exordinarily ordinary

A tail of a girl..

Friday, August 18, 2006

Wagamama's hit Leeds!

I did not realize how much I'm into noodles until I moved here. Spoilt by the variety of Vietnamese pho shops and mid night wonton place in San Francisco, I had never experienced a country which deprived me of my noodles.Until I moved to the Land of the Greasy Chowmein.

So it was with pleasant anticipation when I heard the name wagamama's mentioned. I remember slurping down steaming bowls of noodles a long time ago when it had a branch in Bangsar - where Red Chamber now is (or has Red Chamber closed down too?!). I remember the cool PDA thingys that they used to key our order in...hey, in 1998 PDAs WERE a novelty ok!! Huge bowls and huge spoons were a novelty then as well - and wagamama's were the first to use impossibly huge bowls and spoons.

It opened its Leeds doors on 31st July, and like good little puppies, I dragged Bacon and mommy bacon there the day after - don't blame me, I didn't find out it was open until the 1st,otherwise I would be there waiting for it to open its doors.In the typical style of a posh noodle bar, communal eating had never been more in-style in the UK. Long tables and long benches...it serves its food whenever it is ready ,so starters arrive after the main course.Which is good in a way; get it down you whilst its hot.

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Prawn gyoza - strange how they deep fry gyozas and not panfry. The usual dipping sauce of red vinegar is replaced by some poor imitation of rice vinegar dilluted with some sort of liquid.Apparently their duck gyoza is so good it sold out the second day it was open for business.

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Chicken Katsu - if you've ever eaten at any Jap restaurant with me,you would spot that this one's mine! Extremely cute presentation..the rice is shaped into a bottom-down currypuff with strips of fried chicken underneath it like legs. Japanese sweet curry is splashed all over it like ice cream topping. It came with a small salad-like thing at the side - yummylicious!

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Mommy Bacon contemplating her huge ginger and lemongrass yaki soba.Very light tinge of lemongrass and ginger, it was not flavourful enough for my tastebuds,but she loved it and polished the whole platterfull off - using her chopsticks,she was proud to add.

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Bacon's Spicy Beef Ramen. Nicely sliced medium-well done beef atop rice sticks (beehoon). Did they not realize ramen means instant noodle aka Indomie or Maggi? Nice nonetheless, but nothing will beat Yo Sushi's Spicy Beef noodle.At £9.20, I thought it was a little overpriced, although it did come with a fair amount of veggies and good quality beef....still nice though,in fact, I polished off half of it.

I ordered a portion of non-refillable miso soup,which was just mediocre, and had the free green tea which was amazingly lukewarm. The mil had a £4 glass of white wine and Bacon had his Asahi

Total damage? £38 = RM 255

can.die.com

But like all idiots, I'm heading towards it again next week.

6 Comments:

Blogger mooiness said...

Wahah food looks awesome. You are not so deprived anymore!

Btw, cannot keep converting the £ to RM lah. You'd go insane. If you look at it dollar-for-dollar, it's actually not too pricey. Almost like Aussie prices if you just consider the numbers and not the currency.

8/18/2006 01:14:00 PM  
Blogger sourrain said...

Yes I'm a little happier now..:)

I'm improving with this pricing thing...I remember when I first moved over,the only places I would eat out is buffet places where I pay £6 and don't eat breakfast, lunch or dinner...just whack the buffet place. I've not returned for 3 long months.

Its just that same price, different currency. The only difference is that salary wise, it is not at par with it's prices...I dont earn 7 times more here than in KL...:(.

8/18/2006 01:46:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

mmmmmmmmm looks yummy :)

8/19/2006 08:16:00 AM  
Blogger Skippy-san said...

Oishii so!

Wagamama means selfish in Japanese. I always thought it was a great word........

The Ramen looks especially tasty.
No Tokidoki bags at my favorite little store. They looked at me like I was speaking Greek!

8/19/2006 02:34:00 PM  
Blogger sourrain said...

Dreybee:Beggers can't be choosers..so I guess it's pretty damn good:)

skippy:
SELFISH!?

That don't sound very nice does it?Hahahha..I've always wondered what it meant.And now I know.

Hahaha,they probably took the hint and is printing them bags right now..:P.

8/21/2006 09:20:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Mili! Wow, food looks so YUMMY! Any other dishes you would recommend? I want to try out the branch in Solihull near us. We have not been to it yet. Will blow my first salary on a meal there! I love the Ramen and your Katsu looks nice too! Pls do update me on new dishes you try so I can get the most out of my experience there! I miss my noodles too!!

8/21/2006 04:03:00 PM  

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