Marugame Udon — Restaurant in London

I went this evening for the second time to the Marugame Udon branch in Waterloo for a later lunch/ early dinner.

I ordered the large Chicken Katsu udon. It lived up to the expectation. It was really good. Let me rewind a few steps to the food preparation.

So I selected the large Chicken Katsu Udon. In front of me there was a friendly staff member that poured the noodles in large bowl, then passed the bowl to her colleague. The second staff member poured this time beautiful brown curry sauce and then placed 2 big crispy chicken Katsu pieces on the curried noodles. 🍜

I was amazed how fast and efficient the staff prepared the food. They then handed to me. I then went to the counter to pay. I was greeted by the kind shift manager Shivam. Very friendly guy.

Afterwards I went to the free condiment section to add some tempura, pickled ginger, and fresh chilli 🌶️ to my noodles.

There’s also a free water 💧 & ice 🧊 dispenser next to the soda machine, which I find is excellent service.

Now back to the food. The noodles very tasty with the curry sauce 🍛. The chicken katsu was nice and crunchy on the outside, soft and tender on the inside. It was a delight.

The restaurant Marugame Udon really has a Japanese restaurant feel to it . Its quite spacious and has a lot of place inside to sit down. The interior design of the restaurant was spot on: Notes of elegance, simplicity and beauty.

I had a nice conversation with shift manager Shivam. He’s very friendly, answered my questions that I had and took my in person feedback on board and told him how much I enjoyed the meal.

Before leaving, I thanked the staff for preparing the delicious Chicken Katsu Udon.

I’ll be definitely coming back when I’m in Waterloo station. Recommend everyone, Londoners & tourists to visit Marugame Udon....

If I can, I would like to give no stars. Absolutely worst experience. The staffs have no clue what they are doing. When I asked what the vegetarian menu is, they had no clue? Okay fair enough, they might be trainee? But still there was only 2 or 3 veg options. I changed my order to Tofu Udon as the staff mentioned they didn’t have Aubergine Katsu curry. But they gave me the Udon without Tofu? Like are you for real??? When I said they my food is missing Tofu, the staff proceeded to say we don’t have Tofu? This doesn’t make sense? Me and my friends signed up for membership to get the tempura to be only told it takes 48 hours to accept? Why did they not mention in the board? Later the staff told me there is tofu at the end and gave me tofu but not a pleasant visit at all. This was my first experience here. Furthermore, there is no attention to details. The staff served my friend, then after 3 minutes, she proceed to ask if my friend made the payment? The manager even closed the door to confirm the receipt? We were the last customers so it wasn’t even busy so how can someone forget who they served a minute ago? I have never been so baffled. I am confused how did this place even get 5 stars? A suggestion would be please train your staff better otherwise soon your business will suffer. I wish you and team a...

I ordered 1 Takoyaki, 1 Curry Temptation, 1 Chicken Katsu Udon (Large), 2 Prawn, and 1 can of Coke. However, the Chicken was missing from my delivery.

I contacted Deliveroo support via chat. Initially, they couldn't provide the restaurant's number. After being transferred to another agent, I finally received it. I called the restaurant, and the manager, Thomas, checked the CCTV footage and claimed the chicken was added to my bag—though he never asked for or confirmed my order number. He then told me to go back to Deliveroo and inform them that he agreed to issue a full refund for the order, and that I could place a new one to receive a proper meal.

Despite that, I was only refunded £11.45, while the Chicken Katsu Udon (Large) costs £13.95, not including the delivery and service fees I may paid again. When I tried to reorder, the restaurant had stopped taking orders (at just 7 PM), so I couldn’t get my meal replaced.

In the end, I received an incomplete refund, couldn’t reorder my meal, and had to settle for cold noodles. The entire experience was frustrating and disappointing. This used to be one of my go-to restaurants, but after this poor service and lack of accountability, I won’t be ordering...