Josh V.
Yelp
Wagamama seems to be a bit better than OK, but I'm not ready to call myself a fan. . . so this is probably more of a 3.5 star place, but I'm in a "round down" mood today.
The set up is somewhat unique. There aren't a bunch of small tables or chairs, but rather a number of long tables with built-in benches. They remind me of the cafeteria tables in school, except the benches are broken up (you can fit about two people per bench segment) which mean it's easier to sit down and get up than those terrible benches from grade school that ran the length of the whole table.
The space is nice. The kitchen is open. Service is OK. They seem to use a team approach, rather than having a dedicated server for a table. This lead to someone trying to take our drink orders after we already placed our orders, and three different people trying to take our orders at one point or another. There are pluses and minuses to this approach to service, but in general I'm not a fan.
The ginger beer was tasty. The food is...well, not as good as I'd like it to be. My chicken katsu curry was just kind of bland, which was disappointing. The panko-breaded chicken was good, but the gravy definitely fell short. I tried another chicken dish that my friend ordered, and it was also a little lacking in flavor.
The dessert was pretty average. I tried a bite of the apple & sweet yam tart, and it was a bit different, but interesting. I'm not a big apple dessert person so I'm not sure I'd order it myself. My foodie friend who ordered it didn't like the sesame seed element or the vanilla sauce it was sitting in (which turned out to be melted ice cream, according to our waitress). My baked vanilla cheesecake was OK. Nothing memorable.
They bring out the food in a rather willy-nilly fashion. You might get your main dish before your starter, and your main dish might come out minutes before anyone else in your party gets anything, so be prepared to eat in front of your friends or sit and watch them eat.
I'd probably eat at a Wagamama again if it was convenient, but I wouldn't go out of my way or wait for a table.