Wagamama

I have been to Wagamama on and off since it opened. Every time I go it is bustling with customers enjoying a unique experience. Waiting staff write your order on your paper placemat, you sit on benches and are encouraged to use chopsticks (thankfully cutlery is offered too). What we traditionalists call starters appear at any time as does each diners food. However, the unique experience makes the restaurant what it is. I chose a lemongrass and chicken noodle dish off the special menu with a side of duck gyoza (tasty deep-​fried duck and leek dumplings, served with a spicy cherry hoi sin sauce). Despite finding the noodles greaser than expected, I found myself motivated to go home and recreate a noodle dish just likes this but I know that is very unlikely to happen. My companion chose his favourite noodle dish (the name escapes me) and found it delicious as always. I have eaten the chicken katsu curry before which is nice. We finished off our meal with chocolate fudge cake with wasabi and chocolate fudge filling. I have not had a cake containing wasabi before and I won’t be including wasabi in any cakes I make! Again a unique experience! So, it is worth going for the experience, and reasonably tasty food, however, the service on this occasion was slower than expected.

Wagammas is one of the healthiest places that you can eat, the food is fresh and is always served promptly. If you order starts and then a main course they tend to bring out the main before you have finished eating. It is a fantastic place to lunch if you are in a rush. The puddings are to die for. They do chilli served with sweet dishes and ginger or wasabi. I have been to a few Wagamamas but Tunbridge Wells is my favourite one. The staff are lovely. It is well worth trying out if you haven’t ever been before the food is simply delicious.

My only fear is that people think this in any way represents Japanese food. It really doesn’t.
Wagamama is a chain restaurant started in London in the 90’s, which makes it similar in its history and level of success to Yo! Sushi. I’m not a huge fan of the non-​stop self-​promotion of Yo’s creator, but the sushi they make is passable enough.
That’s not the case with Wagamama.
The noodles it serves up – and for all the additions to its menu, it’s still fundamentally a noodle restaurant — are unlike anything you’d ever get in Japan. The texture, the taste, the bizarre choices they give you (chilli chicken ramen?)… completely alien to the experience you’d get were you to have the real thing.
I’m not a foodie and certainly not a food snob, but if you’re after an authentic bowl of ramen, look elsewhere.
Since going to the London restaurant in the mid-90’s, I’ve occasionally gone to their other restaurants — including the one in Tunbridge Wells — to see if they’ve changed anything around. The expanded menu, with stuff like katsu curry, is fine, and the service is always okay. But there’s no getting over the fact that their noodles are pretty rank.

As good as any of the other Wagamamas, and as far as I am aware, the closest one to my house. Great food served quickly and very reasonably priced, what more could you want. My personal favourite is the Ginger Chicken Udon, but could quite happily eat anything off the menu.