Wagamama

02/18/09

bland food and spotty service

by elizabear16

We love Asian food, so we wanted to give this place a try. People have mentioned the decor - a great touch was a shelf under the table where you can put your bags or purses and have them safe as well as out of the way. There's an open kitchen along one wall, and each station has a big monitor where they receive the orders from the wireless handhelds used by the wait staff. As we were seated, we were warned that all of the food was made fresh to order, so things would not all arrive at the same time or in a specific order. It was pretty clear that what this meant was each station was working independently, so if you ordered something everyone else wanted too, you were going to wait longer than you would if "your" cook wasn't busy. The menu clearly labels all of the ingredients, including shrimp paste, which is useful for people with allergies or kosher issues.

In looking at the menu before choosing the place, we thought "plain chicken and noodles or rice, apple juice - that will be an easy sell to the kids". It wasn't quite: the mini chicken katsu (grilled chicken with a sauce on the side) was dry without the sauce, the corn on the side was unexpectly chilled, and the noodles were gummy. The kids hated the apple juice, which seemed to be foamed from some sort of base.

Gyoza - the veggie ones were bland, and the chicken ones tasteless. Even the dipping sauce didn't help.

I started with the ginger chicken udon - fine, not fabulous. I was already nearly half done by the time my husband's chicken chili men arrived, so we swapped and he started on the udon. He found a flavor in it that he really didn't like, so we swapped back. The chicken chili men came across as spicy chicken cacciatore.

Dinner took over an hour, mostly due to time spent waiting for the check and then waiting for someone to take payment. The food is not worth returning for, and the service was erratic - bad when you're there with three kids 6 and under. Look elsewhere for umami.

• Pros: funky room design, shelf under table for bags and purses
• Cons: bland food, spotty service, distant bathrooms

01/26/09

I heart Wagamama!

by HTC

I first got hooked on this place in London. This fun and upbeat restaurant uses handheld devices to shoot your orders directly to the kitchen as soon as you make them and ensures the freshest of food. The Japanese style noodles are delicious and guilt-free as all food is non-gmo. The group-dining is great. Two thumbs for Wagamama!

• Pros: all non-gmo, made and served fresh
• Cons: can never decide what i want

11/18/08

NEVER WILL GO AGAIN

by foodlover007007

Well-it's definitely a "no thrills" experience.Yes I suppose it's different than other places in the respect that your food comes out hot as soon as it's ready.I however don't look at that as a plus.Other restaurants still manage to get your food out to you hot and all at the same time so that you can enjoy dinner with your guests which is usually whats intended when you go out to dinner with friends right?Anyways on some other notes:

a.The servers are running around all over the place and don't "care" for you like other servers at other restaurants do.You just feel like another number(I would compare the customer service to that of Burger King)

b.They restrict you to alter ANY dishes(oh wait - unless you want to remove items from a specific dish, yeah the server told me they have time to do that but no time to add anything - well jeeze I didn't realize I was wasting your time)the food that you pay money for can only be altered in ways that are convenient and cost effective for them

c.They claim to be a healthy place to eat with no msg however after informing my server that I have an allergy to msg they found it a little difficult to give me what I wanted and had a list of few specific dishes to choose from?

d. Food is not authentic - funny enough they rave about how affordable they are but really....have they ever been to an authentic japenese noodle house?The food is tasty, they don't lie to you about their ingredients (what you see is what you get) and dishes are 1/2 the price of Wagamama.

e.They do not take reservations and although I didn't have to wait long in line, when we were seated we were seated at a big cafeteria table with hard wooden seats that are extremely uncomfortable with no backs and we sat with about 15 other strangers

f.No music, no tv's - just the sound of a room full of people in an empty cafeteria-like atmosphere. reminded me of high school which for most is not something we care to re-live

Long story short: NEVER would go again!

• Pros: Place to go if you want to re-live your high school cafeteria scene
• Cons: Service,Atmosphere,Food