wagamama southend — Restaurant in Great Britain

As a lover of the franchise I was glad to see one had opened up on our doorstep and decided to give it a try. The restaurant is situated at the top end of Southend high street with plenty of paid parking available, inside it is very nicely decorated and the move away from the austere white benches and tables, is a welcome one. We visited on a Sunday evening and there were only two other tables in there, which meant we didn’t have to wait long to be seated. However, this is where the service took a turn for the worse. Although it was only 8:30pm and the restaurant wasn’t due to close until 10, the staff were more interested in clearing everything away so they could get out the door at the earliest opportunity and carrying on personal conversations between themselves, than tending to their patrons. It is a very young team and would benefit from a duty manager overseeing what they’re doing and making sure that diners are being properly looked after. I assume there would have been one working this evening but he/she was clearly not doing their job. Food-wise, very good, in this regard you can’t fault them and Wagamama consistently delivers in this department. The Duck Gyoza were crispy and delicious, my partners Green Curry was excellent and my Steak Soba was every bit as good as usual. Whilst I will certainly visit one of their establishments again, it won’t be this one. Can’t recommend.

N.B. The amount of 5 star reviews being given for this place, by people who only have one review to their name, is evidence of staff and friends trying to prop up its reputation. Don’t be fooled, this is the worst service you will receive by...

Decided to come here for lunch as a party of four - me, my mum and my younger siblings.

We were quickly seated at a freshly cleaned table, and were looked after by a very friendly waitress called Ellie - who checked on us throughout our stay at Wagamama's, ensuring that everything was alright and asking if we needed anything else.

For food, we ordered three bowls of Shirodashi Pork Belly ramen and one bowl of Spicy Vegan Short 'rib’ ramen. To go with our orders we ordered one tropical juice, one peach ice tea, one coke, and one cherry blossom lemonade.

The pork belly in the shirodashi melted in our mouths, the accompanying vegetables, noodles and tea-stained egg tasted brilliant - I especially enjoyed the bamboo shoots and couldn't help but eat those first. The broth however tasted slightly curious as we could not tell if a fish or chicken stock had been used - however even that was a delight to taste!

The spicy vegan short 'rib' ramen took a little longer to arrive than the Shirodashi pork belly ramens did, however upon asking my younger sister (who had ordered it) how it tasted, she said she absolutely enjoyed it and would make it one of her favourites to order again. She enjoyed how thick the noodles were, and said that each part of her meal complimented each other greatly.

As far as the drinks went, everyone of us thoroughly enjoyed our selections! I still wonder if the rose petals in my cherry blossom lemonade were edible or not, but I have to admit it did give quite a unique flavour to my drink.

Overall it was a fantastic experience today, and it's so great to have a Wagamama closer...

To start off, due to Deliveroo not being able to take out certain things such as chilli oil🤦‍♀️ Me and my boyfriend called up Waggamammas Southend and asked if it were possible to remove this oil in the beef brisket ramen. I didn’t think it was so difficult as she sounded confident in the fact that it would have no chilli oil in it. We didn’t wait long for our food which is actually the only reasonable thing to this, once it arrives we instantly realised it did in fact contain this chilli oil. Is it really that difficult for them to not add it after being told? absolutely ridiculous. I then called up and the same women answered, I explained that the order did have chilli oil and she was snarky and quite oblivious to the fact that it was the one thing we asked the leave out. She said how she double checked with the chef, liar. I’m not happy and all I got was offered for me to order more food from them, not even a refund. I wish I got a lady’s name as she was not helpful and clearly not capable of getting one single task done. I would like to add I did spend over £30 on this order and requested one small ask. Below is the photo after I removed all the noodles, as you can see that’s not the colour of something that doesn’t have chilli oil in, people now a-days🤦‍♀️you can practically see the chilli flakes inside. She did say she thinks It would have been the kimchi mixing in but I have had it removed before and I mixed the kimchi in with the noodles and it still doesn’t taste at all spicy Waggamammas sort yourself out or give...