Wagamama's first UK restaurant opened in Bloomsbury in1992. At first its restaurants were limited to London and Dublin. However the outlet now boasts 50 UK restaurants and one of its newest openings is this Oxford restaurant, which opened, in September last year.
Wagamama's is located just off the main shopping street of Cornmarket and is handily on the way to the covered market, which is one of the biggest draws for shoppers in Oxford. For anyone who knows the area the restaurant is in the former pub that was Bar Oz. This was a fairly low key opening which no information in the local press and it was that I stumbled upon it whilst going for a baguette in the market at lunchtime did I realise that Oxford finally has a Wagamama's.
This is a chain that my girlfriend first introduced me to some time earlier whilst on a day trip to London. Since then we have eaten at a variety of Wagamama's around the country.
The menu
The chains slogan of positive living and positive living says a lot about the company. The idea of the chain is simple to serve simple recipe ideas based on noodles. These range from soups to stir fried noodles. However to say that is all the chain does is limiting its appeal. The last time I visited I enjoyed a lovely Japanese curry with sticky rice. This was served with Chicken in a crunchy breadcrumb coating. I found this to be a very good dish and it was the first time I had tried this one despite eating at many Wagamama's in the past. This also came with a small side salad as well, which I didn't really enjoy, but the meal was so filling that I would have struggled to eat it anyway. This dish can also be served in a more healthily format with the bread crumbed chicken been replaced with grilled chicken.
My girlfriend got one of our tried and tested favourite dishes. This is a spicy coconut soup dish, which is served in a giant bowl and is filled with noodles, chicken, peppers, onions and chillies to help that spicy flavour kick in. As I have said this is one of our favourite dishes and it didn't disappoint again here.
These two main dishes were washed down with some freshly squeezed fruit juice. This is another part of the menu that we enjoy each time we visit, as this isn't simply just orange juice, but the flavours offered are a bit different to the normal. My girlfriend got a raw juice, which is a combination of Tomato, cucumber, orange, apple and carrot, which to me sounds awful, but she always enjoys this. While I plumbed for a safe option of apple and lime juice. Both of which came up to the usual high standards.
We also went for a chicken dumpling side dish. This is a starter size portion, but isn't called a started because the food is brought out in any order when it is ready. This was sadly not up to its usual standards and we found the edges were a bit hard. However all this cost £22 and is excellent value for money. The chain also offers a range of desserts that I have never had yet, not because I don't like the sound of them but I am always to full, by that point, to enjoy them.
The atmosphere
The atmosphere of these restaurants is always loud to say the least. In this tightly packed 82-seater restaurant we also found this to be the case. The eating arrangements are not separated by tables but this is separated into rows where people eat. In each row the table surface is a singular surface that has 10 people sat either side of it when full. This means that you could be tightly packed next to relative strangers. This of course can increase the eating experience, as the buzz in the restaurant is normally incredible. However this can limit the chains appeal. This is fine for a lunchtime feed, but however it is ruling out a romantic meal for two or a business meeting.
The service
As I have said, this chain doesn't have individual tables but it has larger rows of people. This is to accommodate more people in the restaurant. The oxford Wagamama's has four main rows of tables and a smaller single sided table where the eaters look out of the window. The single side table has an amazing view of superdrugs shop windows so I am not to sure where that idea came from!
Normally each server gets allocated an area of the restaurant, ie server A takes row A and so on. However this is my biggest criticism of my experience of Oxford's Wagamama's. Here we were served by all five of the house of staff. The closest server to the entrance guided us to our seats when we arrived. This is quite normal and is done so that the queues are kept to a minimum. We were then given five minutes to select what we wanted and then another server came over to take our order. The ordering process is simple and the server writes down on the paper placemat the order so everyone can see who's is having what. However on this occasion another server arrived at our table two minutes later to take our order. This process was again obvious at the end of the meal when we asked one server for the bill, to then have another two servers come up and ask us for the bill. Sadly this confusion left a slightly sour taste in mouth.
A good thing is that when you are seated the server asks if you have ever eaten at Wagamama's before. I personally find this useful as I can remember the first time I ate there and I needed a bit of an explanation of the process.
Overall
Although the service let my experience of this eatery go downhill a little, it is a vast improvement on when the restaurant first opened. When it did the service was not up to much and the food was also at the same standard. So in the 6 months it has been opened, it has made huge strides forward and I believe that this will be carried on for the next six months and the restaurant will then operate smoothly.
At the end of the day the food is freshly prepared, tastes great, is quick and allows a couple to eat for just over £20. It really is a bit of competition for those fast food chains that don't really offer healthy alternatives like this.
Thanks for reading and I hope you to enjoy a Wagamama's near you one day to Mark
More details
Standard of Service
Poor
Family Friendly
Average
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