A really simple and fabulous meal in Chicago!
After work LJ and I needed some pampering, so mani for her and pedi for me. Let’s just say, I like blue, it’s not my favorite color, but apparently it was today! Fingers…aqua, ring..blue, sunglasses…aqua, sneakers…blue and now…toes, sounds good to me.
After our pampering…food! It was 8pm by now and lunch felt like yesterday! I know I’m exaggerating, just felt like it! So we headed to my hotel, dropped my bags off and went across the street to a place I’ve wanted to try, just haven’t hey, so we went, Viapano.
This was a great place! It’s nice and open, high ceilings, wooden just about everything, slightly rustic, but definitely modern, if that makes sense.
It’s a counter service, so, first, you get a card that you put on a tablet in the counter when you order, the chef puts in a code and you pay at the end from the card. There was pizza, pasta, soup, antipasto, insalata, lots of choices.
You order at the counter and wait, then you load your food on a silver tray to take it to your table. Everything was self service, like a fast food chain or actually, I felt like I was back in school!
This is definitely not fast food as everything is cooked fresh to order. One line for appetizers and salad, another line for pasta, and so on. In got a small salad and bruchetta from one line, then on to the pasta. The pasta is in individual bags behind the chefs, you select what you want and they cook it right there in front of you, it tasted like fresh made pasta, yum! They cooked mine al dente, nice.
While the pasta cooks, they have the giant wok like pans to cook whatever you ordered with the pasta and the chefs check what you want, how spicy you want it. It’s ready in about 7-8 minutes, however long it takes to cook the pasta.
I ordered spaghetti with aglio e olio, garlic and olive oil, which I love and added fresh spinach. I liked the he threw a little salt in with it, cuts the bitterness and I don’t have to add it, very rare! The garlic, oil and salt were the perfect combination.
The presentation is very appealing and the taste…molto delizioso!
Peaches Prattlings 