29 Nuffield Street, Newmarket, Auckland
Overall Rating: 2/5 Price: $$-$$$
Cuisine: Japanese (kind-of)
Food: 4 Drinks: 5 Ambience: 4 Service: 6
First thoughts about this restaurant is 'school cafeteria'. It is noisy, impersonal, and with bench seats where you can be sitting next to anyone removes any privacy from your conversation - apart from the fact that it is so noisy that people probably can't hear you anyway.
Wagamama prides itself on positive eating + positive experience - neither of which we had.
To the food, we had the ebi gyoza for an entree - actually everything comes at once in this place - well supposedly, as one main we waited for over 5mins. I don't mind entrees coming the same time as mains - if they all come together. My teriyaki salmon ($21.50) was nicely presented, but was already luke warm when it arrived, so was cold by the time I got to start. I don't understand how rice is not kept warm in a place like this that is so busy and is on about half the dishes served. My accomplice had the teriyaki steak soba ($21.50), which was a little tasteless and what he called 'sloppy'.
What put me off the most, was the food that had been cooked onto my plate - from a previous customer, the fingerprints all over my plate when it was served, and the piece of spagetti that was in our bowl of edamame (soyabeans). I hate to complain, but sorry, for a gold A star establishment for cleanliness this is unacceptable. No desserts were had as I was put off by this stage.
We have been to this establishement a number of times, never expecting anything spectacular bacause we know what to expect, but from this experience we will not be returning.
Friday, January 29, 2010
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Here is the response I have received from Wagamama:
ReplyDeletedear karen
thank you very much for your feedback you left us on our comment card in wagamama newmarket after you had dined there on 23rd of January and also for your follow up email to our comments site on wagamama.co.nz
I am extremely disappointed to hear your experience at wagamama newmarket was unsatisfactory and would like to apologize for the inferior quality of food and service you received
at wagamama we pride ourselves on our high level of cleanliness and food quality and it upsets me to hear this was not the case when you dined with us
we have certain systems in place in our restaurants to ensure our team explain to customers that all our food is cooked fresh to order so this means individual selections of your side dishes and main meals may be delivered at different times. obviously in this case we failed to follow through with this procedure resulting in your meals being unacceptably brought to you at different intervals. I have already spoken to all the managers at wagamama newmarket to ensure all customers are fully aware of our ‘wagamama way’ and to make sure if a meal is taking too much longer than other dishes that have been delivered then we need to communicate with the kitchen and the customer to make sure this incident doesn’t happen again
in regards to your comments about the rice not being warm in your teriyaki salmon, there being a ‘piece of spaghetti’ in your edamame bowl, we once again have very strict food hygiene procedures to make sure, first of all that our food is held at correct temperatures to reduce any risk of contamination, and second a comprehensive cleaning schedule to make sure our kitchen is in tip top shape at all times. this includes all plates, bowls and cutlery etc. I have subsequently had a meeting with the sous chefs and the general manager of wagamama newmarket and shown them your feedback. this is a major concern for us, particularly as we do have a golden A food rating. we have all your comments into action to ensure this does not happen again to any customer in any of our restaurants
thank you once again for your feedback. i look forward to welcoming you back here soon and feel certain we will not give you cause to be disappointed again
regards