from a manager who has let his power go to his head, I couldn't justify anything other than a one-star rating, but the food wasn't good either, and I had to fight to get the drinks that I ordered and paid for, as they appeared to lose the order. Amsterdam has some of the best restaurants in Europe, so I don't know how this place can remain open. 1*