Yes, Wagamama is not my favourite restaurant, but when you are in a big group and want somewhere quiet to eat without the crowd, this is the place to go.
Food
I tried very hard to order something I haven't tried on the menu that I haven't written off for tasteing terrible, but I couldn't, so in the end, I got a mix of dishes I tried before I had the blog and can't remember what it tastes like, and dishes I haven't tried.
The teriyaki steak soba - teppan-fried soba noodles with bok choi, red onion, snow peas, beansprouts and chilli. Garnished with
grilled sirloin steak marinated in teriyaki sauce ($17.50) was pleasant enough. A big plate of so-so soba noodle was delivered, in a sweet sauce. I didn't taste any hint of chilli though. When they said "garnished", they really mean it, only 4 thin strips of steak rest on top of the noodles, so the dish is almost vegetarian. The best thing about the dish is the super crunchy vegetables.
Slokky went back to the chicken katsu curry - chicken fillet fried in crispy breadcrumbs, served with a light curry sauce and japanese-style rice. Garnished with mixed leaves and red pickles ($15.50) as his first choice was not available. It wasn't the best katsu curry. The sauce was sweet and simple, there was nothing else in the sauce. The chicken strips were a bit dry and tasteless so you really have to drown it in sauce. The bowl of rice was really big though.
We also shared a atsui chicken salad - salad of mixed leaves and cherry tomatoes with marinated lemon pepper and wasabi chicken ($15.50). The salad is not that spectacular, but it did provide a lot of greens to accompany the light on vegetables dishes.
Rating - 5
Atmosphere
All wagamamas are the same, and I've described this before. I would like to say that I rang to make a booking for 8 but they were quite rude to me on the phone, saying that they don't usually take bookings for less than 10 people after 12:30pm, so when we walked into a half-empty restaurant, I was not pleased. They also sat us right next to a couple, even though there were empty tables, so I would hear their conversation very clearly. Luckily they were almost finished with their meal and left.
Rating - 1
Service
I'll give our server, an English girl obviously on a working holiday, points for trying. She was quite frustered when we ordered, as a couple of us wanted the kare lomen - a spicy soup made from lemongrass, coconut milk, shrimp paste, chillies, fresh ginger and galangal, served with ramen noodles., but it had run out. She wanted to give us more time to think about our order so she would take our drinks order first, but we had already all decided on our second choice, and she got confused about that.
One of our parties wanted a prawn dish since the kare lomen prawn wasn't available, and she actually recommended the yaki soba, with not a hint of prawn, and told him that it had lots of prawns. She also didn't mention the ginger in the dish...
Service was pretty slow today, there was a 10 minute gap at least between some of the mains. The bill also took forever, and she couldn't figure out our 2 for 1 vouchers...for a restaurant that was only half full, not good enough.
Rating - 2
C-factor
Yada yada yada, I would only consider coming here if I had a voucher.
Rating - 0
Brownie Points - 8
Info
level 1,
TGV
500 George St
Sydney
NSW 2000
Phone (02) 9264 9155
Website
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