Wagamama has three branches in Manchester city centre, this branch in St Peter's Square, right opposite the Metrolink is my favourite of their locations.
A pretty large location, it smells good inside as you walk in.
I visited under COVID-19 restrictions and some measures temporarily in place include:
- Placemats as menus, disposed of after each customer
- Limited menu, although they have added a lot of options this week including bringing back non-gluten options which they previously didn't have which is why I decided to give Wagamama another chance
- More separation on the benches including perspex style screens between most customers where there is less than a 2-meter gap between them.
- They currently aren't accepting cash and you need to scan a QR code and pay on your phone, this is to support NHS track and trace under government legislature and to remove contact as much as possible, I'm not sure what would happen if you were unable to scan the QR code for any reason.
The decor looked pretty good, but one thing which was odd was the multi-coloured table, it was made of different material and a totally different colour to every other table, it also was scratched and just didn't fit into the overall decor - it just looked odd while the rest of the decor was pretty cool.
I ordered the gluten-free pad thai, I was pleased to see the staff explain the procedure in trying to avoid cross-contamination, so I felt confident eating here, they also warned me which table sauces not to use, and brought my own bottle of gluten-free soy sauce which was good.
While I didn't like the prawns, I felt with the soy sauce, the meal was quite good, the chicken, in particular, was really good, it's a shame there was a small portion of chicken though. While I did like the noodles, I found them to be a little bulky and it would have been nice to have more chicken and onions to balance it out. The coriander seemed to do more harm than good.
Would I come here again? Yes, there are things I would change about my dish but it certainly was A-OK.
3* - Despite the negatives, it is a pretty decent Wagamama location. read more