wagamama istanbul turkey

Wagamama - Istanbul, Turkey

Having heard about Wagamama through tastingmenu.com a while back, I

was excited to try it when I noticed it in a mall directory in

Turkey. I know, a supposedly authentic Japanese ramen chain in

Turkey? What were we thinking?! But regardless, there don't seem to

be plans to open one in NYC (we've got plenty of delicious, authentic

ramen here, thankyouverymuch), it was raining fairly hard in Istanbul,

so we decided to go to the luxury mall in town- Kanyon, an open air,

futuristically styled mall on the edge of town. The mall was huge and

I managed to score a beautiful Furla wallet for 50% off retail.

Nice.

In any case, after days and days of meat, meat and more meat, my

friends (and myself, a bit less but still somewhat) were all craving

authentic Asian food. I guess what you grow up eating really does

make an impression on you when it's dreary out. This provided the

answer to that... sort of.

After we ordered and the waiter had zapped our orders off into

cyberspace and the kitchen with his nifty PalmPilot type device, he

scrawled a bunch of numbers on our placemats/dessert menus. We later

realized it was so whoever brought our orders out would know which

order belonged where.

The menu was actually fairly cheap- it was lunchtime on a weekday

afternoon, though- offering a choice of Lunch Set menu A or B. Lunch

Set A came with a main noodle dish, a fresh juice choice (orange,

orange apple, etc.), and a choice of "side dish" (on the menu states

that they don't have "starters" or "appetizers" but rather, dishes

that are meant to be enjoyed with your main dish), for around

19.90YTL, equivalent to about $13USD. Lunch Set B was the same,

minus the "side dish", for about 14.90YTL, or about $10USD. Not a bad

deal at all, considering ramen itself generally runs around the same

price without any extras.

one orange juice, two apple-oranges

Unfortunately, being that we were in Turkey, a predominantly Muslim

country, there were no pork options on the menu, though there were

seafood choices (I'm not sure if you can eat seafood like shrimp as a

Muslim?- I admit that my knowledge is fairly limited). Generally, the

standard choice here in NYC is pork, as it is fatty and adds a ton of

flavor to the broth. In any case, HB and I opted for the standard

chicken ramen, while MD chose the chili chicken ramen. HB and I are

not huge fans of spicy food, so as the description proclaimed chili

chicken ramen to be in a "spicy chicken soup", we passed.

While the broth in our chicken ramen was very clear and 'sweet', it

was also a touch on the bland side. The chicken itself was completely

tasteless, having never met salt, so I liberally added some of the

chili oil from a container on the table. That perked it up a little

bit, though it lent itself to an oily taste for the chicken. The

noodles themselves were on the thin side, and HB said she didn't think

they were very good. I thought they were alright, fresh and gummy,

but I prefer my ramen more "medium" thickness and al dente. I

wouldn't go here again or rather, I wouldn't order the same thing (as

the only ones in the US are in Boston, it's doubtful I'll be going

anytime soon).

MD's chili chicken ramen turned out to not really be spicy, and was a

lot more interesting and flavorful than our chicken ramen. She

actually really enjoyed her dish, unlike us. Though it had the same

noodles, the broth was definitely better and tastier. I tried a sip

and kicked myself for not braving the supposed spice of the dish.

Much better.

For our one side dish, I chose gyoza - traditionally pork, here they

were chicken dumplings with an assortment of veggies inside, served

with a chili garlic dipping sauce. The gyoza themselves were fairly

bland, but the sauce was spicy. Yes, actually spicy, though it wasn't

billed as such on the menu. Too funny. Still, these were only

alright.

Overall, a cheap and filling lunch, but definitely not the best ramen

I've ever had. It suited its purpose.

Yvo says: Meh, if you're stuck for a place and in a totally foreign

country like we were, it serves a purpose and fulfilled our craving.

It was also fairly cheap for a weekday lunch. Otherwise, I would

pass.

middle of the road leaning towards ... 'meh'