Wagamama: Japanese Restaurant & Noodle Bar...

(Image courtesy of Wagamama).

I don't know about you lovelies but I love trying out new restaurants. Especially when I'm in a new place, city, town or even country. I love exploring and finding little hidden gems and cosy restaurants. I just get excited at the prospect of trying something new!

A lot of you have probably heard of Wagamama and have probably been there, it's not a new restaurant that's just opened or anything, but I'm aware that some of you might not have one in the exact place that you live and that you may have to travel to get to one. This is what I did recently, it's somewhere I've always wanted to try and our nearest one is in Birmingham and although me and Si have been to Birmingham many times, there's always been other places we've gone to eat/drink first, so when I was given the opportunity to sample some of their menu, I was definitely up for giving it a try and I love Asian cuisine in general so I was just thinking...yum! Ha.

If any of you are familiar with Birmingham, we (me and my mum) went to the one situated in the Bullring Shopping Centre, well just outside in St. Martin's Square, opposite St. Martin's church. We'd just been shopping for about four hours so we were really hungry and parched! The first thing I noticed when we walked in was that it was quite dark, not ridiculously dark where you couldn't see the menu or what you were eating but I noticed they had these blinds on the windows which kind of took the natural daylight out of the restaurant. I gathered they were trying to stop the sun from coming in and it being too hot, but yeah, I noticed it was a little dark. We were greeted straight away by a waitress called Sarah who was smiley and noticed we had shopping bags and asked us about our day and if we were shopping for any particular reason. She was on hand during the majority of our visit and didn't have us waiting long at all for anything. She must have finished her shift half way through as another lady started waitressing for us, but all in all I noticed that all the staff were friendly, polite and approachable, which of course is what everyone wants!

I loved the look of the restaurant, it had long wooden tables with benches and place mats with different dishes on them so you could see what a certain dish would look like, should you order it. There was also cutlery already on the tables in a pot, along with chopsticks. Chilli oil, chilli flakes, soy sauce and less salt soy sauce were also provided on each table. I did say to my mum that the main menu would fit lovely on the back of the paper place mats, they were large enough for it. We were handed the main menu which also consisted of drinks and then the dessert menu at the end of our meal when we were offered one. You could also see the open kitchen, where all the lovely food was being cooked. I will say that I was a little bit hot on that particular day and I was struggling, to the point where I had to keep ordering cold drinks to keep me cool. My mum said she was okay, so I guess it was just me!

Layout of the Birmingham Bullring restaurant.

(Image courtesy of Wagamama).

Cutlery and condiments already on each table.

The open kitchen at the back.

To start with we ordered some fresh juices, I ordered the regular Raspberry Rush (£3.40), which consisted of raspberries and apples. My mum had the regular Tropical Juice (£3.40), which consisted of mango, apple and orange juice. I was expecting the juice to be 'a juice', to me the texture was more like a smoothie and at that precise moment when I got into the restaurant I needed something to quench my thirst, so as nice as it was, it didn't really do the job. Also, I didn't feel it was cold enough, it was more like room temperature. I don't know if this was a one off or that's just how they're made, but my mum was fine with hers because she doesn't like really cold drinks, but it didn't really feel cold at all if I'm honest. It was a hot day overall and like I say I don't know whether this is standard or whether the weather played a part or what, but you know, just being honest.

Tropical Juice on the left and Raspberry Rush on the right.

Mother dearest enjoying her fruit juice!

When it came to ordering the food we decided to order the Teriyaki Chicken Donburi (£9.30 - grilled juicy chicken glazed with orange teriyaki sauce, sticky white rice, with thin sliced carrots, pea shoots, spring onion and sesame seeds, with a side of spicy kimchee (pickled vegetables) - for me, but we tried each others), the Chicken Tama Rice (£8.70 - grilled chicken breast stir fried with courgettes, mushrooms, red and spring onions in an oyster, ginger, garlic and wine sauce, served on sticky white rice - for mum), the Wok Fried Greens (£4.25 - tender stem broccoli and bak choi, stir fried in garlic and soy sauce) and Lollipop Prawn Kushiyaki (£6.25 - skewers of grilled prawns marinated in lemongrass, lime and chilli, glazed with a sweet-sour hot sauce and served with a caramelised lime). We were told that the food is all cooked fresh and so could come out at different times, which we said was fine, but we didn't have to wait long at all and our mains came first, with the side dishes coming shortly afterwards. I chose mine because the idea of meat, veg and rice to me is just like heaven in a bowl. I love teriyaki flavours and this dish sounded like it'd be right up my street. I also love soy sauce, so half way through eating my main, I put some more soy sauce on mine :) happy days! It was delish. Mum's dish was also lovely, mine was more of a solid dish, where as hers came in a sauce. It's hard to go into detail with these dishes but it was just hearty, homely, comfort food and you could imagine sitting with your feet up on the sofa, all cosy, watching TV and tucking into food like this. The wok fried greens were amazing, I'd say to eat these quite quickly or mix them in with your main dishes as they can go cold quite quickly but the garlic and soy sauce they were stir fried in was just mmmmmm, I could have had that dish keep coming ha ha! The lollipop prawns were a different story for me, mum loved them but she's always loved prawns, I gave them a try because I loved the sound of the overall flavours and although I do like fish, I think it's clear I prefer meaty fish rather than the rubbery type, which mum told me prawns do tend to be, so yes, although the flavours were yummy, the prawns weren't for me!

Chicken Tama Rice.

Teriyaki Chicken Donburi.

Wok Fried Greens.

Lollipop Prawn Kushiyaki.

A Sprite (£2.30 for a glass bottle) and a water (this was free, so I gather it was tap water as on the menu it says a 330 ml water is £2.00 and a 750 ml water is £3.95) later (for thirsty young me!), we were asked if we wanted the dessert menu and although I didn't want anything, mum made the decision to order the Passion Fruit Cheesecake (£5.50 - a smooth and creamy cheesecake served with a sweet passion fruit sauce). The kind lady brought two spoons over with this, so I tried a little...you know, for research sake! I'm not really a dessert person and if I do choose a dessert, I tend to have something quite mellow. I love cheesecake normally, but I was so hot, I didn't really fancy a sweet dessert, but I tried a little and it was realllllllly sweet. Mum was loving it but I don't think I'd order that again for myself because it was so sweet. Bare in mind this is my opinion, I know there are plenty of sweet toothed lovelies out there that would prob love this, but as another option they do have a taster portion of three desserts (a small taster portion of each of the passion fruit, white chocolate and ginger and chocolate fudge cake), so this might be something better for the less sweet toothed peeps amongst you all. Mum also had a large cappuccino (£2.60) in a very stylish looking square glass, which I loved! She said it was very creamy and moreish and I thought reasonably priced for a large one considering what you pay in some high street coffee shops.

Passion Fruit Cheesecake.

In total our bill came to £43.10, which we didn't feel was too bad considering what we had (a main each, two sides, one dessert, two fruit juices, a Sprite and a cappuccino). If we were paying we would have split this, so just over £20 isn't bad for a nice treat of a tea/dinner out. It was nearly 5pm by the time we got to the restaurant and it filled us up for the rest of the night.

It was lovely trying out somewhere new and the food is right up my street so it's definitely somewhere I'd go again and take my Fiance. He loves the same kind of Asian cuisine so I know he'd love it too, he's already said he likes the sound of the Chicken Katsu Curry! We even left a tip as it was always service with a smile and the staff were always on hand should you need anything. We didn't really fancy alcohol during this visit, but I think next time I might give their plum wine a try, which is also served with sparkling water and ice.

You can view their website here, with full photo's of their menu so you can see what you like the look of before you go to the restaurant. Also, find out where your nearest restaurant is. If you want to see a menu with prices, you can view the main menu and the dessert and hot drinks menu. I love that you can view the menu on their website using a dietary menu filter, so if you're vegetarian, vegan or just looking for food that doesn't contain a certain ingredient you can tick certain boxes and the menu will be unique for you!

What's your experience with Wagamama?

What are your favourite dishes and if you haven't been there yet, what would you love to try?

Thanks so much for reading!
Gem XxOo
*

Frankie & Benny's Blackpool (July 2012)...

When I was offered a £50 voucher to try out a Frankie & Benny's restaurant and their food, I jumped at the chance. I knew me and Si were going to Blackpool at the beginning of July and I knew they had a restaurant there, so I thought this would be the perfect chance to use it, whilst we are away enjoying ourselves anyway :-). I have never been to a Frankie & Benny's restaurant, but knew that it was American themed. I have been to Planet Hollywood before, which is the same kind of theme and thought it was great there, so I was excited to see what this restaurant and their food was like. You can find out a bit more about the history of Frankie and Benny's, on their website. I think it's always interesting with big chain restaurants to find out a bit more about their background and how they began.


Before I begin, I think it's important to let you know that a voucher was sent to me through the post. So a table wasn't booked by the company that sent me the voucher, the restaurant didn't know I was coming at all, let alone what day or time. I always feel totally comfortable when I am carrying out restaurant reviews this way. I have turned down companies who wanted me to review a restaurant/pub food in the past because they said they would have to book me in so that the restaurant/pub knew I was coming and that I didn't have to pay. I don't feel comfortable doing this as obviously they know I am coming and it is more than likely that the PR company or the company that has booked me in has said that I don't have to pay and am carrying out a review. If I did a review like this, I wouldn't know whether the people serving me were genuine in their customer service or just putting it on because they know I am doing a review, let alone if they had made the food perfect just for the purpose of my review etc and they obviously don't want a bad one.


Frankie and Benny's in Blackpool is a little bit behind the main promenade and isn't immediately visible whilst walking, so I would suggest finding out where it is before you set off. We used a map on our phones to find out where it was and then after getting a tram to the central pier, we walked there. It took us about 15 minutes to actually walk there because we weren't initially sure where it was, so we ended up walking down side streets etc (where the map was directing us) and then when we came out, we saw the promenade/sea straight ahead, so we just walked straight up and it took us less time, probably about 5-10 minutes. It is located in Festival Park, which also has a cinema, a spa and car parking facilities. You can view a map on their website, to find out how to get there yourself :-).

The restaurant is open from 9am every morning for breakfast and closes at 11pm every night, apart from Sunday when it closes at 10:30pm. The first thing I noticed when we walked in was the American memorabilia on the walls and the fact that most of the seats were comfy booths, so that people could feel like they have their own privacy. It looked clean and welcoming and within our first few steps into the restaurant we were greeted by the manager, who clearly saw there were two of us and asked if we wanted a table for two. We of course said yes and a waiter came over to her and asked if she wanted him to direct us to our table. She agreed and so he greeted us and asked how we were and if we had ever been there before. We hadn't, so we told him this. He took us over to a table for two (the booths were big enough for families, so prob too big for us, although I'm sure if we would have asked to sit in a booth, he would have let us), which we were perfectly happy with. He asked if the table was ok and we said yes. There were no other people around us, so we felt comfortable sitting there. As we hadn't been there before, he showed us the menu's and the special menu's and asked if we wanted any garlic bread/dough balls to start us off. We weren't too sure at first what to go for as we had literally just sat down, but we both like garlic bread so we went for that. He also asked us if we wanted any drinks, but I said can we have a few mins to look at the cocktail menu, in which he replied of course and that he would be back with us soon to take our drink orders. The waiter was very happy, chirpy and it felt like it wasn't a chore for him to serve us and make us feel welcome.

We had a look at the cocktail menu and there was a lot to choose from, the prices were average. We are used to seeing cocktails priced around £4-5 (which these were), but noticed you could get some cocktail pitchers for £11.45, which is a great price, considering what we are used to. The waiter gave us enough time to have a proper look at the menu (about 5-10 mins), so when he came to take our order we went for a Mai Tai (which we remember drinking in LA when we went in 2010), we never seem to find them when we are out drinking where we live, so it was nice to see it on a menu. We ended up having two pitchers of this throughout the night ha...well we were there to enjoy ourselves! It was so tasty and reminded us of LA so much, so it definitely bought back some memories. Our garlic bread came before our pitcher (it was with us in about 10 mins from when we were first asked if we wanted it) and it was bought to us by a waitress (who then remained with us throughout the night), Alex her name was. So, I don't know what happened to our waiter, he was probably told to swap areas or something, but it wasn't a big deal. Anyway, we told her we had ordered a pitcher aswell, reminded her what it was and she said she would go and see how it was getting on. It then arrived with us about 5 mins later. The garlic bread was delicious. We are used to having garlic bread on ciabatta in restaurants/pubs at home, this one was like a pizza, on a thin crispy base, with loads of flavour! It was a little bit greasy, but definitely full of flavour.

After Alex could see that we had finished our garlic bread, she came and asked us if we had decided what to order. We were looking at the main menu/specials menu whilst we were eating our garlic bread, so we were deciding, but we asked for a few more minutes because there was so much on the menu and I didn't know what I fancied to be honest, so I was being awkward and taking a while lol, but not on purpose...I promise! Ha. I must say that again Alex was happy and chirpy and made us feel welcome and not a bother at all. After she had asked us twice if we were ready to order (which we weren't lol), the third time was lucky and we had finally decided. We decided to go for the specials menu and choose two courses for £10.95, which we thought was a really good price! You could also top up to three courses for an extra £2.25, but we weren't sure if we wanted dessert yet, so we left it at two courses. There are only a number of things on the specials menu though and if you're feeling picky and not sure what you fancy, there might not be enough choice on there for you. It took me a while to decide what I wanted! So, I went for the Southern Blue Mushroom to start with and the New Yorker Pasta for my main. Si went for the Buffalo Chicken Wings to start and the Double Pepperoni Pizza for his main. I'd say our starters were with us in about 20 mins and when we had finished our plates were collected almost immediately and she said she would give our main meals the go ahead. It then took about 10-15 mins for those to come. Overall, we didn't have to wait long for our food at all, but it was enough time to let our previous food go down, allow us to relax and chat some more. We never felt like they were rushing to get our food out to get us out of the restaurant and our food was always delivered nicely presented (apologies for some of the half-eaten food pictures, we couldn't resist the food and sometimes forgot to take a pic straight away, oops!) and hot!

                              My Starter.                                                      Si's Starter.

                                My Main.                                                           Si's Main.

My mushrooms were to die for! This is one of my favourite starters, wherever I go to eat. It might not be the exact same thing, but I love mushrooms with cheese...so yummy! The balsamic glaze added a bit of sweetness to the dish aswell, so the savoury-ness of the cheese with the sweetness of the balsamic was a perfect match. Si enjoyed his Buffalo Chicken Wings. They came tossed in a Louisiana hot sauce, which Si said wasn't too hot (but he does have a palette for hot/spicy foods), so something I think is hot, he wouldn't think is. He asked for the wings to come with sweet chilli sauce, instead of the blue cheese dip and they changed that for him no problem. My main was ok and nice at the time but I don't think I'd have it again if I were to go there. That's nothing against the dish itself or anything they did to make me not like it, I think it's just to do with my palette/preferences etc. I mean I love chicken breast, pasta and cheese sauce, but I think this dish had other ingredients that I didn't think would be so prominent in the dish. The chilli that was tossed with the pasta and cheese sauce for example was actually jalapeno chillies and the sauce had a pepper taste to it (it was described like this on the menu), which I thought was going to be like bell peppers cut up into the sauce, but it wasn't, so the taste was a little hot and peppery for my liking. However, the chillies were easy to pick out as were the pasta and chicken (to eat with less sauce on them). Si really enjoyed his pizza, he said it was very New York style, loaded with flavour and whilst he said it was a little greasy, he enjoyed this aspect of the pizza.

After we had finished our mains, our dishes were taken from us within 5-10 mins of us finishing. We then started looking at the dessert menu, as we both decided we wanted something fresh and light. So, Alex could see we were looking at the dessert menu and after about 10 mins of us looking at it, she came over to see if we wanted anything. We both went for lighter option sorbets (I went for Lemon, whilst Si went for Mango), which were two scoops of our chosen sorbet, with a sprig of mint on top. At this point we also ordered another Mai Tai pitcher :-). We waited about 10 mins for our sorbet and 15 mins for our pitcher. Considering our sorbets were lighter options (which to me means smaller portions), they still came in tall glasses and looked full.

                                              Lemon Sorbet and Mango Sorbet.

                                  (Apologies about the half eaten desserts :-/).

They were really refreshing though and cleansed our palettes. The thing with sorbet is that once I start eating it, I could just keep eating it lol sooo nice! My lemon one wasn't too bitter, which was good. Si said his was a little bit sickly after a while, so I let him have some of mine, cause I'm nice like that he, he.

After we had finished our desserts, again our glasses were taken from us within about 5 mins and we were asked if we would like anything else. At this point we were ok, we were just going to chill for a bit and finish our second Mai Tai :-). We took a bit of time to look around the restaurant whilst we were relaxing and noticed that the place was full of mainly couples like me and Si or families with kids. When we first arrived there weren't many people there, it was a weekday (10th July...ignore the date on the camera, it's set wrong) and about 5pm, so most people were probably finishing work etc. By this time, the restaurant was pretty full and there were a lot of birthdays in. Every so often, the waiters/waitresses would take a lit cake over to a table where it was someones birthday, sing Happy Birthday (whilst clapping), some people in the restaurant would also join in and then Congratulations by Cliff Richard would come on. This happened a few times within the night, but it's always nice to see people out celebrating their special occasions. Throughout our meal, 1950's classic songs were played and even though we were born in the 80's, we still found ourselves having a little sing to ourselves/bopping along to the tunes haha. It wasn't depressing, boring music, it was quite uplifting and not so loud, so we could still hear ourselves talk. We also noticed a waitress going around with balloons for the kids, so this is something that probably happens in all F&B's, or if not, I'm sure they can be asked for :-). The table, chairs, menu's, glasses, cutlery etc were nice and clean and the table wasn't sticky. They had a nice American style bar area, with all the spirits stacked up at the back and bar stools, so you could just go in and have a drink if you wanted to. I personally didn't go to the toilet whilst we were there, but Si did and he said the men's toilets had chequered walls and floors and were nice and clean (surprising for a men's toilet). I also noticed aswell, whilst I was waiting for Si to come back from the toilet, just before we were about to leave that there was a little taxi intercom thing where you could call a taxi for free.

After we had finished our Mai Tai, we got Alex's attention and asked for the bill. Another thing to add is that we didn't have to show our voucher when we first arrived, so just another little disclaimer to say that they didn't know we were there to do a review/had a voucher...sometimes these things need to be said lol. She bought it over to us and originally it came to £60.35. This could be considered pricey for one meal and had we not had the voucher, we prob would have thought it a little expensive. However, we did have a 3 course meal and two cocktail pitchers. So, there was always room to make it cheaper if we wanted to and had we not had the voucher we prob would have had a main and dessert each and just one pitcher. We gave Alex our voucher and she said she would just go and take it off the bill and bring another one back with what we had to pay. Si noticed she went and asked the manager about something with our voucher, but it was probably how to put it into the till or balance our items out minus the £50. Anyway, Alex came back after a few mins and gave us our new bill which was £10.35. She said in a chirpy, happy manner that it was a cheap one for us tonight (due to the voucher) and we had a laugh about it, when she asked if I had won it, I said no I had been sent it to review the restaurant/food/service etc she said 'ooh, that's good, you'll have to get some of these more often'. I just felt so good knowing that her service/manner was 100% true and honest. We gave her the money for our bill and left her a £3 tip. We like leaving tips if we feel we have been treated well whilst out for food, if our food was nice, service was good etc and it all was, so we felt she deserved it :-).

This is definitely a restaurant that I would go back to again. We don't have one in our town, but we have one not far from us. I think it's a nice place to go for someones birthday as the atmosphere is lovely, there is a LARGE selection of food and drink (I forgot to mention they do of course sell soft drinks and beers/ciders and wines), especially if you want to have a few cocktails to celebrate! The service, cleanliness and waiting times could be different in all Frankie and Benny's restaurants, but I do know that in this one, we had nothing to complain about :-).

Sometimes with restaurant reviews it can be easy to forget to mention something, so if there is anything you would like to know about the restaurant we went to, feel free to ask. In terms of basic info, you can find out a lot on the website. If you want to find your nearest Frankie and Benny's, you can do here and all menu's are available to download online, so you can have a look before you go :-).

Have you ever been to a Frankie and Benny's restaurant? What did you think?

Thanks so much for reading my post...don't forget to like, comment and follow my blog for more posts :-).

Gem XxOo

Disclaimer: As stated above, I received a £50 voucher (to use at any Frankie and Benny's restaurant), to consider doing a review of the above restaurant and their food. I can't guarantee that every Frankie and Benny's restaurant will be the same as what I have described above. The restaurant weren't aware that I was coming and so this review isn't biased at all. My opinions are 100% honest as always.