Hello Everyone!
Welcome to Local Gastronome, where good food is all that matters.
Recently I was in London and craving a bit of ramen, we were in a bit of a rush so we popped into Wagamama’s to grab something to eat before heading to the O2 to see Childish Gambino (which was amazing btw). Now can I just say. I love ramen. I love making ramen. I love eating ramen. I love ramen.
I often choose ramen when I go into Wagamama and it is always nice but that’s it, just nice. It doesn’t quite match up to a proper bowl of ramen but definitely does the trick once you’ve added a dash of soy sauce and chilli oil. But when we popped in I saw they had a couple of new additions including: chilli prawn + kimchee ramen and tantanmen beef brisket ramen. I love kimchee, but the sound of korean bbq beef brisket drew me in.
I will say the beef was extremely nice, it was tender and had a nice kick to it. There was some kimchee in this ramen, which I’ve never had from wagamama before, which was really good. Its hard to go wrong with kimchee tbh, I don’t imagine they make their own but I would be impressed if they did. The main thing that disappointed me was the broth. I was talking to my friend about broth and she said “just chicken water with not much flavour”, to which I replied “yes but that’s a bad broth”. A good broth is one of my favourite things to eat and unfortunately wagamama just doesn’t perform particularly well in that department. The tantanmen beef brisket ramen is supposed to be accompanied by the ‘extra rich chicken broth’, but it was extremely light and did not have much added flavour. All the other ramen components were very nice, but the broth is what lets it down.
Despite this I won’t lie, I would maybe order this again, I would just know what to expect. Sometimes a light broth is what you want. However, seeing as they do offer a “light” broth, next time I will say when I’m ordering “please can I have the extra rich broth” just to ensure that it comes with the correct broth.
Overall, was it worth the calories? I think next time I would more likely go for the wagamama ramen as it comes with loads of different meats/seafood, or if I’m feeling like a treat, I would go for the chicken katsu curry – a classic. I would also highly recommend their fried duck gyoza, the dipping sauce is delicious!
Rating (out of 5): 🍔🍔🍔
*noting that it was mostly the broth that let this dish down
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