Sunday, February 03, 2008

Wagamama Canary Wharf

Since Wagamama is so popular in the UK, I thought maybe they are actually better than its Australian counterpart. Boy, was I wrong. I guess because the UK have no good Asian places to eat, relatively speaking, Wagamama is considered good.

Food

I was going to get the ramen to see if it’s done better here (apparently it’s not), but I decided to go for something that’s not on the Aussie menu, so I ordered the kai sen gohan (£9.75) - wok-fried tiger prawns, squid, seabass and Japanese fishcake stir-fried with bok choi, red and spring onion in a thickened oyster, fresh garlic and wine sauce served with japanese-style-rice. It certainly sounds much better than it looks, and it certainly looks much better than it tastes, which basically means, it tasted like crap. The seafood had no flavour, there was very little of it, and the sauce was so one dimensional. It was poured over the rice, taking it soggy. If the sauce was better then it would be ok, but this sauce actually made the sauce taste worst.

Rating - 2

Atmosphere

Well, at least the formula works. The furnishing, the little shelf for your bag, the rude waiters, they were all there. I can’t believe we actually had to wait for a table on a Monday lunchtime!

Rating - 1.5

Service

Well, they can speak English, but boy they were rude. They rattled off a bunch of meals that had already sold out (amazing!), and then we were ignored. They didn’t deliver cutlery that was missing from our table, so we had to steal it from another place setting. They didn’t explain how the whole Wagamama concept worked either, which was disappointing, as I usually look forward to saying, yes, I know about your stupid number on place mat system.

Rating - 2

C-factor

I can’t believe people pay to eat here. The price is the same as all the other chain stores, and at least they have eatable food.

Rating - 0

Brownie Points - 5.5

Info

Jubilee Place
45 Bank Street
London
E14 5NY
Phone +44 (0) 20 7516 9009
Website

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