Wagamama: Noodles and ramen

Ginger's Gutschein Guide
For those who’ve never Wagamama-ed, it’s a Japanese food specialist but less sushi, more noodles and ramen. I’ve been to a couple and the layout is usually the same in all of them: the usual hallway with the display cabinet of various Wagamama paraphernalia, cookbooks (corporate dining at its finest) on display leading you to podium where you wait to be seated. The table layout is very communal with large wooden tables and long wooden benches such that you end up eating your meal with strangers who sometimes become your new best friends (similar to a beer hall but with noodle soup). 

A friendly waitress led us to our table and I could see in my hubby’s eyes that it was time to launch the attack. It would have been folly to attempt this using my very limited German so I opened with my usual “Sprechen Sie Englisch”. Luckily she did speak English very well so I showed her our voucher and she informed us that they would happily accept it and it would be the cheaper of the two main courses ordered that would be removed from our bill.   The weight was then lifted, the reaction to our voucher couldn’t have been nicer but I was banking on Wagamama to ease us into this experience. I do still wonder how it would go down in a well to do establishment like, say, the Dolder Grand.

 Stress over with, it was then on to the fun part. To drink, Hubby ordered a large apple and orange juice while I ordered a glass of Santa Christina, Italian red wine, soft, fruity and a perfect accompaniment to my mood. 

 On the night, starters arrived first. I had ordered the Beef Yakitori and my other half the Duck Gyoza (dumplings) but who ordered what was irrelevant for starters as it’s usually a sharing free for all with us.  The gyoza did not disappoint - they never do. They are our Wagamama staple. The Yakitori was a new one for us, skewered stripes of beef seasoned in a soy and peanut sauce. Delicious. Word of warning to any ‘well-done’ beef eaters out there, it’s served quite bloody but this is highly masked by the sauce. For us, the bloodier the better. 

 Since I was a bit adventurous with the starter, I decided to stick to my favourite dish on the menu for the main, Chicken Katsu Curry, deep fried strips of breaded chicken breast served underneath a bed of steamed rice, covered in an delectable curry sauce, and garnished with a side salad. So simple, so tasty, I am getting a food boner reliving it as I type. Hubby’s main was the Ginger Chicken Udon. I managed to get a taste and, whilst flavoursome it was, it was maybe lacking in moistness or a sauce for my liking. He seemed happy out with it though.

We did contemplate desert but there was just nothing jumping out at us to share and neither of us wanted a full one (typical gays) so we just asked for the bill and handed over our Prozentbuch voucher. There was a brief trill of excitement trying to speculate how little we would be out of pocket for all the delicious food we had just eaten and when it did arrive it brought smiles to our faces. All that food for 69.70 CHF and with tip we both spent exactly 40CHF and had two very full bellies.  

So the first Gutchein experience was a very pleasant one, but I planned for it to be. Let’s see how the rest go.