Norwich on Saturdays is busy, as is any city of comparable size. So I can only assume that this is what accounted for the severe lack of decent service displayed to me at Wagamama in Norwich.

With a Japanese 'healthy eating' ethos, Wagamama is set out in a canteen/refectory style. Waiting staff take your order and scribble numbers on your paper placemat, I suppose to remind them of who's having what, as the tables have no numbers and orders are electronically delivered to the kitchen via a handheld device.

Food is essentially based on Japanese 'Ramen bars' - noodle soups (Ramen), griddled noodles (Teppan), coconut based soup noodles (kare), chilli noodles (chilli men?!?!) - basically a lot of noodles, rice dishes and interesting side dishes.
These side dishes are specifically billed as NOT starters, but accompanying your main meal, so after our complimentary green tea had arrived (nice touch, but more actual tea in the hot water would be nice), I ordered the duck gyoza. This arrived a full half an hour before my partner's main meal. My partner and I waited. And waited. The couple next to us, who had arrived ten minutes later than us, were having a much better time of things, tucking into their meal, which had been delivered with all their sides simultaneously.

I ate my gyoza. Deep fried duck and leek filled dumplings with a cherry hoi sin sauce, a staisfyingly sticky interior and almost candy-ish sauce. But luke warm now. Ho hum...

My partner's main meal arrived, Yasai Cha Han - a vegetarian rice dish, accompanied by miso soup and pickles, which was said to be very tasty. Vegetables such as mange tout, squash and mushrooms combined to ensure no two mouthfuls were exactly the same.

TWENTY minutes later, my bowl of seafood ramen arrived with not so much as an apology for it's tardiness, my partner almost finishing her main. Not impressed, and neither was I with the six pieces of seafood I found floating in my noodle and spring onion-heavy ramen - definitely not earning the £9.00 price tag. The seafood was, however, cooked well and the dish was tasty - I wish the soup could have been a bit more 'de la mer'.

Deciding to give the WagaWaiters a chance to redeem themselves, we ordered dessert - my partner opted for the tempting Tamarind and Chilli pavlova (chilli spiced pavlova with raspberry and tamarind sauce) - splendid use of chilli, just the right side of 'zing', with a superbly balanced sauce. I plumbed for the white chocolate and ginger cheesecake, with toffee chilli sauce, which was also agreeable, with a nice amount of fiery ginger to cut through the creamy velvet chocolate. However, of course, I was originally presented with chocolate fudge cake, despite the desserts being circled on our paper mats. Cue ten more dessert-less minutes. Sigh...

It seems to be a common theme in many restaurants these days, a 'Sign-O-The-Times', that food is improving in flavour, diversity and innovation and chefs are better able to cook it right, but service is severely suffering from complacency and disinterest. It would seem that Wagamama have also allowed their eye to wander when it comes to the details of service: - not one apology was made for my late dishes or staff errors, and certainly no recompense was made. However, it all seemed to go very right for the couple sat next to us, smugly tucking into their desserts whilst I sat looking at my partner apologetically eating her main course. So perhaps I had the misfortune of being served by a less capable waitress? I did not leave a tip (service charge isn't included on the bill, hallelujah!). As we walked away from the table, leaving our settled bill behind, I heard her mutter, "Yeah, whatever..." under her breath. I suspect we were but following a trend, tip-wise...

Three courses exc. drinks averages at £30