Wagamamas - Yes Please! (Wagamama)

Member Name: Otavia

Product:	Wagamama
Date:	28/08/08 (34 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic restaurant, quick service, tasty meals at a great price !

Disadvantages: Only if you hate good food

==Wagamama==

Wow! If you're in Bath and you're thinking of eating out you absolutely must go to Wagamamas. The food, service and atmosphere is great. It's family friendly too (the provide highchairs and have lots of them, so you wont go without) and caters for everyone.

The atmosphere is a strange one to describe because it feels very unique. It's child friendly (also can provide things for kids to do, such as colouring) but if you didn't notice then you wouldn't realise. Everyone sits together and near each other but you're all totally different. Even though there are other diners around you still retain the feeling of just being at your table, almost bubble like. There are couples, families, tourists, friends, business partners and just about every collective you can think of. The reason being that it's not a definable restaurant, it's just great food in a nice place.
The food here is just astonishingly good, freshly made (which means that your meals may not arrive together, but you wont be kept waiting long) in the kitchen which is visible. The food is cooked quickly, but thoroughly and includes quite variety of dishes. They can mostly be categorised into rice dishes, soup dishes, noodle dishes and meat dishes. There's a lot of choice for veggies as well (my sister being one means I know the frustration of your only option being a tomato based pasta sauce). Everything is good on this menu. I find it hard to order everytime I go in. I chop and change my mind every five minutes, try to lure myself away from my favourite (Yaki Udon...oh my goodness it's brilliant) and try something new. I manage it half the time. Usually just picking something else seconds before the waitress gets there! But I've never found anything else that I've tried to be less than great. Other dishes I'd recommend are Chicken Katsu Curry or the Ginger Chicken Udon also the ramen dishes are great. Warning though, when something is advertised as spicy - they mean it!
The desserts are so inventive - most things featuring ingredients that you didn't know could be in a dessert, such as wasabi (in fudge cake). I'd definately suggest the White Chocolate Ginger Cheesecake. Mmmm!! You can also request green tea at any time, which is helps your digestive system and is free.

The prices are between £6-8.50 for a main meal. Starters are about £3-4.50 and beers cost about £4.50 a bottle (the only quite expensive thing on the menu). When my Fiance and I eat there it's always under £30 pounds, which is great as this isn't normally the case when you eat out. At Wagamamas, when the bill comes you get strange happy feeling, almost as if you've cheated the restaurant system and found a place to eat that doesn't cost an arm and a leg! A meal for 5 including deserts and drinks for everyone came to about £80 something. Worked out to be about £16 per person for a full meal. I'd say that for the quality and taste of the food it's worth it.
The restaurant itself is decorated in a minimal style, so is even more of an authentic experience. The walls are white, the floor is wooden and there are the off walls of block colour. The kitchen area is steel and vary accessable. In the Bath branch you can see the kitchen from the waiting area and can even see them preparing and finishing the food. They don't mind at all if you go up to them and ask what someone else is having because it looks appealing. The tables are long wooden tabletops, held up by bars in the middle and the chairs are the same, but as benches. It's suprisingly comfortable. There's always plenty of room, lots of seats, but you may have to wait for 5-10 minutes or so on a Sat night.

The service is exceptionally quick. They don't leave you waiting at the door, they greet you straight away and if you have to wait a minute for a table they will sit you on the comfy seats with a menu. You wont wait long at all. The waiters and waitresses here are really good at their jobs and are friendly and polite. They'll take your order in the usual way, drinks first, food second, dessert later, and log it on there's electronic note pads, which takes the order straight to the kitchen and displays it on the receiving equipment. They will scribble your food number (another good thing, if you struggle with the pronounciation there are numbers for each meal) on to your paper placemat, which lists the desserts. You'll have your drinks then food brought to you quickly. It's great to watch all the dishes coming from the kitchen, to see what everything looks like, but it's even better when it's your own! Time to chow down! When you're finished your plates/bowls are taken away quickly and it's time to order dessert. Which you really should do because it's excellent. There are about six options on the dessert menu, including the ones mentioned above and others such as coconut icecream and mango sorbet (together) with shavings of coconut. The desserts sound rather rich, but are suprisingly light, with lots of flavour. Then it's time for the bill, which if you'd indulged yourself and bought everything on the menu like you wanted to, would be massive, but as it stands is quite cheap. It doesn't include a service charge, so tips are always welcome but appear not to be expected.
I've eaten here many times now and I do maintain that it's one of the best restaurants in Bath. You can bring people who've never eaten this sort of food and they will instantly love it. I bought a group of friends here once who'd never been before and some who'd never eaten out before and they all loved it.

To conclude, it's a fantastic restaurant, quick service, tasty meals at a great price!

Summary: mmm