Sunday, 25 March 2007

Wagamama






Restaurant Name: Wagamama

Type of Food: Japanese
Average price per person: £8- £20

Website: http://www.wagamama.com/

Branch Visited:
26 high st, kensington, london, W8 4PF
180 - 182 earls court road, london, SW5 9QG
50-54 high street, putney, london, SW15 1SQ
Brent Cross shopping centre, london, NW4 3FP


Review:
One of the reasons japanese food has gone main stream is due to the sucess of Wagamama. Problem is that it isn't really japanese food... its kinda like japanese inspired food.

Anyway the place is shared seating and no background music... I find the atmosphere is very good for lunch and even dinner with your friends... I still find that even though you are sharing seats with other people you tend to forget about them very quickly because of the face to face seating.

Service is good but i have had some bad expirences with some of the branches where service is really bad due to the fact that it's busy (surprisingly it's at the smaller branches).

Foodwise due to Wagamama being a chain they should be following the same instructions on preparing a dish... but this is not true here... I've tasted a Yaki udon in one place which was really good but was very disappointed in another branch... Same with other dishes.

On the whole i do find Wagamama really good when they do make good food and even though i find some of the branches poor with the food.


Rating (Out of 10)

Atmosphere: 7/10
As with the trend these days... its the canteen style shared seating with no music atmosphere which really works here. Seeing the chefs cook your food adds to the expirence. Lighting is really bright and doesn't set a nice mood...

Service: 8/10
Fast.... They use electronic pda to take your order so it's faster to get to the kitchen.

Food: 7/10
Food is normally nice but can be inconsistent at times.

Quality to Price: 7/10
Price you pay for the food i think its fair but i wouldn't say it's cheap

Final Rating: 7/10

Wagamama was voted Zagat's most popular london restaurant 2006 above
Nobu and Hakakasan, i don't know how... I guess it's one of the those place where it is main stream and everyone thinks it's cool to go to.

If you live in london i'm sure you can name so many other japanese style places to go to which would do way better food.

Saying that it is a good place to go to... i just think it's a little bit overated.

3 comments:

Thach said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Thach said...

I agree, the standard of food can vary quite a lot of from a branch to another. Somehow, I never really rated Wagamama. I think the dishes are too 'Westernised" and I'd rather go to a proper Japanese or Oriental place, especially when the price is roughly about the same. I much prefer Taro for instance. Having said that, when their Buy One Get One Free offer is on, it's definitely worth it!

Mon said...

The only time I come here is when there is 2 for 1 for 50% off deal, a little westernised for my liking though the Chicken Tama Rice is good.

Avoid the Canary Wharf branch at all costs. The service was so diabolical there once that I decided not to leave any tip. The waitress had the audacity to questions this!