Restaurant Review: Wagamama, Lakeside

Image courtesy Mars of Epicurean Age

Last Saturday, after dropping my son off at his Cub Scouts sleepover venue, the Spouse and I set off with the Child in search of a restaurant. For some reason, he was keen on Wagamama. I wasn’t because I wasn’t too sure that there would be many vegetarian options on offer. But nothing ventured, nothing gained so we set off to  our closest restaurant at the Lakeside Shopping Mall in Thurrock.

It proved to be a sound decision for the meal was really good! The waitress was nice and smiley without being patronising, the food arrived on time, piping hot and it tasted rather nice too.

I plumped for the two vegetarian options, going for the Yakai Gyoza or the steamed, grilled dumplings, served with a sweet ginger dipping sauce. I am a huge fan of Chinese dim-sums and was quite keen to find out how these fared in comparison with those. These weren’t so light and airy as the Chinese variety but nonetheless, were quite tasty. The portion size was decent and it arrived hot and smelling faintly of coconut oil! Even my daughter tried a couple and enjoyed them thoroughly.

For my main, I had the Yasai Katsu curry, which was sweet potato, butternut squash and aubergine patty coated in breadcrumbs and fried and served with a curry sauce and sticky white rice. There was also a side salad with some red pickle. I have to say – this tasted simply superb. I was a bit worried about the patty being fried but as I did not want noodles, I didn’t have very many options. Ultimately I was glad I went with this because the curry gravy was mildly spicy which was a very pleasant taste. Minty tried the patties with some rice and she really enjoyed these.

The Spouse, being a meat-eater, went for non-veg options for both starter and mains. He went for dumplings too, choosing the plain Gyasa, which were chicken and vegetable dumplings. For main, he had the Chicken Tama Rice, which was grilled chicken breast, stir fried with courgettes, mushrooms, red onions and spring onions in an oyster-wine sauce. This too was served with sticky rice. He thoroughly enjoyed them both and was thoroughly satisfied.

As we were quite full at the end of our main course, we both declined pudding. While my waist and hips thanked this decision, I was sorely tempted as there were some real corkers on offer – cheesecakes, chocolate fudge cakes and ice creams. The family in the adjoining table had the coconut ice cream and I could hear their delight with it.

Overall, I would class our dinner a success. The restaurant ticked all the boxes – we were seated quickly and efficiently and there was no delay in procuring a child seat for Minty. Our waitress arrived straightaway with our menus and gave us enough time to peruse it and place our orders. She engaged with Minty and put her at ease right off the bat. She didn’t bat an eyelid when I said I will share my food with my daughter but just brought her a plate and some special wooden training chop sticks for Minty to try!

My requests for regular cutlery were entertained quickly and I didn’t feel like a mug for not being able to work wonders with the chop sticks. The food arrived promptly and our table was cleared quietly and efficiently the minute we finished a course. The bill was brought in unobtrusively and we paid up and were out mere minutes after finishing our meal.

So, Wagamama Lakeside gets a big thumbs up from me. It is a place you can easily take your child to and the whole family can have  a good time.