Italy calling.

It started out as an innocent trip to the mall to make a small purchase. It turned out to be a marathon session of more than four hours of intense shopping. By the end of it both I and my wife were tired, hungry and exhausted. We needed a feel good meal where we could sit and relax our tired muscles. We were at the Mall of Arabia on Medina road, which was not so full owing to the weekday evening. There were advertising all around the mall showcasing  two new places to eat. One was Al Balad which was the Lebanese place and the other was Vapiano’s, an Italian joint. A quick check on the tab revealed that Vapiano is a German chain offering Italian cuisine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vapiano). Interesting enough for us to try this place out.

We reached the place located in a quiet corner next to the Lamborghini café and is hard to miss. We were well past the prayer time and could hear some loud music blaring out of the restaurant. On entering, we saw separate counters displaying Salads, Pasta and Pizza. A corner section was dedicated to drinks and deserts. Upon enquiring we were told that we need to order at whatever counter we decided to eat and food would be served at the table. We were given a Card (which looked like a credit card) and instructed that we needed to order and swipe the card at the counter. At the end of the meal, we just had to present the card and we would be presented with our bill. Cool, a first in Jeddah for us. The seating area was outside in the open partially enclosed with wooden fencing. The seating area looked chic, with wooden chairs and table that looked comfortable and the table itself had a nice spatter of some decoration on it. The quintessential balsamic vinegar and olive oil made an appearance here. We seated ourselves and after about 15 minutes went ahead to the counter to place our orders.

The menu looked how any Italian menu should look like. Bruschetta, garlic bread, fries etc dominated the starters or antipasti in Italian. Lots of salad that sounded promising.  The main course had your usual kinds of pasta and pizzas along with the risottos. The desert menu had its share of Italian sounding delights. What struck us is the number of vegetarian options that was available on order. This was a pleasant change for us.

I decided to order the rocca and cheese pizza while wife decided on the fusilli arrabiata. The pasta was to be accompanied by some fresh ciabatta bread. It was a delight to watch the guy at the pizza counter toss the dough up in the air and catch the same with the other hand. I did try to capture it on camera but the result was not so good. Once we were done ordering and swiping the card at the counter, we were back in our table waiting for our food. The pasta arrived first. It looked good. It smelt good. The parmesan shavings on top added beautifully against the bright red color of the arrabiata sauce. One bite and wife was smiling gleefully. It told me everything I needed to know. It is not very easy to please her with Italian food. If she approved it, I was sure it tasted great. One bite and I realized she was right. The sauce was perfect, not overtly tangy as most of the tomato sauce pretending to be arrabiata sauce taste like.  The pasta was different and nice. On enquiring we found out why. Nestled in one corner of the restaurant was a small room with see through glass where lay an assortment of equipments. Turns out Vapianao makes their own pastas with the help of these machines. How cool is that! The waiter forgot to get the bread with the pasta but it took only a gentle reminder for him to rectify that.

The Magical corner where the pasta is freshly prepared.

The pizza arrived. It looked nothing like the pizzas from pizza hut which I am not a big fan of. Thin base of bread, a nice layer of pizza sauce, some grilled veggies, lots of rocca leaves and lots of flaky cheese. It tasted even better than how it looked. In fact it was so good that wife forgot about the pasta and concentrated all her efforts into the pizza. All in all the food was gratifying.

We did make 1 mistake though. The desert. The name was tempting, Death by chocolate. But when it arrived we could make out we had floundered. We should have opted for the tiramusu that looked so promising at the counter. So did the mango soufflé, but we ordered this getting carried away by the name and did not finish it. That apart it was a good meal which cost us SAR 140/ USD 38 ( The service charge was only 6%, which is the lowest I have encountered in Jeddah so far). Would I go there again? Yes, but not in a hurry.