When I first announced to my prospective dining partner, a hulking Hungarian by the name of Igor, that we were off to eat pan-Asian fast food in Heliopolis, he furrowed his pale brow as only someone called Igor can, and announced:
“I don’t do Chinese.
Nevertheless, assured that he would be dining for free, and that this was not really Chinese food but something altogether more hip, he set his misgivings to one side and dutifully tagged along.
The object of our expedition was a new branch of the renowned Wagamama restaurant chain, perched in the upper reaches of the sprawling CityStars shopping mall.
Based on the modern Japanese noodle bar, Wagamama was the brainchild of Hong Kong restaurateur, Alan Yau, who is widely credited with re-invigorating traditional Asian food with the application of modern cooking techniques. The result is a menu combining foods from as far afield as India, China, Vietnam, Thailand and Japan – although sushi-addicts will be disappointed to find a distinct lack of raw fish on offer.
The first restaurant opened in London’s Bloomsbury in 1992, and there are now around 90 outlets in 29 countries, although, interestingly, there are none in Asia. The name translates roughly from Japanese as “willful or naughty child.
Mr Yau’s dream, it seems, was to provide top-quality nosh in a fuss-free environment. Hence the seating arranged in long rows of sturdy tables and comfy benches. Hence also, the use of hand-held computers to take down orders, zapping them to the kitchen with the aid of radio-waves, a method that speeds up the ordering process considerably.
On arrival at the restaurant, we were greeted by a host of smiling waiters, clad in eye-catching red t-shirts, who really couldn’t have been more helpful if they had offered to polish our shoes and massage our shoulders.
We were informed where the toilets were located, introduced to the menu’s numbering system and told that there should be only a one-minute wait between dishes. I half expected a demonstration on where to find my lifejacket.
Our orders were taken swiftly, and arrived within moments.
Igor started out with an adventurous choice: salad. A collection of lettuce leaves, carrots, onions and shallots, it might well have been rather ordinary, but the dressing was a delight – a tantalizing blend of sweet and savory, with a subtlety of taste that I have only ever found in Japanese cuisine. Care was taken with the texture too, rounded off with a sprinkling of something anonymous but decidedly crunchy.
My starter of vegetable dumplings (yasai gyoza) with soy sauce was similarly mouth-watering, equaling the best I’d tasted on my travels in the Himalaya, where the dish is something of a specialty.
Starters done, our main course arrived instantly.
Gathering courage, Igor went for the teriyaki steak soba, which consists of thin strips of grilled and marinated sirloin steak on a bed of fried noodles and assorted vegetables. After a few mouthfuls, he pronounced this to be “really excellent.
My own choice was another vegetarian dish, the yasai katsu curry. This involves an array of sliced vegetables fried in breadcrumbs, next to a mound of rice under a mild curry sauce, with a few fresh mixed leaves on the side.
The breaded vegetables were delicious, fried to perfection, although the curry was a little on the bland side and had me reaching for the salt.
Somewhat disappointingly, we waited a full four minutes for our desserts. Luckily, we managed to fill the time by fencing across the table with chopsticks.
I should mention at this point that Wagamama’s tables are devoid of metal cutlery. Instead, customers are provided with throwaway wooden chopsticks, and this presented Igor with something of a challenge. Being a chop-stick virgin, he listened intently to the briefest of briefings on the art of eating with wood, and then took a wild stab at it. After a rather frustrating period of scooping, skewering, lurching and dropping (mostly dropping), he turned to the waitress and asked for a fork.
Graciously, she obliged.
Our first two courses, then, had taken the edge off my partner’s skepticism. He had gone from an entrenched anti-noodlist to a reasonably satisfied customer. But the coup de grace was still to come.
My own choice of dessert was white chocolate and ginger cheesecake, which was quite splendid. Besides the tastiness of it, I was intrigued by the texture, which had me staring at close quarters to discover the secret – perhaps some new substance developed by NASA to combine gooeyness, firmness and creaminess in one.
As Igor tucked into his chocolate chili mousse cake, he began to utter mildly embarrassing groans of delight. He scoffed happily for some time, and then went into a full-blown rapture on just how good his cake was. Eventually, at a loss for sufficient adjectives, he summarized: “I want it to go on record that I am crying with joy.
After the meal, we chatted for a while with the waiters, who revealed that they had spent a full month training in customer service prior to the restaurant’s opening earlier this year. The chefs, we were told, had all been selected from five-star hotels and had spent three months learning the menu and oriental techniques in kitchens in London and Dubai. I have to say, the investment seems to have paid off.
Speaking of which, our three-course meal for two came to LE 240, which is not cheap by any means, but seems reasonable considering the quality.
This is food from the age of the Global Village, a mélange of Eastern influences re-invented under an inspiring brand, and appealing to the most sophisticated of palettes.
As I say, even Igor liked it.
Wagamama can be found in the new annex of the CityStars mall, Heliopolis. Tel: 02 2480 2533. They also do deliveries, although deserts are not on the menu due to their tendency to melt in the box.
