Wagamama revisited: food without sole

The first Melbourne food bloggers meet is this Wednesday. We were to have met at the new Wagamama in Flinders Lane. Somehow I hijacked them and have now arranged to meet at The Trust instead.
It made me think of what to do with the Frequent Noodler Card and $50 voucher sent to me by the so-called cult restaurant.
Saturday I gave the Wagamama in St Kilda it’s third test and forgot to bring both. It’s been going for about a year now so should have got itself right into the groove of providing good, cheap and quick food at an affordable price. Just what the three of us wanted to wolf down before seeing that horror film on a Saturday night.
The surprise was that we didn’t need to queue to get in. About 8.30 and the place was perhaps half to two-thirds full. It’s housed in a heritage-listed former light railway station. Solid blond wood benches and bench tables are screwed to the floor.
The young funky staff tread the floor with those PDA order taker things. They are meticulous in aligning the chopsticks on the paper napkin on the paper place mat.
No dish takes more than, I forget now, a few minutes to prepare. And the menu warns that dished will arrive when ready.
I can live with this.
It’s a noisy space so I won’t be unfair on our waitress who I thought mumbled through the specials. And a wrong order was replaced within five minutes. I waited almost as long fro a Big Mac the other day.
On my first two visits I noted the food wasn’t as sharp as at Chocolate Buddha in Federation Square. I thought the stock in my Wagamama Ramen (AUD18) lacked flavour. Tonight I decided to extend my eating range and try the Yasai Katsu Curry at AUD13.50. Basically, it is sweet potato, aubergine and pumpkin deep fried in panko, served with a light curry sauce and Japanese style rice. It is garnished with a combination of mixed leaves and red pickles.
Below is a bad picture. Perhaps unfair to the dish. But this was exceptionally ugly food.

What came was a large oval of rice with large circular disks – about the circumference of a grapefruit – of the veggies covered with the sauce. The extras were exactly as advertised.
Was it Jackie or Kylie who laughed first at what looked like a small armadillo covered in curry sauce. To be fair it was probably the size of a baby possum – this is not to suggest marsupials inhabit the kitchen at all.
With these looks it wasn’t hard for the taste to be better. It is perfectly good food but very middle of the road in its flavours. Jackie had the AUD17.00 teriyaki steak soba. That’s teppan style soba noodles with bok choi, red onion, snow peas, bean sprouts and chilli. Garnished with tender strips of fillet beef marinated in teriyaki sauce.
Again under spiced making it a middle of a road meal.
All the meals are huge here. This spring Saturday night the queues weren’t.
The shame is that Wagamama is a food franchise with soul. The food has none.