Wagamama Paphos

Rather than recommending (positive connotation) or warning (negative connotation) you about places to eat and not to eat, I will try my best to keep this one a neutral post. Guess your guess is as good as mine, as we are still here in Cyprus, and to be specific, on its west coastal town of Paphos. If you want to see what I have to say about where to really eat, including my top 3 places to eat on the whole island, as well as places to avoid, then back track to my previous posts!

For this occasion, I would like to share with you a cuisine that is very close to my heart. This is none other than the world famous Japanese cuisine. Just like Italian food and your steaks, Japanese restaurants are not on the upward trend and they tend to be popping up everything, including Paphos. I can say that having a Japanese place here in Paphos is quite rare, and somewhat of a development that has been taken seriously over the past five years. This development in the Japanese food scene here in Paphos has seen one of the big players in Japanese restaurant brand coming to town, Wagamama.

Depending on where you have lived or are living, you may or may not have heard of Wagamama. I lived in Kobe, a port city in Japan next to its second city Osaka, and also a city that happens to be very famous for the exclusive, luxurious and super expensive Kobe Beef. It was here that I spent six teenage years, eating and feasting like your average Japanese kid. I am confident to say that I took the Japanese path and adapted quite well to their cuisine and diet. Unlike other foreigners that I have come across living in Japan, I was not hesitant to try out new things, and as a result, Japanese cuisine is now one of the many cuisines I would consider comfort food.

History and personal life story aside, I have had the chance to try out this much-talked about place in Wagamama. Just like my post on Cypriot Desserts and Sweets, we will be heading over to the biggest mall of Paphos, which would be King's Avenue Shopping Centre. The mall has got various places to get a bite or actually sit down for a proper meal. The cuisine they have here is somewhat diverse with a bit of Mexican at their Taco Bell joint, a bit of Italian at the famous Pizza Hut, a bit of a Chinese at this take away joint called Imperial Wok, an American style steak house at of course TGI Friday's, your normal Burger King if you would like to stick to a familiar option, then two big, Starbucks-like coffee shops for you to enjoy your coffee either indoor or on their outdoor terrace, overlooking the busy street of Tombs of the Kings Road, at Costa's Coffee and Caffe Nero respectively.

Our post today will solely focus on what Wagamama has to offer to us craving Japanese food in this distant land. At Wagamama Paphos, the menu is divided into a few sections :

- Teppan : In the case that is Wagamama, this Teppan section mostly refers to udon or soba noodles, cooked and stir-fried with other elements like vegetables, meat and seafood. This results in something that is closer to like a yakisoba (stir-fried Japanese noodles with sauces) or a Chinese stir-fried noodles. I don't think I have ever eaten or seen delicate soba or udon noodles cooked this way, but maybe they do so in other regions of the country, who knows? Some dishes under this section include, teriyaki beef soba which is "grilled teriyaki beef on a bed of teppan-fried soba noodles with curry oil, mangetout, red onion, garlic, bean sprouts, bok choi and chillies, garnished with teriyaki sauce, coriander and mixed sesame seeds" as well as their new item on the Teppan menu, Wagamama pad thai of chicken and prawns, which is a Thai dish in its origin. Fair play to them, their version consists of "rice noodles in a sweet amai sauce with chicken and prawns, bean sprouts, leeks, red and spring onions, chinese chives, garlic, ginger, mint and chillies, garnished with coriander cress, fried shallots, peanut and lime". I would not recommend getting these wok fried noodles, simply because they're just bland. The size of the portion, on the other hand, is huge and something that is very generous, but this doesn't mean much when the quality is not also up to standard.

- Rice Dishes : Regardless of the cuisine, an Asian restaurant must have rice dishes. I have tried one of these personally, and won't really recommend it to you, but if you really want to experience this, go for their chicken katsu curry. This one of my most loved Japanese dishes and something that I would always get during the winter months in Japan. The version here at Wagamama is "chicken breast deep-fried in panko bread crumbs or grilled, served with a curry sauce and sticky white rice, garnished with dressed mixed leaves and red pickles". If anything, I found the curry sauce to be a bit towards the Indian curry or something else, rather than the curry you would get in Japan. I think the curry sauce just fell short here, otherwise, this could have been a decent dish. Another rice dish on the menu worth taking a look is their ebi koumi, which in deeper explanation is "prawns wok fried in a oyster sauce with courgettes, mushroom baby corns, red onions, coriander, mint and chillies, served with sticky white rice and garnished with mint and lime".

I suppose mint and lime are quite common ingredients in the kitchen here, but make no mistake though, Japanese cuisine barely touches mint and lime, if at all. I can't think of any menu that uses mint or lime in Japan, but again I could be wrong. And do not be alarmed when you see sticky white rice. Japanese rice has a more sticky texture than other type of Asian rice when cooked, so it's normal and is quite good of Wagamama to be informing readers before hand. The rest of the rice menu has other items stir fried in oyster sauce and other components with curry sauce, and of course, their fried rice.

- Chilli Men : For those that has something for spiciness and chilli (I'm not one of them), you may be interested in this section of the menu. I have no idea why there's "men" at the end, but this section consists of stir fried chicken, prawns or tofu and vegetables, with soba noodles or rice then topped with their red, spicy chilli men sauce. They note these three menu items as "super spicy" so you have been warned. - Ramen : Once again we have something here that I really love and I really enjoy during the colder period in Japan. There's just nothing more soothing that sipping a bowl of ramen with fresh egg noodles on a cold, rainy day, with your side dish of cha han (fried rice) and a few pieces of the fried gyozas (stuffed Japanese dumplings). I did not dare to try what they have done here with their Wagamama ramens, since I understand that the broth needs to be on point in order to successfully execute this dish. Since I lacked the confidence in this area, I chose to stay away from the ramens, but you may wish to try them out! If you are, they have got their chicken ramen with "noodle in chicken soup topped with grilled chicken breast and seasonal vegetables, garnished with menma and spring onions". Once again I have never come across a ramen joint in Japan that incorporates grilled chicken breast or chicken meat in their ramen noodles, but here's another one that is somewhat Japanese inspired. Otherwise, they also have chilli beef and chilli chicken ramen, which are also quoted as "super spicy".

- Sushi : Their sushi menu is then broken down to the different types of sushi, which are nigiri + hosomaki, sashimi + tataki, uramaki and their sushi platters. Frankly I have no idea what the differences are, but we did get to try one of their platters. As you could see from the photo below, we had a few different type so sushi on the platter. The ingredients are quite usual, like your cucumber, your egg tamago, your tuna fish, your crab stick and your tempura prawns. I would say that this was the best part of your meal, since it's honestly quite hard to fail at making their "modern" sushis. The most important thing as per always with sushi is the rice, and they do a decent job here. Whatever covers the rice or goes in and about the rice was also interesting. I would recommend getting something like this if you'r at Wagamama, because not only can you take beautiful photos from them, but they also taste good.

- Tataki : This is a part of their sashimi + tataki menu, in which we tried their tuna tataki of "chilli-seared tuna, mixed chillies, coriander cress, tobiko with citrus ponzu sauce, garnished with wasabi paste and ginger. This dish was also not very Japanese but credits to them, this is something that I begin to see quite a lot in Japanese restaurants over seas. The seared tuna leaves the raw meat on the inside, which is delicious. The ponzu dressing sauce was also quite nice and despite all the chillies in the description as well as on the picture, this dish was not that spicy. Just to be super specific, you should get eight slices of seared tuna here.

One thing that I must really credit Wagamama Paphos is the way they present their food and their restaurant. When you first walk in, you either consciously or unconsciously judge the restaurant through its looks, as in its decoration, colours, smell, cleanliness and overall presentation. This definitely was a good first impression since the decoration of the restaurant is very tasteful. The actual menu was also something very rice, very simple and nicely presented with pictures and clearly described as per their ingredients. This really gave the consumers a good idea of what they will get when they order, which is extremely important for a cuisine like Japanese here in Paphos, where people have little to no knowledge about.

As I mentioned earlier, the dishes are also very well presented. Although this may not be evident in Japanese cuisine, they have modified a lot of dishes and as a result, there is a lot more colours and fun elements on the dish when the team member brings them to the table. This makets for a very good opportunity to take photos and post them on social media sites! One of my favourite picture must be of the tuna tataki that we had. Even for a photographer as bad as myself, you could still capture the dynamics of the dish with the seared tuna of different colours and contrast, the chilli and other garnishes, even down to the sauce that lies beneath everything.

If you are interested, they also offer a take away menu, which again can be seen on their website. The number you can contact to place an order on your take away is 26 600 885 while their number for a home delivery is quite different, and can be reached at 77 77 70 78. It is very common here in Paphos for the restaurants to do delivery, so you can enjoy the food at the comfort of your own setting.

The restaurant has also spread their wings across other parts of Cyprus, with joints over in Limassol and Nicosia. While this experience may not have been one worth a ten out of ten, I would not say the same about their sister properties in Limassol or Nicosia. These factors are always changing, and if you anything, they do a decent joint with the seafoodgiven that good seafood is so hard to find around here in Cyprus.

Fair play to Wagamama and whoever put in the work on their website, since their food is considered to be Japanese inspired cuisine, so for me, this doesn't equate to being 100% Japanese. With this in mind, you will be signing up for Japanese food that they try to make as close to the real and authentic Japanese cuisine as possible, but will fall short on some items. You can also expect sushi dishes that are more modified to suit the interest of those that would not be familiar with the real Japanese cuisine and its elements, as you could see from the sushi dishes that we had on that day. Either way, it is up to you to make the final judgement!

Wagamama Paphos King's Avenue Mall - Ratings :

Accessibility - 9/10

Price - 8/10

Selection - 7/10

Staff Friendliness - 10/10

Cleanliness - 10/10

Overall - 7. 5/10

King's Avenue Mall Shopping Centre - Paphos Cyprus

Wagamama Cyprus - Paphos Restaurant

Trip Advisor comments from tourists and local residents on Wagamama Paphos

Wagamama Official FaceBook Page - stayed tuned for the latest news and special promotions!

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