Vapiano Dulles Town Center
21100 Dulles Town Circle
Dulles,VA 20166
703-574-4740

Web Site: vapianointernational.com

Location: In Dulles Town Center Mall, to the left of the main entrance.

My husband and I were at the mall the other night. A new restaurant has opened up there, Vapiano, so we decided to try it. Think of the worst Italian restaurant that you have ever been to and combine that with your typical school cafeteria and local cheesy night club.

Vapiano’s atmosphere is “modern” which means there is nothing comfy about the place. The high bench that I was sitting on had no padding. The stools (which I did not sit on but my husband did) had no backs.

As you walk into Vapiano, you are handed a credit card. You then go station to station and get pasta, salad or pizza. At the stations, the people that cook your food swipe your card. Stations require that you wait at the stations until the order(s) are finished and presented to you. After eating your meal at a cold uncomfortable table, you leave. But first you stop by the front desk and give them your card and are charged with what is on the card.

One of the most troubling things is that written on each card is a note about how if you loose your card, the value of the cards are $100 each and you will be charge the FULL value. We noticed this as we were waiting to get our food. With meals that are in the $10 range, this seems a bit extreme to me.

We walked up to the pasta station because it was the first most apparent one. I got Caprese, I think, tomato sauce, mozzarella, tomatoes and basil over pasta. My husband got the Bolognese sauce on his pasta. The guy that cooked our meals wasn’t too chatty and didn’t ask us if we wanted drinks or dessert. He handed us our bowls and some bread and swiped out card. We brought our charged card and food to the table a bit confused. What do we do now?!

I should also note that the guy who cooked our food broke one of my main rules. I asked him what his favorite thing on the menu was and he told me the MOST expensive thing they had. Some type of lobster pasta. I don’t like that.

After we put our food down, I went back up to the stations and ask for a drink. As it was the closest and I had no idea where the drinks were, I went to the pizza one. The woman at the station didn’t understand English, so we couldn’t understand each other. It was horribly frustrating. Eventually my husband had water and I had soda. I believe I was charged the outrageous price of $2.25 for the Coke!

The music at Vapiano sounded like a loud beat over and over again and nothing else. Like we were at a dance club. Upon closer inspection, it appeared that they were playing a good variety of music just at the wrong levels. Rihanna. Peter Gabriel. Etc.

The food was mediocre at best. Cheap quality ingredients. The pasta was underdone. The sauces were bland. And after watching “our chef” make our meals in front of us, it made me realize just how quickly we could have made the same stuff at home – but instead meals that actually tasted good.

Had their been a wait staff or a manager came over to say hello, I may have rated this a bit better – because then at least they would have been trying. But even though there were lots of important people milling about in black, no one stopped by.

Had their food been better, I would have rated it higher too. Because the price wasn’t bad. But bleh, it just wasn’t worth what we paid. Cheap ingredients doesn’t usely make a good product.

The whole experience was cold and weird. I hope to never return there again. For Italian, we would have been much better off going to Bertucci’s, Olive Garden, Macaroni Grill, eating at home, Sal’s, Ashburn Cafe, anything.