40 Fun Facts About Wagamama

Curry, the base of Wagamama's katsu curry, most likely reached Japan with the navy of which country?

Britain's Royal Navy most likely brought curry powder to Japan, where the Imperial Japanese Navy thickened the sauce with flour so it would not spill at sea.

Wagamama's vegan 'tuna' dish, launched in January 2020, was actually made from which fruit?

Watermelon stood in for the fish; Wagamama had earlier worked with vegan chef Gaz Oakley on a dish topped with a vegan 'egg'.

Wagamama's founder modelled the chain on the fast-paced ramen bars he had seen in which city?

Tokyo's ramen bars served fresh food fast to strangers sitting side by side, and Wagamama says it set out to bring that exact experience to London.

Wagamama waiting staff are known for scribbling on which paper item laid in front of each diner?

The placemat doubles as a notepad, and Wagamama's original menu was short enough to fit on a single sheet of A3 paper.

Which fruit does Wagamama coat in breadcrumbs and serve with toffee sauce as a katsu dessert?

Banana katsu borrows the crumb coating of Wagamama's best-selling chicken curry and turns it into a pudding.

Wagamama is credited with pioneering which style of seating in UK casual dining restaurants?

Shared benches put strangers shoulder to shoulder, a layout Wagamama's founder copied from the noodle bars of Japan.

Wagamama's chicken katsu is coated in which Japanese breadcrumb, made from bread baked without a crust?

Panko is ground from bread baked by passing an electric current through the dough, which leaves no crust and gives a lighter, crisper crumb.

The noodle chain Wagamama takes its name from a Japanese word that carries which meaning?

Wilful is one sense of wagamama, a word that also covers self-indulgent, self-centred, picky, fussy and disobedient.

Gyoza, a staple side at Wagamama, spread across Japan after returnees brought recipes home at the end of which conflict?

World War II ended with Japanese settlers returning from north-east China, and many opened food stalls selling ramen with gyoza on the side.

Diners at Wagamama's test kitchen were once asked to review katsu curry served as which dessert?

Ice cream flavoured like katsu curry was tried out on customers, who rated new dishes on digital tablets.

Which restaurateur opened the first Wagamama in 1992 and left the company five years later?

Alan Yau went on to launch a string of London restaurants and was appointed an OBE in 2006 for services to the restaurant industry.

Wagamama's very first restaurant opened in 1992 on Streatham Street in which London district?

Bloomsbury hosted the original Wagamama for 24 years, until the Streatham Street site closed for good in June 2016.

Which Japanese business philosophy, famous from Toyota's production lines, does Wagamama say sits at its heart?

Kaizen means 'good change', and Wagamama says the idea of always finding better ways shapes every dish it creates.

Which owner of Frankie & Benny's bought Wagamama in 2018 in a deal valuing the noodle chain at £559 million?

The Restaurant Group began life in 1987 as City Centre Restaurants, a company set up to run the Garfunkel's chain.

Which American private equity firm took over Wagamama's parent company in a 2023 deal worth more than £700 million?

Apollo paid 65p a share, a 34% premium on its share price at the time, for a business with around 380 sites across the UK.

Which London Chinese restaurant, opened by Wagamama's founder, won a Michelin star in 2003?

Hakkasan opened on Hanway Place in 2001, won its star in 2003 and later grew into a group with restaurants from New York to Dubai.

Wagamama's founder moved to King's Lynn in Norfolk with his family in 1975 from which birthplace?

Hong Kong was his first home: he was born in Sha Tau Kok in 1962 and is of Hakka ethnicity.

Wagamama set up its 'noodle lab', where customers rate experimental dishes, in which London district?

Soho's lab asked customers to review new dishes on digital tablets, in a chain whose staff have keyed orders into hand-held terminals since its early days.

For Veganuary 2021, Wagamama pledged that half of its main menu would be what by the end of the year?

Meat-free dishes were to fill half the main menu, a promise Wagamama tied to growing concern about the climate.

Wagamama's 'vegatsu', a vegan katsu curry launched in the late 2010s, swapped the chicken for which meat substitute?

Seitan is made from gluten, the main protein of wheat, and the dish helped Wagamama tap a fast-growing vegan market.

Which Wagamama curry, given a vegan tofu version in 2021, was then its second most popular after chicken katsu?

Firecracker curry takes its heat from hot red chillies and a dusting of shichimi, and comes with chicken, prawns or tofu.

Wagamama's mild and warming raisukaree curry, served with mangetout and peppers, gets its sauce from which ingredient?

Coconut is the base of raisukaree, which Wagamama serves with chicken, prawns or tofu and finishes with sesame seeds.

Which seafood does Wagamama serve crispy and covered in shichimi spice as one of its best-known sides?

Squid is fried until crisp and dusted with shichimi, a Japanese spice blend whose name means 'seven flavours', then served with a chilli and coriander dipping sauce.

Wagamama's vegan 'bang bang' side coats crispy florets of which vegetable in a spicy sauce?

Cauliflower stands in for the meat in a dish Wagamama says was inspired by bang bang chicken, a Chinese street food.

The katsu in Wagamama's katsu curry is short for katsuretsu, the Japanese rendering of which English word?

Cutlet became katsuretsu in Japanese, and English had itself borrowed the word from the French côtelette.

Wagamama's kare burosu ramen swaps the usual noodles for which thick variety, also offered in its yaki soba?

Udon is a thick noodle made from wheat flour, and in Japan its simplest form is a soup topped with chopped scallions.

Soba, as in Wagamama's yaki soba, usually means Japanese noodles made from the flour of which plant?

Buckwheat makes true soba, but the noodles in yakisoba are Chinese-style ones made from wheat flour.

Wagamama's teppanyaki noodle dishes are named after the teppan, which is what piece of kitchen equipment?

A metal plate, the teppan, gives the style its name, while the word yaki covers grilling, broiling and pan-frying.

Kimchee and gochujang, both found across Wagamama's menu, come from the cooking of which country?

Korea's gochujang is a fermented red chilli paste that gets its sweetness from the starch of cooked glutinous rice.

Which salty fermented Japanese paste does Wagamama pair with caramel on its dessert menu?

Miso is fermented with salt and a fungus called koji, and in Japan it is best known stirred into dashi stock as soup.

Matcha, the bright powder Wagamama has used in iced drinks, is ground from shade-grown leaves used for which drink?

Green tea leaves for matcha are grown in the shade, which gives the powder its vivid colour and strong umami flavour.

Wagamama's chicken katsu is a cousin of Japan's classic tonkatsu, in which 'ton' is the word for which animal?

Pig is the meaning of ton, and the pork version of the dish was created in 1899 at Rengatei, a restaurant serving European-style food.

Teriyaki, the glaze on several Wagamama soba and donburi dishes, takes 'teri' from the Japanese for what?

Shine is what teri refers to: the lustre that the sugar in the sauce gives the food as it grills.

Wagamama's pulled shiitake donburi, served with kimchee and sticky rice, is built around which kind of ingredient?

Mushroom is the answer: shiitake are native to East Asia, and written records of their cultivation go back to 1209.

Wagamama's tantanmen beef brisket ramen descends from dandan noodles, which originated in which Chinese province?

Sichuan chef Chen Kenmin introduced the dish to Japan, where it became known as tantan-men and is sometimes counted as a form of ramen.

Kushiyaki, as in Wagamama's lemongrass and chilli prawn kushiyaki, is Japanese food grilled on what?

Skewers define kushiyaki; yakitori is the best-known kind, though strictly that name applies only when the main meat is chicken.

Yuzu, which flavours the dipping sauce for Wagamama's beef brisket and kimchee gyoza, is what kind of ingredient?

A citrus fruit of Chinese origin, yuzu is grown mainly in East Asia and is now also cultivated in Spain, Italy and France.

Menma, a topping on Wagamama's grilled chicken ramen, is made by fermenting the shoots of which plant?

Bamboo shoots are dried before they are fermented, and most menma is produced in China.

Edamame, sold at Wagamama with salt or chilli and garlic salt, are the immature pods of which crop?

Soybeans picked young become edamame, which in Japan are a classic snack to go with beer or shochu.

Wagamama's yasai katsu curry swaps the chicken for breaded aubergine and which other vegetable?

Sweet potato joins the aubergine under the crumb, and yasai is simply the Japanese word Wagamama uses for vegetable dishes.