wagamama reading — Restaurant in Reading

I didn't think one could get ramen wrong, but they've managed. We've ordered the "marinated chicken" ramen, the beef one, the no duck donburi, the prawn yaki soba and some starters. The yaki soba came immediately, 2 minutes after we've finished ordering. Not surprisingly, the noodles were cold and not "sizzling from the grill". The plate was most likely been sitting in the kitchen, waiting for someone to order. The starters were good. The ramen was awful. A sticky mess of noodles one could barely eat. My daughters were hungry and yet they just couldn't even eat half of it. They're most telling comment was: "Dad, the ramen noodles from the Asian shop are three times better than these". The so called "grilled marinated chicken" was a slab of white chicken breast with no trace of marinating or grill ever coming near it. Just the top had a brown trace to make it look the part. The donburi was awfully sweet from all the Hoisin sauce they've threw in there, my wife wasn't able to finish it either. As cold as it came, the yaki soba was the most decent dish. But nowhere near what a plethora of 5 star reviews would warrant. I'm lead to believe all the rave reviews are from people who either never tasted proper Asian food, never tried to cook it, or perhaps always had these poor chain restaurant versions. Here in Reading, do yourself a favour and walk the 10 minutes up the road to the Thai Corner and have a proper Asian meal. You will...

Horrific Service. What a joke. I’m not one to complain or make reviews but this was shocking.

Where to start ?

Me and my girlfriend came to the reading Wagamama’s store for some light food and a drink on a quiet Sunday. I ordered a tofu pad Thai and my girlfriend ordered some gyozas. We were not told anything about separate delivery times and haven’t been before so didn’t know how they operate.

We tried to order drinks on the menu but all apart from two drinks were not being served as the “ menu was changing “. We proceeded to order the only available drinks and were asked for id. ( fair enough as we are in our early 20s )

The drinks came and they were amazing. Though mojito served in a gin glass is not normal.

My pad Thai came quite swiftly, but I had to wait 20 minutes for the gyozas to come. I asked a couple of staff to check on where they are. No reply. I also had to ask multiple people for cutlery and sauce.

When the gyozas finally came I asked for them to heat up my food and complained to why it didn’t come at the same time. I was replied with “ we don’t do that at Wagamama and you should have been told”. Which is understandable. If I knew then I wouldn’t need to write this.

According to my gf the woman’s toilets are also gross, one of then were clogged and a sink had toilet paper all over it. The floor was also covered.

In the end we paid and left. It’s upsetting that a lovely Sunday had to take such a...

We went for a casual family dinner, they don’t take bookings so we turned up and waited outside for about 15 minutes. They handed out little cups of green tea to people waiting which I thought was a good idea. Once inside they ushered us into a table (we felt so lucky to get proper seats instead of the benches with no back support) and provided us menus (new all vegan menus take way problems of wondering which dishes we can have)

Our waiter Adam was very helpful and patient with requests for customisation and credit to him/chefs that the food was as requested despite the restaurant being busy.

Drinks arrived soon and the food started arriving in about 10 minutes. There was a nearly 10 minute wait between first and last dishes which isn’t great for a family dinner. The food was great and the quantity was sufficient. My son loved him ramen noodles (with the massive ladle to eat it with), we also had the katsu curry with rice (love the sticky rice) and yasai pad thai. The “positive juice” my wife ordered was refreshing so I wish I chose that instead.

As a no-frills dining experience (no bookings, benches for seating, pay on mobile) I would say it is quite expensive so we won’t be frequenting it but a good place to go from...