Wagamama

After living in Asia for for 8 years and Japan specifically for three I can be quite fussy with this kind of food.
I took a long time choosing from the menu and I settled on the teriyaki chicken donburi also ordering pulled pork gyoza to share and my friends both got ramen dishes.
The pulled pork gyoza was very different but delicious. The texture was so different to regular gyoza but I found the taste delightful. Both friends were very satisfied with their ramen whereas I was quite disappointed with my donburi. I like how they serve it with fresh grated carrot and greens but the chicken was very dry and unappetising. Teriyaki usually makes chicken very tender so surprised to find the meat dry.
The service was very friendly (sometimes a little too much selling) and I like the canteen style set up of the restaurant with a place to put your coat and wet umbrella.
I would come back here again but think I will try the ramen next time.

Free green tea with any meal if you order it! Good juices as well. As for the food, my friends really enjoyed the ramen. It seems it’s a safer bet to go with ramen over other dishes.

Pros: cheap, fast, big portions, free green tea
The food is okay but not «great» nor asian. My miso soup tasted nothing like real miso and my rice dish was so oily towards the end. My friends noodles were pretty bland and flavourless and my toasted sesame ice cream tasted nothing like what I’m used to. Good if you’re stoned and just wanna munch but definitely not a place where to eat good asian food

Had the chance to eat at Wagamama while staying in London. Loved the food and the format of the restaurant. Great for adults and my kids (6 & 8). Feels like a place that would be right at home in Southern California and wish it were available here at home.

Casual atmosphere, good for a quick sit down bite. The host will seat you at long communal tables with benched. I enjoyed the seaweed salad (portion was surprisingly large), and teriyaki beef noodles (which were rather boring so I probably would try something different next time). The kimchee (£1) had. Great flavor and was a good addition to the meal. Service was prompt and very polite.

I was really underwhelmed. Portions are huge but the food is really basic. The main flavour is the oil it is fried in, not brilliant. The meat is really tough and quite bland. I remember this being much better.

I used to love this place 6 years ago. Not the same now. It is hard to make a bad Pad Thai, but they achieved that here surprisingly. It tasted more like soy sauce instead of sweet chili and peanut. The chicken also tasted like it was frozen. I think that if you had to come here you should stick with ordering the ramen soup dishes. This place felt more like a cafeteria. Go to Banana Tree instead if you are craving McAsian cuisine.

Fresh, fast and fab. I love this place. Besides the service; atmosphere is great, relaxing, friendly, and the food is simply yummy. They’ll serve you as much (FREE) green tea.
Great place to eat. Would definitely go back again and again.

The food is always good at Wagamama, I really love this place.
The restaurant on High Street Kensington is particularly nice. I like the fact that it’s on the first floor and has those nice big windows, which make the whole space feel light and airy.
The staircase is a bit of a disappointment, but the main reason for visiting Wagamama is always the food.
Tasty ramen, lovely noodle and rice dishes — simply divine!
Make sure you have a mixed fruit juice!

I love this venue and have been several times. I’m also a big fan of wagamama in general. However, I visited this branch Saturday night and received terrible service. I asked for tap water with lemon and instead received a lime in it with no apology when I mentioned this (I hate lime), then asked for green tea and was given a cup that was lukewarm. My tap water was not kept refilled and I frequently had to ask for a refill, and to top everything off when I went to the loo at the end of the meal the waiter made a rude crack to the friend I was with about me. Needless to say, I was not inclined to leave a tip.
The food was excellent, however. We had duck gyoza, chicken gyoza (my favourite), the prawn kushiyaki which were outstanding, edamame with chill and garlic salt, chill squid, and a bean and glass noodle salad. All served promptly and cooked to perfection.

You walk in off Kensington High Street assuming you’re walking into Wagamama but find yourself in a stairwell questioning whether you read the sign outside right.
Fear not, you are in the right place, just a few floors out. Wagamama is up a few flights of stairs up or you can take the lift.
The Kensington High Street branch is rarely very busy, so being seated is pretty quick.
So, yes, it is another franchise. Decorated like all it’s other outlets. Big, white, noisy. Like being in a canteen.
The service is erratic. The food is okay. The wine is not bad. The desserts, however, are pretty damn good!
So, it’s alright. It’ll do. Can’t say much more than that.

Pretty solid fare in London. But by no means is this a great asian fushion restaurant. The rice was hard (either stale or over cooked) and the chicken was dry and lifeless despite being drenched in a thick curry stew.
The ramen was pretty pathetic. Hard, overcooked noodles with mediocre fixings.
Still, this is pretty solid for London when you’re hungry. Helps that there is a Wagamama every couple of blocks.

It’s kind of depressing when people write things like, «MY ALL TIME FAVORITE RESTAURANT IN LONDON» when referring to a place like Wagamama (or even worse, Itsu, which in my most childish and unimaginative way refer to as Shitsu).
I don’t mind going to Wagamama, though it’s not somewhere I ever really seek out. I always make the mistake of ordering something new, rather than the things I know I like (katsu curry, ginger udon noodles), though this recent trip was the worst yet. I had spicy chicken ramen which wouldn’t have been that bad, but the noodles were whisky-​limp, and the chicken was just a broiled chicken breast.
My wifes vegetarian was, according to her, delicious (take her opinion with a grain of salt though, shes a chef).
The best part of my meal was this woman with collagen lips and perhaps a body that shouldn’t have been in shiny leggings, but was anyhow, jumped a massive que and proceeded to berate the waiters for not immediately clearing the table she had just stolen. You could see the sadness in her husbands poor emasculated eyes — LOLZ!

I went to Wagamama before a Tori Amos concert at the Royal Albert Hall — with my dining companions going on what a great place it is. As my rating indicates, I’ve had better.
The atmosphere was casual and the service was good. Those are the very good points. The food was lacklustre, to say the least. There wasn’t enough seasoning or flavour — the food was rather bland. My udon noodles were overcooked, and the menu can’t make up its mind what it is offering.
I’ve eaten chinese/​japanese/​thai/​korean in other places like NYC, San Francisco and other better establishments in London. I think of Wagamama as more of a western take on asian food, and not proper asian food.
Don’t get me wrong, if you want a quick fix on a low budget Wagamama is the place to go — it’s like a chinese takeaway with seating.

Das Wagamama befindet sich relativ versteckt in einem eher unscheinbaren Haus am Anfang der Highstreet Kensington. Das Flair hat eher was von Mensa oder eben japanisch-​spartanische Einrichtung. Wer so was liebt, wird auch bei Muji fündig. :-)
Die Speisekarte besteht aus einer Vielfalt von japanischen Vorspeisen, Hauptgerichten (meist Ramen) und auch Nachtischen. Als Gegenpol habe ich mir für den Vergleich das MoschMosch in Frankfurt gesetzt. Die Vorspeise Edamamme trat gegen das Mangetsu an. In dieser Kategorie gewinnt das Mangetsu klar. Das war nicht der Kracher. Die Hauptspeise war gut und dem MoschMosch nur knapp unterlegen. Meine Nudeln waren nicht so gut gewürzt wie dort. Der Eis-​Nachtisch war eine gute Fusion von Erdbeere mit Gewürzen. In Summe alles schon mal irgendwo besser gegessen. Aber für London in dieser Preisklasse ohne Bedenken vier Sterne!
Fazit: Vor fünf Jahren gut und heute auch. Da gehe ich wieder hin.

all time favorite restaurant in London.
I had the lollipop Prawn Kushiyaki and the beef chilli ramen.
O-​M-​G. hands-​down, ultimate food porn.
with the lack of different variety of food that London has, i am so grateful for this place.
My friends had the beef kushiyaki, chicken kushiyaki, and wagamama ramen,
lollipop Prawn kushiyaki= ok… but i wouldn’t recommend getting it
chicken & beef kushiyaki = very gushy texture, so if you aren’t a fan of oysters or anything that is gushy, don’t get it. But it was ok as well. Not the best but definitely not the worst. a lot of my friends did not like it though
As for the ramen — all the ramen = AMAZING!
the portion is huge so have a huge appetite when you walk in. all in all, you can simply skip the appetizers and go straight for the ramen. in the end you can have some room for the delicious flowering jasmine tea and or the vanilla tea.
Service is great
Food is amazing
Tea good.
desserts: my friends got the passion fruit cheesecake & they loved it. the apple goyza tastes like those kfc apple turnovers to me = taste of home =P

This family style Japanese food chain is great of those on a limited budget. The flavors are a hit or miss… some dishes rocked it while others did not. The noodle and fried rice dishes are safe bets.
Seating is also family style, meaning you could be seated next to strangers. It brings out the fun and the elbows.

We can easily say, hands down, that Wagamama serves the worst Ramen we have ever eaten.
Before going to London we bookmarked the best reviewed inexpensive food places to eat. Wagamama was the best Unilocal reviewed ramen in London so we decided we should check it out. The place was cool, modern, and filled with friendly staff. We tried some of their other dishes and they tasted alright but this review is solely based on the Ramen they serve us, which was not good at all.
We ordered the Chicken Ramen and the adventure started five minutes later…
First the soup… It was the saltiest broth we’ve ever experienced. We’re pretty sure we’ll be passing Wagamama related kidney stones very soon :(. It didn’t taste at all like traditional ramen It tasted like dirty salt water with a hint of chicken broth. We swear they didn’t wash the spring onions thoroughly cause dirty earth is all you could taste once your pallet worked through the salt. We would rather have had the broth from a Top Ramen package… See where we’re going with this?
Meat… It was grilled chicken breast. Which is pretty good in a sandwich but tasted unrelated to the rest of the dish. Does that make sense? It gave the dirty broth a smokey taste. As if someone had lit mud on fire.
Noodles… on our last Ramen review we thought Ebisu’s in Fountain Valley had the worst noodles… but Wagamama takes the crown. Underdone spaghetti noodles that only had flavor because it was sitting in salt.
We really feel that Wagamama has to take the word «Ramen» off their menu and just call it soup… Because what they were serving isn’t remotely close to what Ramen is suppose to be. There has got to be a much better Ramen being served somewhere in London.

Wonderful. Love the ambiance and service staff.
Casual dining. Booth style seating (long tables with benches).
You can really order any soup noodle dish and be satisfied. I ordered a rice dish and tasted off of my friends’ soups. Overall just well done! Everything tasted very fresh and flavorful. Something on the menu for everyone.
Wish they expanded to the US… and if they are already here — to LA!

VASTLY overrated. I would give it 3 stars if it wasn’t so overrated.
This place is ok if you’re out of options… But in London? There are tons of places to find good food.
The Calamari was the most disappointing calamari I’ve ever eaten. (it was even called chili calamari. there was no chili, and not even salt+pepper)
Curry chicken was passable. The chicken itself was plain and dry.
I would eat here if I needed a quick meal and there were no other options.

You make me happy, Wagamama
With your blond wood communal tables and your fresh-​squeezed juice.
With your menu that always has something I want (which is usually chicken chili ramen with no bean sprouts.)
With your menu that always has something I can afford.
With your efficient service and gyoza that satisfies.
Wagamama, you make me feel at home (and not just because I can see you from home.)

Nunwas ist Wagamama? Clever verkaufter japanischer Fast-​Food. Die Kette zieht sich durch London und ist immer nach dem gleichen Motto aufgezogen. Typischerweise im Keller sitzt man an langen Bänken, erhält schon beim Anstehen eine laminierte Speisekarte. Alles ist hier auf schnellen Durchsatz getrimmt. Wer die romantik und japanische Besinnlichkeit sucht, der hat hier einiges zu tun, um sie abschließend nicht zu finden ;)
Wer allerdings ein schnelles, gutes und für Londoner Verhältnisse, recht günstiges Essen sucht, der wird an den Wagamama’s seine Freude haben. Die langen Bänke sorgen für Geselligkeit. Die Gerichte tummeln sich alle mehr oder weniger um die typisch japanischen Ramen Suppen mit eine schier nicht enden wollenden Anzahl von Kombinationsmöglichkeiten.
Wie gesagt, Romantik sucht man hier vergeblich. Eher für das schnelle Abendessen geeignet, bevor es auf die Piste geht.

Um das beste vorweg zu nehmen: Das Essen ist ganz hervorragend. Es gibt japanische und andere asiatische Gerichte — von scharf bis mild. Alles hat super geschmeckt und der Service war auch in Ordnung. Und es gibt Tiger Bier aus Singapur, was ich sehr gerne mag.
Ganz preiswert ist das Wagamama allerdings nicht und gemütlich ist auch etwas anderes. Es gibt Tische und Bänke, die ein wenig an die Schulkantine erinnern. Das Möbiliar ist zudem noch am Boden festgeschraubt. Außerdem zog es in dieser Filiale wahnsinnig und das ist etwas, was ich gar nicht mag, wenn ich irgendwo essen gehe.
Dafür ist dieses Restaurant relativ barrierefrei. Es gibt einen Fahrstuhl zum Restaurant und eine Behindertentoilette. Nur die festgeschraubten Bänke sind etwas hinderlich. Man muss als Rollstuhlfahrer am Kopfende des Tisches sitzen und kommt man mit mehr als einem Rollstuhlfahrer gibt es ein Problem. Denn es ist pro Tisch nur Platz für einen. Gleiches gilt für die Kinderhochstühle.
Fazit: Wenn der Architekt nichts taugt, kann das Essen noch so gut sein, es gibt nur drei Sterne.