Wagamama Fremantle

Posted December 2nd, 2008 in Eat Out in Perth - Japanese Food - 3 Comments »

Recently I had a chance to go to this newly opened Wagamama restaurant in Fremantle.  It was my first time to try their food whilst Wagamama Subiaco has been there in Perth for a while.  

It was actually pre-opening launch party and all the food I had was free!  (even though there was a limit of “1 entree & 1 main per person”, seven of us ordered different dishes and shared all) Free food… nothing is better than this:)

The atmosphere was great – casual layout and friendly staff, although I noticed that the cuisine is not really a Japanese.  These are the food we ordered↓↓↓

We started with freshly squeezed juice as a waitress strongly recommended them to us.  The left is mixed fruit juice and the right is apple+mint+lime.

We ordered 3 kinds of Gyoza: Duck, Chicken and Ebi (prawn).  Only the sauce for Duck gyoza contains Hoisin sauce because of its strong taste and flavour: the other sauce (for chicken, ebi and yasai (vege)) are normal Gyoza sauce. (which is soy sauce based, with dash of sesame oil and sometimes with ra-yu)

Tori Kara Age (Deep-fried marinated chicken) is normally larger pieces of chicken but I guess this is Wagamama style.

A kind of Yakitori dish.  (negi = spring onion)  They tasted ok!

The dipping sauce was lime syrup!(with a slice of fresh chili)  Fusion of spiciness and sweetness.

Chicken Kare and Ebi Kare Ramen.  They are definitely not Japanese food as this Kare (curry) contains coconut cream and tasted like Laksa soup.  If you eat it as some kind of Asian noodle, it tastes great.

Yaki Udon (stir-fried udon noodle) is one of my favorite:)  The plain Yaki Udon came with a sprinkle of fish floss on the top.

Slices of beef steak was nicely cooked (medium) and delicious, though the noodle was little too soft and it wasn’t to my taste.

(traditional) Japanese cuisine doesn’t use coconut, chili, coriander, Hoisin sauce, red onion, bok choy etc….  Very different.

The first Wagamama was established in London few decades ago by a Hong Kong business man, and now there are about 50 Wagamama restaurants in London, few in France, Dubai, Holland, Australia… and more!  Amazing….

 It’s interesting that there is no Wagamama restaurants in most of Asian countries.  The target marketing must be non-Japanese people.  I don’t think this Wagamama restaurant can survive in Japan either:p  Different market.  But I think the food and atmosphere are great for a casual dining experience 🙂

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