Wagamama

While traveling, locals can direct you to some cheap eats that, for better or for worse, you would not have discovered otherwise. Wagamama in London is one such place.

After months of pleading from some British friends, I finally found myself taking a seat at one of the long wooden tables in the Covent Garden location. The pan-Asian noodle restaurant has an extensive menu covering everything from ramen to rice. A server whizzed by, asking if we had dined before. I hadn’t, which didn’t seem to matter, because everything was happening so fast and, before I knew it, I ordered as if I had thrown darts at the menu. Our waiter scribbled some gibberish on our paper menus before scurrying off.

Soon after, deep-fried pieces of something arrived at our table with a sesame/soy dipping sauce. After taking a bite, I concluded that this was chicken that I was eating, meaning we ordered the tori kara age for £4.60. The fried chicken pieces tasted exactly how they sound. They were simple, inexpensive when split among three people, and a fun finger-food to start off the meal.

The deep-fried duck dumplings (£5.45) arrived next. The breading on the gyoza was a little heavy, but you could have put anything in that spicy cherry hoi sin sauce and it’d be fantastic.

Then, a filet of grilled salmon, drizzled with teriyaki, served over teppan fried soba noodles landed in front of me (£11.00). After being told is was mine, I started to dig in.

Each dish must be placed in the proper context. Bare in mind that this restaurant is a chain serving affordable Japanese fast food. With that said, the dish was fine. I suppose I was expecting more sauce, more oil, more fat. That came with the Chicken katsu curry.

The chicken katsu curry (£8.95) was perfect in the sense that it was creamy, saucy, and fattening. I finally understood what had brought us to Covent Garden that day—sliced pieces of friend chicken breast, topped with a mound of white rice and smothered in a fantastic pool of creamy curry sauce. The type of curry?—the fast food kind. Delicious.

         

wagamama

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