Wagamama

I’m never going to tire of eating at Wagamama. Lots of options, friendly staff, delicious food. And because lots of people think the same way, there’s lots of these in London you can stop at. My first time with the short rib ramen — I was wearing a suit that night and ended up wearing some of it. Not wagamama’s fault — I’m used to short rib falling off the bone more easily and after my mishap I found a way to take it off the bone much easier. The place is great for a chain concept. Consistent quality.

Fast, with healthy options lunch exactly hit the spot. We went to shop and wonder in the Covent Garden Market for a bit and as we got hungry I knew that I am craving some serious broth.
I would not call this place the best ramen, in fact it’s not. But it’s solid meal for about £13 pp.
We got the short rib ramen, seafood ramen and grilled tuna with quinoa (did not fancy that one at all, but it was healthy choice)
I will give this place 3,5 stars. It’s fast. Its friendly, and not snobby… It’s London afterall.

The juice is good but the food sucks. Lacks flavor. They should just stop selling food and become a juice bar.

I’d never heard of Wagamama before, but the building seemed chic and I’m a lover of a Japanese food, so I figured– «why not?»
Total mistake. This is basically awful «asian» fast food. I assumed the restaurant might be doing a Japanese — inspired sort of thing, so it blew my mind that there was absolutely no sushi or sashimi offered. But, okay, whatever. I have no problem with chain restaurants. Many can be amazing, affordable and delicious, but sadly, Wagamama was not one of them.
For a starter I chose the chili squid, which was fine, but it’s hard to mess up fried squid with some salt and a dipping sauce.
Rolling with the punches, I was delighted to order one of my favorite dishes — chicken Katsu curry.
Awful. The curry was a lukewarm, strangely bland and gummy concoction that barely covered the mountain of rice they serve with it. The chicken cutlet was nothing special, and the whole dish flavorless overall. Even the fukujinzuke, which is my usually my favorite part of Katsu curry, was strange, and didn’t have that yummy, crisp, sweet and salty balance.
I see many people saying Wagamama is Asian «fusion», but I can’t for the life of me see where or what the fusion element is supposed to be. Is it the random juice blends? The menus is largely Japanese dishes (with maybe one or two thai) just done poorly.
As for ambiance, this isn’t a place I’d go for a romantic night out or even to wind down with a friend. It’s incredibly loud, and the odd, cafeteria-​style table layout means there’s not much privacy you’ll be sitting elbow to elbow with strangers.
Wagamama may draw in people looking for a quick meal but it’s not nearly cheap or tasty enough for me to want to waste my time or money here ever again.

In the very crowded Covent Garden stands a very, very crowded Wagamama with the long time and waitresses running around with orders. The food was good, service was alright, but it is just another typical tourist destination and gets its business only from tourists. The price was quite reasonable for being in the center of London and seating was quite quick. Overall, this would be the place I would go to if you’re cruising around Covent Garden because other places are just gonna be crowded, but possibly longer waits.

Definitely DO NOT EAT HERE! We came here at the recommendation of another tourist friend, and she mentioned that this shop is supposedly good in US and is a famous chain. Well, expect very plain tasting soup and odd noodle (not traditional ramen noodle) if you come here. The service is also absolutely horrible. We waited for a long time before we could order, and obviously the price is not cheap enough to warrant all this.

I ordered a Wagamama ramen. It’s nothing to write home about. They starred it on the menu so I thought it must be good. The broth was sort of tasty and the accompaniments OK. 3 shrimp, 3 pork belly, a bunch of mussels and some fish cakes. People choose ramen because of the noodles. The noodles was why I gave it two stars. It was tasteless (or very wheaty tasting), and its texture was soppy soft almost as if it was either cooked for too long and about to disintegrate, or it was just not great quality ramen. I was very disappointed.
The fruit juices was great however.
And if you order a side of kimchee for GBP1, it comes in a tiny soy sauce dish. Not worth one quid.
Service was excellent. Good flowering jasmine tea — they drop a dried jasmine flower in the pot and I enjoyed that the most.

I had a ramen and it was not only delicious but stuffed me with energy for the whole day. Also had a reasonable price

We deliberately chose to visit this Wagamama, which is close to our heart as it was the first Wagamama we ever visited after discovering it at the back of Covent many years back.
I’m sure many people have passed this Wagamama by without realising it was here and I suppose that is part of it’s appeal, for those who know about it.
On our visit, my first impression was the broken tiles on the steps down, which made me a bit apprehensive, wondering if it had gone downhill.
On turning the corner I saw the welcoming sight of the wooden tables and benches, settling into the familiar (yet somehow unique) décor of the Wagamama.
We ordered our drinks (green tee is a must), but I noticed my glass had a few dirty marks. Our server resolved the issue immediately and not too long after our Goma Wakame Salad appeared followed by my wife’s Chicken Katsu Curry.
Unfortunately it was sometime later, by which time my wife had almost finished her meal and the salad was over half way finished, before my Yasai Pad-​Thai appeared.
Luckily it was so tasty and fresh, and after spending most of the afternoon walking around London from Kings cross, Waterloo before heading up to Covent garden. I was desperately in needing a good vegi meal, I have to say my wife didn’t have long to wait.
We finalised our meal with some tasty and fresh juices as the deserts would have been too much for us.
Overall the experience was good, We understand that food appears once it’s ready, but for some reason it appears that the vegetarian meals take longer? (this is not the only Wagamama this has happened to us and we are starting to expect it)

We couldn’t locate this on our first try and dined elsewhere, only to spot it on our way back to the tube. We ate there the next evening.
Our party of three split our decision about the food. My Pad Thai was okay. My wife’s dish (I don’t recall what) was below her expectations. My daughter’s ramen was okay with her. I don’t think I’d seek one of this chain’s locations out if I were back in London, but I’d consider it for a quick meal if it was handy.
Service was fairly quick. Prices weren’t bad.

Don’t!!!
With Ramen places shooting up like mushrooms here in Covent Garden Soho area, there’s no need to get below-​average food at Wagamama. In fact, I’d never been before until a friend of mine wanted to meet me for lunch here. Being adventurous as I am, I agreed to this chain-​food experience, but as I’d expected it was a let-​down: the ramen (Wagamama Special) was bland, flavourless, the meat/​seafood too chewy and overall just not an appetising bit of food.)
Having said that, please do me a favour, skip Wagamama and go to the other ramen places, such as Bone Daddies, Ittenbari, Shoryo or Koya.

Been there done that — check…
Had heard the buzz about Wagamama, and was excited to stumble upon this location while perusing Covant Garden on a trip to London — June 2008
Perhaps we ordered the wrong thing, I couldn’t tell you what we ate –bowls of Noodles w/​veg and shrimp, it was nothing memorable — relatively tasteless and too expensive for what it was… what a let down —
Not sure what the fuss is all about…

Man does not live by sushi alone…
there’s also Ramen.
This is basically a chain of slightly hip cafeteria style mix of a Japanese fast-​food places with London tastes.
The Wagamama ramen has chicken stock (instead of dashi/​fish) so is fairly bland, but it’s hard to complain.
Many of the Wagamamas are located in large cafateria style windowless basements, but there is a bit of a nice vibe. Lots of locals.
Not terrific Japanese, but beats the usual London fast food alternatives IMHO. Worth a try.

Wagamama est une chaine de restau dont le concept est un bar à nouille.
Vous trouvez des nouilles de tout les genres (sauces/​viandes) ou des soupes chinoises Niveau goût c’est très bon, et le top c’est que ce n’est pas cher du tout!
En revanche le restau est disposé comme une cantine, ce né sont pas des chaises, mais des bancs, et vous êtes assis à cotés d’inconnus, donc soit vous avez de bons voisins et cela permet des échanges de conversations, ou soit pas de chance Et du coup c’est très bruyant!

Gyoza? CHECK. Fried squid? CHECK. Awesome selection of friends plates to eat off of? DOUBLE CHECK!
I have to say, the waiter we had was TOP 5 in all of LONDON. Great friendly banter, extremely helpful with helping select food choices, great with speed of bill/​items, and his colourful descriptions of the different options really helped in discovering the ideal choice.
Plus, he joked that my friend does not need diet coke or else she will whittle away to nothing, always good to hear someone call you skinny in a restaurant. I think that might be why we ordered so much and should have been rolled down the street back to the office.

Wagamama is perfect for quick and tasty Japanese food at a reasonable price. I’m partial to their duck gyoza and ebi katsu starters as well as the yaki soba main — a little boring, I know, but so tasty with some soy sauce and I love the pickled ginger on top.
Brightly lit with long tables spanning the restaurant, you’re always sitting amongst strangers so it’s probably not the best place to come for a date — but if you’re with a friend and fancy a quick and easy Japanese lunch or dinner, Wagamama is your place.

Good, healthy food at decent prices.
When I lived in London i ate here rather often. The ramen bowls are very flavorful, healthy, and reasonably priced.
The service however was consistently average. Waitresses would often screw up the bill, forget what drinks we ordered, etc.
The restaurant is located underground so there is no natural light. Also, you eat at long exaggerated picnic tables that are somewhat reminiscent of school cafeterias.

Ok on a visit to London I was very eager to check Wagamama out as my friends kept raving about it. honestly it was big a let down. It looks like a utilitarian basement canteen, I really don’t care about décor if the food is good.
We started off with the gyozas, they come with different dipping sauces. They were mediocre at best, probably because I am from Chicago and have had freshly made gyozas, we have a plethora of Asian restaurants/​shops that make/​sell made-​to-​order gyozas. These gyozas tasted like the frozen ones from Sam’s club. Pass…thank you very much!
For an entrée I got the laksa-​like kare noodle soup, which was not bad, a little better than mediocre. My husband got some kind of a Ramen noodle soup in a broth. The broth tasted very watery (as in broth diluted), the watercress was fresh and tasty, none of the other ingredients deserve a mention. My friends got various noodle, yaki soba I remember was pretty good.
Service was not bad, our waitress was very nice, she looked very flustered and confused at times. Lots of yelling back and forth (come here/​do this/​go there… kind of yelling) between her and the person manning the payment till. Considering how much people rave about this restaurant, I have come to the conculsion that I must have caught this restaurant on a off day. I might give it another chance, but as of now I am not a fan– just yet.

Wagamama looks like a big cafeteria with long tables and benches for group dining and it gets pretty noisy in there. Given that, the wait service was pretty attentive. My friend and I were seated right away and our food came fairly quickly.
I had the Wagamama Ramen. And even though I wasn’t really looking forward to the dish (I’m not crazy about ramen), it was pretty good. Noodles, seaweed, watercress, shrimp, fish, tofu and one or two other things I can’t remember, in a weak broth.
It made me laugh when my server automatically brought me a fork with my chop sticks because of my American accent. My British friend did not get a fork.

Vivement que cette chaine arrive en France.

It’s true… I’ve officially graduated from a Wagamama skeptic to a full fledged Wagamama fan. Before you know it, I will be a Wagamama profit, spreading the good noodle across the land.
My religious awakening was secured by today’s traditional visit with the London team when I had tender piece of grilled Sea Bass that made me a believer. Not even did I take the opportunity to slurp the goodness of my other dining mates, nor chop stick a cheeky bite of spicy rice as it may have inhibited my taste buds mid-​conversion.
The blood of tomato, cucumber, carrot, orange and apple shed light into a dark (and hungry) stomach to seal the deal.
Wag-​amen.

I don’t know why I’m even a fan of Wagamama; I don’t usually go for Asian fusion food. But British Asian fusion tastes better to me than American Asian fusion and Wagamama does a good job.
The gyoza is delicious, especially with the garlic chili sesame soy dipping sauce. I like the kare lo mein soups, similar to a Southeast Asian, rich coconut-​based broth with lemongrass and ginger.
My one gripe is that they add too many non-​Asian veggies, like courgettes and portabello mushrooms, which throws me off.
It’s fun to come here with a group of friends after shopping and plop down at one of the communal tables and make a lot of noise. Plus, that way you get to try more things.