Metropolis Building,
1 Courthouse Lane,
Auckland Central
Auckland,


(09) 359 9266

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3 out of 5

Well on its way to being an international brand, Wagamama—named, for entirely obscure reasons, after the Japanese word for a naughty child—now has more than 40 restaurants in London, another dozen or so elsewhere in the UK and two dozen abroad (including in Australia and New Zealand).

The recipe is based on that of the ramen shops in Japan (ramen are wheat noodles, Chinese in origin) and most of the dishes are made of these noodles, served in broth with various toppings.

Various side dishes—dumplings, chicken skewers, crumbed prawns—are best shared around the table.

In London, the only other place I've visited Wagamama, the restaurants are always packed, which is easy to understand since you can get a full belly for about eight quid which, in that town, is a hard find unless you're happy with cod and chips or doner kebabs.

But the ramen that is £7.60 in London is $18 here, and while that doesn’t seem bad when you look at the exchange rate, in real terms it means it's not exactly a budget dining option because £7.60 is a cheap feed in London and a moderately pricey one here.

The profusion of cheap Chinese noodle houses around Auckland makes the comparison even less kind, but the main problem with Wagamama is that the food is McAsian: in essence, it's Asian-style food cooked for Western palates.

One of our party tried a coconut milk-based soup called kare lomen: though spicy, it was pretty unsubtle. My Wagamama ramen piled half a boiled egg, two prawns, a soggy slab of tofu and that dreadful fake-crab surimi onto the noodle. I had to slather it with sauce to make it half interesting.

Two of our party ordered more cleverly and requested a selection of appetisers: skewered chicken, deep-fried prawns, grilled squid and a selection of gyoza (juicy fried dumplings). The appetisers I sampled were tasty enough, but at eight or nine bucks for a plate of five, the cost of a meal soon mounted up.

You pay for the environment to some extent: Wagamama restaurants are nicely designed, sleek and clean and cool, so it's a bit unfair to compare them with Chinese greasy spoons.

But it's a smart marketing idea rather than a good restaurant. For me, Asian food needs to be more Asian.