I was quite interested to see if the Wagamama franchise was intact in another country. The Wagamama in Brisbane has been open for a few years now and clearly its popularity hasn’t waned. Finding it is not that easy, nestled in the middle of a building complex, with the 
expected giant Wagamama logo not readily visible to the eye.
Being a Saturday night and around 8pm it was quite busy. Unlike the Wagamama’s in London the Brisbane branch appeared ready to deal with the overflow of diners and shuffled us into a comfortable lounge area off to the side. Unhappily for us the promised 15 minute wait for a table turned into an hour. Finally just as our side dishes that we ordered belatedly when we saw how long it was taking to get seated arrived we were taken to our table. Having had nearly an hour to peruse the menu you’d think our waitress would clue in that we were ready to order our mains but she didn’t turn up for another ten minutes. This was disappointing and I could see that Dad was getting a bit frustrated. Once she arrived she was very friendly so I thought, okay, this is going okay.
Sadly it didn’t get much better efficiency-wise. Our first main dish took what felt like forever to arrive and even though we didn’t 
expect all the dishes to arrive at the same time we did expect that all four of us would at least be eating at generally the same time. Instead, each dish was delivered practically when the previous dish had been consumed. Poor Dad got his dead last and by 
the time he got it the rest of us were finished. Oh dear.
The only plus was that we didn’t have to pay for his meal but I must say I was terribly disappointed with the service. That they were busy was no excuse – its something the restaurant should be prepared for and used to by now.
Food-wise the dishes were pretty much on par with what you get in London though there were a few extra dishes on their menu that we don’t have on the London one such as Teriyaki dishes and also a few interesting side dishes. This didn’t make up for the shoddy service, however friendly it was.
That’s a pretty sad state of affairs for the Wagamama’s in Brisbane. It might have been better to head to the one that I heard they set up in Chermside(?) I hope Dad wasn’t put off too much by this.
It was a definite shame. I saw there was also one in the Queen Street Mall. The one we went to (at the Emporium) I think was the flagship Wag’s in Brisbane. Dad says he wasn’t really put off by it (but I don’t think that translates to the same as saying he would go again!)