wagamama bristol cabot circus — Restaurant in Bristol

Wagamama is a delightful change to what is a very boring UK chain restaurant market. However, whilst I am happy to state this towards the chain, I am much more disappointed with Cabot Circus.

Me and my pregnant wife arrived at the Cabot Circus restaurant at 13:00 on Monday 31st October. Knowing it would be busy we expected a longer wait time than normal. We waiting in line for entry for around 5 minutes - not bad. We were then offered seating and requested if we could sit outside as it was rather busy inside, we prefer our space - again no problem.

Then the problem started.... 5 minutes later - no service. 10 minutes later - no service. 15 minutes later - I decide to wave down a server and ask if we can order our drinks and food, we we're told they would be right back to do so...

25 minutes sat at a table with no drinks, no food and no attempt to take our order. I had waved down a server once already who had not returned even 10 minutes further.

At around the 20 minute mark I started analysing the restaurant to see what the issue may have been.... I noticed the following: 2 servers stood idly chatting to each other. 2 other servers serving single dishes at a time. Other customers receiving dishes at obvious separate times. (The couple next to us received one dish then not the other for another 15 minutes!) 1 server clearing tables 2 other customers who had arrived at least 10 minutes before us getting both their drinks and meals.

I've worked in customer service for over 13 years, and from what I witnessed at Cabot Circus, Wagamama is either extremely understaffed (Unlikely unless in the kitchen) or extremely mismanaged. No customer should have to wait more than 5 minutes for a simple drinks order - especially if they've waved down staff and other staff are chatting.

I do understand the restaurant was busy, but it wasn't so busy that staff we're overrun. Again, I'd like to highlight that the staff we're either stood around chatting and/or server individual dishes at a time.

In the end we walked away and went to Five Guys. I'm not saying to not visit Wagamama at Cabot Circus, I am however saying be weary of how the restaurant operates. If you have any of the issues I did then please make your...

I'm in shock right now...and not in the good way. Maybe I just got unlucky with what I picked or maybe this company is yet another chain raking it in which doesn't really know how to make authentic or decent Asian food .

I thought I would treat myself to some takeaway and I really fancied some ramen. Whilst browsing through the options on deliveroo I see that wagamama do a range of ramen. I have not eaten from here before but I figure, "hey, ramen can't be hard to get wrong. Also, even if it's not the best it will still be tasty at least with the broth". O how wrong I was.

Seriously, what the hell did I just eat?

This was by far one of the most bland and disgusting meals I've ever had :-( what a huge waste of cash and time .I would have enjoyed a pot noodle far more than the sorry state I had sent to me that was mesnt to be a pork belly ramen in apparent chicken and dashi broth. This was miserable! Total slop and a mess with pretty much no flavour . The noodles were a slimey mess, the vegetables were sparse and not particularly fresh (a bit of spring onion thrown in). There was an over boiled egg and, the "best" part- soggy pork belly that tasted like someone had left a packet of pork scratchings to soak in old bath water . The broth tasted of barely anything, let alone chickencor dashi! I assume it had been watered down by the looks of it, if it was ever authentically made stock. Ramen is meant to have an umami flavour to it... That is the point!!! There was not even a hint of such thing in this dish. Literally this tastes of slightly salted water with a hint of pork and some spring onion.

I can't believe how much money I just paid to eat this :-( I had to finish it as I'm starving but I winced at every bite in my mouth and now feel nauseous whilst it's digesting. Seriously disgusting food! I hope whatever else they serve there is better than this grim offering but needless to say I will never go here for ramen . Do yourself a favour if you are a fan of this dish and avoid extreme dissipointment. I feel...

We came in later in the evening and expected to be able to get something tasty. The first problem was that almost half of the items on the menu weren't available. Our choice ended up being a couple of starters for myself and katsu curry for my guest. The vegetarian katsu curry, although looking a bit sloppy and grey green, was reported to be quite tasty and enjoyable. My first starter was the gyoza which are normally steamed and then crisp fried. I assumed that it would be served the usual way but to my surprise the gyoza were lukewarm and certainly hadn't been browned. I sent these back and they were returned to me 30 seconds later still lukewarm. I guess that the microwave settings must not have been quite up to snuff on the night. I got through the gyoza and then received my deep fried prawns. I will say that the prawns were well cooked, hot and tasty. The sauce was spicy and there was lots of it. Unfortunately this is the second time in a row where I have been to a Wagamama only to find problems that made the meal less than it should have been. I’m not sure that there’s a good reason go back to them if there are...