wagamama crawley — Restaurant in Crawley

A bit disappointed, but a good place overall.

This might be commonsense for everyone else, however my partner and I were expecting authentic asian cusine and a proper restaurant, but what we got was bordering fast-food style dining. This not a con, it is just not what we expected, and so we were a bit disppointed.

Picture paper place mats, lots of noise, and shared long tables. The chairs were uncomfortable because they had no backrest, we were there for 2 hours and I had to hold my coat in my lap the whole time. The bathroom was clean and the stalls were quite spacious. Although the service was very quick-paced, it was great, Ahmed (I hope I spelled that right) has taken good care of us.

The food was blander than what one would expect from an asian place.

Starter: vegan K-dogs - not bad, wish there was a non vegan version avilable too, and wish it weren't only the sauces that gave it flavour.

Main 1: teriyaki chicken donburi - the teriyaki sauce felt a bit watered down, although still very tasty with an added dash of soy sauce

Main 2: chicken curry rice - not at all like the traditional japanese dish, it had a lot of veg that felt out of place, and not a lot of chicken. It was also rather lemony and barely tasted like a curry. (We know it's supposed to be a mild curry, but it didn't pass for that either.)

Dessert: black honey chouxnut - fairly decent, not too sweet which is good. It is essentially a single giant profiterole with exotic filling options, and we did not complain.

Drinks: "large" peach iced tee - tasted eaxctly like Lipton, and probably was. We don't reckon the large was a pint, max 400ml.

Free green tea - well it wasn't bad, and from what we could tell it was made fron loose leaf tea, but we are just not the type of people who drink tea without adding anything to it.

I have to mention that the open kitchen was quite interesting and entertaining. The chefs were working very hard, and so did the axtractor fans, because steam did not escape into the dining area once, and the restaurant did not smell heavily of food.

It was obvious that the ingredients were fresh, and compared to the fact that it was busy, the food came out at a reasonable time. It was a bit awkward though when they served the starter at the same time as one of the mains, and then we had to wait for the 2nd main for about another 7-10 minutes at least.

I understand why this place is popular, it is well suited for the British palette, but it will not be the place where we go for aisian cusine in the future, there are cheaper places with more authentic and tastier dishes.

We have nothing against the restaurant, as you see I've given 5 stars because nothing was bad enough for it to deserve 4, but I couldn't help but notice these small things, because we went in with high expectations.

I hope this review helped you get an idea of the place~ I recommend it if you don't mind spending a bit of ££ and are looking for a more special, but casual asian place to eat. (The above cost us £59 +tip, no service charge is added to the bill...

A nice quiet place for lunch. Gets busier and noisier for dinner as with most places, but music isn't super obnoxious.

Accessability: The entrance is level access with wide airlock style doors. They are not automatic, but aren't too heavy and I've been offered help quickly by staff.

There are some disabled parking spaces right near the entrance, but disabled parking is limited for the complex and accessability through the rest of the carpark isn't great. If you rely on disabled parking you may find there isn't space at times.

The disabled toilet is through the restaurant and at busy times could be a bit awkward to get to. It's through a standard door into the toilet area and then has a large sliding door. There is free space next to the toilet and a large area for turning.

There are some benches that aren't fixed and can be moved out of he way for wheelchair users. I'm not sure if there are any tables with multiple moving benches so wheelchair users can sit facing eachother.

There are no table legs on the floor under the table so I am able to pull myself under fully in my wheelchair without issue. There is a sort of shelf running under the middle of the table which might require a bit of caution form some chair users, but was not in the way for me. The tables are a bit higher than average but I still find they are comfortable to eat from.

General:

Everybody I've been with thinks the seats are incredibly uncomfortable. Most of the benches are fixed in place so can be awkward for larger people, people who can't easily step over or around a bench etc. Almost none of the seats have backrests.

Service and food has been good every time. Do be aware that food is served whenever it's ready so some people may get their food at different times. Occasionally we've had quite a long wait between people's meals.

There's a good selection of vegan options, including drinks and deserts. Vegan options are clearly marked on the menu. Staff have a tablet with allergen information to check if a person with allergies is ordering.

Portion sizes are good and it's easy to get take out containers for leftovers.

Payment is possible via card machine or through your phone...

My Mum and I went to Wagamamas in Crawley this weekend, we go often and are never disappointed but the service was down right awful. The waitress was incredibly abrupt, rude and failed to tell us that not only were there no juices available but also no steak, beef and over 6 starters were not available before we ordered. As we had ordered mainly beef options we had to change all our starters, mains and drinks. Once the waitress came back my mum politely double checked if a certain starter was unavailable to which the waitress snapped at her in a rude tone saying "like I said before". When the food arrived my dish was lacking 3 components listed on the menu and looked nothing like the photo but instead like it had been thrown on to the plate last minute, my mum had ordered a hot pot and had to eat it with chopsticks for 20 minutes until the ladles were out of the dishwasher. I spoke to the waitress who took my dish back and returned with two components in small dishes, still missing mange trout and the others not being mixed into the dish like how it's meant to be served. The waitress brought her manager over and had the dish send back for a SECOND TIME. This took around 15 minutes for my dish to come back by which time my mum had completely finished her meal. By the time I was half way through my meal one of our sides ,Bao buns, had arrived almost 50 minutes after we had ordered them, we had forgot we had ordered them because it has been that long. We paid in FULL for our meal with no discount offered by any managers even with all of these issues.

I absolutely love Wagamamas and have it regularly but this was shocking service and beyond disappointing. Having the waitress be rude to customers, not inform them that large amounts of the menu was unavailable, have to send my dish back TWICE to get it correct therefore waiting over 20 minutes while my mum finished her meal before I even began, incredibly late side dish and not providing my mum with the correct utensils to eat her meal till she was finished. Then to be offered no discount by the manager is ridiculous and poor customer service.

I...