wagamama Reviews 

Wagamama has the dodgy practice of not including VAT on menu "prices" where it quotes figures without a "£". This means 20% is added onto the bill and service is also not included. The Yaki Udon I had was tasty but expensive for what it was. Service was absent despite the Ealing restaurant being at most 1/4 full. The waiters appeared more interested in chatting amoung themselves near the kitchen than working.

As a fathers day treat I was taken to Wagamama's southend on- sea, by my wife and two children.
I was looking forward to it having been a fan of Alan Yau's WC1 branch in the 1990's.
For starters we ordered Beef fillet crispy otsumami, duck gyoza and the Tama squid.
The beef fillet otsumami was a very sad offering. Tiny amounts of fillet beef so thinly sliced they were almost transparent on top of un seasoned pea puree placed on a rectangle of 1.5cm x 2.5 cm crispy fried rice. Pea puree is quite bland but it was the predominant flavour. Mean and tasteless.
The duck gyoza had little filling, little taste and could have come from a frozen food supermarket.
The Tama squid contained miniscule quantities of squid tasted of the oil they were cooked in.
It gets worse... my wife ordered a beef brisket ramen, again dreadfully mean quantities of beef in what can only be described as a packet stock.
My daughter odered the Pad Thai with chicken and prawn. Yes, you guessed it very stingy amounts of the key ingredients.
What made it worse was the over enthusiastic use of the wrong herbs predominantly mint. This made it almost inedible. It resembled a wet sloppy mess you would expect to see in the plongeurs bucket.
My son a fussy eater had the kids meal. A dried piece of crumbed chicken, white rice shredded carrot and some sweetcorn. Katsu curry sauce on the side, pitiful.
I opted for the duck donburi. It arrived garnished with burnt onions and a burnt fried egg, both cardinal sins. The mean theme continued with so little duck it was indistinguishable from the other 'stuff'. It might of been duck but on the other hand it could have been the sweepings off of the cooker hob. My wife and I washed this down with small cups of green tea.
My children had the 'refreshing fruit juice' which was tropical juice from a carton mixed with sparkling water.
For desert they ordered banana katsu, yes you guessed it, an oily mean portion, and a slice of smoked caramel cake, obviously made on an industrial estate somewhere. My 10yr old son still enjoyed it.
As a south east asian retired head chef I am not quick to criticise. I know how hard it is to please all of the people all of the time. But this was truly abysmal.
You can almost excuse small portions if the quality is high. The cooking was incompetent.
It had obviously come from head office to treat all key ingredients like they were white truffle from Alba.
Wagamama bears no resemblance to the days of Alan Yau.
As for Kaizen the Japanese philosophy.
Having worked with some of the worlds largest Japanese corporations,
I see no evidence that they understand the concept or apply it to their business model.
Kaizen in the real world translates as continuous
improvement.
Not just a trendy 'buzz' word.
It is typical of investment houses managing businesses they know nothing about but applying a formula to maximise a short term return regardless of the consequences.
True contempt for the customer.
It won't be long before the brand is sold again.
We left £104.00 lighter never to return.

Worse company ever!! No customer service, plastic found in my rice bowl the first time, complained and heard nothing back, even sent pictures because it obviously came from the packaging, gave them a second chance and same thing happened but with hair!! Complained again and heard nothing! I would never go again and advise anyone to do the same… customer service is key in any business and I’m afraid this business has none!!

Love the food from these guys. Just yummy

I went to the glasgow branch last night and the service was very good.

Ordered a 2x childrens meal shocking potions not enough for a toddler never mind a 7 year old samual was very helpful tried to do his best as the manager left him to deal with it deliveroo gave ne 1.50 credit poor all round from all of them so I wont be using either service again .

Food was okay. Most of the staff very uninterested, do not serve unless called for and people are left waiting and being served after others have come in. Seems like they do not want to be there and just chat amongst their selves with no consideration of the customers.

Visited Wagamama Dorchester to try their new breakfast menu. Greeted by a friendly face, which made us feel welcome straight away. We were surprised at the vast range of menu choices, there is something for everyone, even for fussy eaters, vegans etc. Prices were very reasonable.
Food was extremely nice, fresh and well presented. Staff were very on the ball and polite. We will be visiting again. Well done Wagamama!

My friends and I ordered 4 dishes. The food was very cold by the time it arrived. There were two prawns and two very small pieces of chicken in my Yaki udon, the dish was very bland and didn’t have as many ingredients as usual. I have had dozens of Yaki udons over the years, and this was the worst. I shall not be ordering or going into Wagamama anytime soon.

I wanted to cook a meal at home, for me and some friends. I chose Wagamama Teriyaki stir-fry sauce and wish I hadn't. It tasted really really strongly of salt, to the extent that one of my guests nearly threw up, after just a small taste. My evening was ruined and I was embarrassed. I can't believe that someone is being paid good money, to give the ok to products which aren't just bad, but actually impossible to consume.

Cannock Outlet. I get this ‘ food comes as soon as cooked ‘ so there can be a delay but surely when ordering 2 meals not 15 mins between each dish ? We also didn’t check the bill thoroughly and got charged £7:50 for a desert we didn’t order.
Indifferent Staff. All seemed to wish they were somewhere else. Other food outlets here. Wouldn’t bother again.

Ordered through Deliveroo from Finchley Lido branch and called them to just ask for the Katsu sauce to be put separately and not on the dish and they refused. After asking for the manager and then asking her about it, she would not do it and then put the phone down. Every time I have been to the lido Finchley there has been bad service, do not go to them. Brent Cross the manager was really lovely and helpful so will be going there in future.

Expensive, rubbery calamari, sloppy overly soft noodles in the ramen. Not impressed.

Had beef brisket + kimchee gyoza followed by tantanmen beef brisket ramen: absolutely fantastic. I was served sake in a Shizuru sake set which pleased me greatly. The service was no less exemplary: Zoe was friendly, cheerful and obliging.

Just amazing Ruben was such a kind waiter always checking in on us and being very attentive. The food was delicious and came quickly I was very impressed with the service highly recommend.

I went to bently bridge and had the prawns as a starter i had about 3 prawns for like 8 pounds ....the prawns were definetly off but for 8 pounds i defo had to get my moneys worth ...the noodle bowl was so bad and drinks are super expensive and small...they dont put the cost on the menu as it add to the disappointmemt at the end of your bad experience that you have to pay for it...

Last few times I have been (all different wagamama locations) the food was bland, lacked flavour completely and not worth the cost. Drinks are okay. More expensive food for smaller portions. Haven’t been impressed at all.

The service at Bentley Bridge Wolverhampton is good but the food is TERRIBLE. The most BLAND food I’ve ever eaten in my entire life and I’m in mid 30s and well travelled. My 8 year old nephew even said the food was inedible. Would never eat at Wagamama’s again.

This is currently my favourite chain restaurant. I'm not overly keen on chains because of their tendency to sell mediocre food in small portions at high prices, to cover the astronomical cost of overheads and renting prime city centre "units".

(This is why the "chain" business model is often doomed to fail: many chain eateries go bust before yet ANOTHER faceless "investment firm" picks them up to try again – or ditches them completely to launch something totally different.)

However, I like "Wagabubs" (I use their Cardiff City Centre branch) because of their consistency, good quality (for a chain), great tastes, unique dishes and proper, professional packaging by way of their tightly-sealed, recyclable, signature bowls.

Because I am mostly house/bedbound due to a neurological illness, I usually order via Deliveroo (although their prices on the app need to be reduced by 15/20%) but on occasion I enjoy the full, buzzing Waga-restaurant experience-Mama.

My favourite dishes are the raisukaree curries and the salmon koyo - mmm! Also Wagamama is one of the few places that I can order brown rice: an underrated delicious side that is also great for gut health!

As regards the restaurant, the only concern I have is that the toilets are weirdly mixed (they lose a star on this). This means that women and girls have to share the facilities with men and boys and do not have a safe space to comfortably attend to themselves, change their clothes etc, or just simply feel secure in a place that should really be a sanctuary for them - especially unaccompanied young girls - as toilet facilities have been for thousands of years (would you believe).

(FOOTNOTE: One major venue in Cardiff was recently investigated by the police because it was reported that men dressed as women may be infiltrating the ladies' toilets for nefarious purposes. The law is now changing, in England, to force (new-build) restaurants to offer SEPARATE toilet facilities to both male and female customers - Wales should put the safety of women and girls FIRST and follow suit. It is now time stop this absurd toilet fad that essentially allows a sleazy bloke - even a sex offender - to pop on a dress, slap on on a bit of makeup and skulk into women's/girls' toilets unchallenged. Permitted madness.)

UPDATE: I notice that Wagamama has not replied to the above review. If no courteous response is forthcoming I will assume that the chain agrees with the serious points I have raised above.

The BEST ramen I've had in years. Only downside, there was way too much soup and it took me forever to eat. Absolutely lovely food, plenty of choice and tasty as I don't know what. All I can say is mmmmmm. Two seater tables are incredibly cramped because you're almost caged in with the screens and nowwhere to rest handbags or coats but otherwise, fantastic. Just be aware that there are roadworks on the bottom middlebrook venu, right underneath the restaurant so a bit confusing when parking up.