Spaghetteria Pastapas: unlimited pasta hype hits Rotterdam
For €75 every four weeks you can eat a plate of fresh pasta at Spaghetteria every day. The pass is all over TikTok, Rotterdam tables are full and November's passes are gone.
The Spaghetteria Pastapas has gone viral: for €75 every four weeks you can eat a plate of fresh pasta at the chain every day, and according to the AD the TikTok hype is causing a rush in Rotterdam today. Spaghetteria has two branches there, on the Nieuwe Binnenweg and in the Pannekoekstraat.
Spaghetteria is fifteen years old and launched the pass in early October as an anniversary offer. Regular guests could buy first. According to Horecatrends, the passes were gone two days after the press release. The November round has also sold out, the chain says on its own website; the next round will be announced on 1 December. Spaghetteria does not say how many passes it sells per round.
How the Spaghetteria Pastapas works
No restaurant survives at that price if every pass holder uses it to the full.
The pass gets you one pasta a day from the menu, at lunch or dinner, as a half or a full portion. It is valid at all twelve branches in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Leiden and Hilversum. It sits in your phone's wallet under your name, and staff check your ID. Drinks, starters and side dishes are paid separately, and takeaway or delivery through Thuisbezorgd or Uber Eats is excluded.
The Spaghetteria Pastapas renews automatically every four weeks and stops after a maximum of six periods, so after €450 at most. You can cancel before a new period starts, and you get a fourteen-day cooling-off period after purchase. With the pass, owner Bert Jimmink told Foodies, you no longer need a special reason to go out for dinner.
Can an unlimited pasta subscription work for a restaurant?
According to the chain, the pass pays for itself after five pastas in four weeks. Someone who really comes every day pays the equivalent of €2.68 per plate. No restaurant survives at that price if every pass holder uses it to the full.
So the model relies on something else. The number of passes is limited, and so is the risk. People who sit down often order a drink or a starter at the normal price. And not every pass holder turns up daily: as with a gym membership, the business earns on members who come less often than they planned. The flip side is that on busy evenings pass holders occupy tables that would otherwise go to full-paying guests. It is no accident that the chain advises booking ahead.
If you would rather find a table in Rotterdam without the queue, our guide to what to eat in Rotterdam has plenty of alternatives.
The real test for the Spaghetteria Pastapas comes after the hype: on 1 December we will see whether there is a new round, and how big the chain dares to make it.
