Wagamama - Brighton

Such a warmly place from the outside, but so cold when you're inside. Quite smily welcome, appreciate. Once we have menus, I can feel the problem from my stomach: Too many dishes/choices and very expansive. Plus, the service was as cold as the food. No smile, not even a word, can you feel it? The cold wind from the waiter.. Brrr. And then, the food is finally here, after 20minutes approximately, and obviously it was cold. I was here for my birthday, in summer, and my food was as cold as winter. Noodles were bad, tasteless, no savour at all, such a disappointment. I was so happy to sit myself on a rainbow bench with a good mood, but I'll never come back. I won't say you don't have to go there, I'm sure it depends of your taste, but it's a no for me.

Wagamama was one of my staples when I lived in Brighton, and it was just as good now. Wagamama has delicious food, and I really enjoy the ambiance. There are both communal and private tables, and they manage to have a fun and romantic vibe going on in their respective parts of the restaurant. Service is mixed; on our last visit, one server was great, one was terrible. (I remember it being this way years ago, too. Service aside, it's a cool spot and the food is yum. Our duck wraps were amazing, chicken ramen got a thumbs up from me, and the boy loved his chicken katsu.

It wasn 't good, maybe it 's rose tinted memory, maybe it 's just not as good as it used to be, or maybe a year of being exposed to the blisteringly high levels of New York food left it somewhat exposed...who knows? Anyway, I didn 't really enjoy it. My default dish, chicken Katsu curry (I 'm having a wee guess here, it 's 90% of all men 's default wagamamma 's dish) felt stodgy, was 'glistening ' (not in an good way) and was generally a huge let down add in pricing that seems to have verged into downright 'full sit down meal ' territory and it wasn 't a good experience. Staff were nice, brisk and helpful overall though, not the place I once remembered....going to have to seriously up your game when you rock up in midtown Manhattan guys. Seriously.

I went out here for my fathers birthday as we all liked it and we haven't been in since lockdown. When we went in it didn't take long for us to be sat down and after our or my food had arrived. I had the yaki udon same as my father. When it arrived and we had our first taste. We both agreed it was mediocre it wasn't as good as it was last time, the udon lacked any form of sauce to go with it. The udon lacks most of the meat it said it would have and it was full of cheap and frankly awfully tasting greenery. There was little in the way of noodles in the dish and my carrot juice drink was a lot worse than I remember being a lot sweeter and a lot less carrot, generally I am not going to go back and I wouldn't recommend ordering delivery either as I saw from when we sat down a dish came out of the kitchen and it was there for our entire meal with no delivery drivers in sight. Conclusion, they seem to have cut costs and in turn the food has gotten worse, don't go here it's not worth it.

For my first time at Wagamama, it was a lot better than I expected. I've always thought of it as the Macdonalds or KFC of the Asian food world and supported local restaurants. However, the one I was going to go to was closed for maintenance so I grinned and beared it when my boyfriend suggested Wagamama. As soon as I walked in I felt a warmth in the room, physically and metaphorically. It was scorching hot and it smelled fantastic. We were seated on a shared table which I really liked, and left to browse the menu. I was surprised to see so many Japanese foods like gyoza and ramen, but no sushi. They had Chinese steamed buns on there (Bao and kimchi (they spell it kimchee which I've always thought to be a Korean food. So this mix of Asian foods confused me a bit considering I thought I was meant to be a Japanese style of restaurant. I ordered the prawn itame, and my boyfriend got the chilli ramen, as well as chicken gyoza and miso soup with pickles. We drank a carrot juice and the (FREE! green tea. My itame was gorgeous the lemongrass and coconut with the lime and coriander worked really well together and I was happy with my choice. The miso soup was slightly tepid and I thought it could have had more tofu in it. The gyoza was great, and the sauce was lovely too. Not the best I've had but considering it's a chain, not bad. The ramen was ok, but took a lot of seasoning for it to have as much flavour as was needed. We both left full, warm and happy with our meals, and the reason I gave it 4 not 5 stars is because the miso soup let them down. Otherwise, it was great and I'll be back!