Italian?.... Seafood?..... Italian Seafood!
Vapiano Charlotte, an Italian restaurant, located in Charlotte, NC sells a lot of your Italian foods freshly made with their sauces prepared in-house. They are in a great area surrounded by other restaurants, stores, banks, etc. which is very convenient. The simplicity of the decor, both inside and outside, made the restaurant absolutely beautiful with such a relaxing feel.
The hostess that welcomed us in were absolutely AMAZING! They were so cheerful, explained to us everything we needed to know in regard to seating and ordering. Seating arrangements were wherever you wanted to sit, you simply just walk to the area and seat yourself. The ordering was also self-service, you scan a QR code found at the table which brings up the menu, you place your entire order through the app, and wait. I am not sure if this was a part of their COVID procedure or if this is the business on a daily, it was nice, however, I would recommend to anyone to leave a tip when you are preparing to leave, versus the tip on the app prior to eating. Our server brought our drinks to us, said hello and walked off, I am really big on customer service, so more than one word is expected, but at least she spoke. Our server later brought the food to us, and left, we did not see her the entire duration of our dinner, which I guess was to be expected considering the tip was already given. We ended up getting silverware and refills from another server we stopped, who was so sweet and absolutely amazing, she even came back to check on us, so we definitely tipped her, which caused the other server to be upset, but it's okay... We live and we learn.
FOOODDDDD..... The dish I ordered was the shrimp scampi from the "From the sea" part of the menu. Their shrimp scampi is typically served with shrimp, spring onions, cherry tomatoes covered in a fresh tomato sauce, squeezed lemon and parmesan cheese. I prefer not to have onions in my food, even though I love to cook with them, but I did not get the onions or the tomatoes. The shrimp was good, it was cooked perfectly, and the cheese was great on the shrimp. I would've preferred the noodles and sauce have a little more seasoning cooked into it. However, the sauce was definitely fresh but really light, much like water, it just kind of all went to the bottom of the dish, leaving half of the noodles with nothing. Even after mixing it multiple times, adding more cheese, salt, and pepper, it still seemed like it was missing something.
Overall, the dish wasn't the greatest dish I've tried, but it wasn't the worst either. I would still rate this experience a 5/10, especially since I would go back to this restaurant to try their ravioli con ricotta e spinaci and also one of their fresh-made pizzas. This restaurant also has vegetarian options as well, for those who are wondering. This is definitely one of those restaurants where it really depends on your taste buds and what you are interested in, so definitely try them out.
Vapiano Charlotte
201 S. Tyron St.
Charlotte, NC 28202
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