Wagamama Ayia Napa: Family-Friendly Asian Dining in Cyprus

In a city harrowed by atrocious service and small portions, Wagamama really stood out. Like in most places in Aiya Napa you had to be seated, but unlike almost everywhere else noone was outside shouting at you to come in. First plus. Instead we stood there waiting as a group of six and got seated almost immediately by a smiling waitress. Quite quickly they wanted our drink orders, but as we wanted to order drinks at the same time as the food we politely told her to wait. While navigating the menu the waitress came up and asked us if we were ready a couple of times. She was very pleasant, but we felt quite burdensome. First negative. As we got ready to order our food it went well, there were some language barrier issues but that did not impact the overall experience and was expected as Cyprus is not a primarily english speaking country. ------------------------------------------------------- Eventhough there were very few guests in the restaurant the cooking of the food was quite slow, especially the nigiricourses. It is understandable to some extent, however it was quite annoying that we got served the food at such different paces. I, who only ordered vegetarian sushi courses got it all instantly, while my friends had to wait patiently. But now - to the food. ------------------------------------------------------- I do not know if I was so starved out of real food or if this tasted as amazing as it felt like it did. I can only assume the latter. I started out with the cauliflower, which was amazing. It was sweet and spicy, and it was cooked absolutely perfect to get rid of that disgusting soggy cauliflower feeling. Next was the sushi, and eventhough the vegetarian options were few, the ones that existed were amazing. The vegetarian sushi had some very exciting elements of asparsgus and cream cheese, which complemented eachother perfectly. The rolls that you get here are HUGE, atleast compared to the swedish standard that I'm used to. I had some avocado sushi aswell, both a mix of avocado, asparagus and cucumber aswell as only avocado. And the avocado was very good. The sushisticks didn't go right through the avocado, so it was not too soft but it was not hard at all either. It was that perfect balance that you always search for in an avocado. Very good. As for how the rolls held up they did a pretty good job. Some broke, but that may be because of a user error. While eating a man, who I would assume is a higher up employee walked around checking up on the guests. He was very friendly and our table took a liking to him. He joked around and treated us like friends, and he got me a bowl of sea grass salad. As for the others at my table the reception was generally very good. Some complaints were made and validated: The spicy mayo/sriracha mayo that was plastered onto some of the rolls was way too spicy, and for some made their food almost inedible. The sea grass salad was not how you would expect it, there was none of that sweetness and was instead just a rather pale bunch of sea grass (I ate an entire bowl anyway). The wasabi was also way stronger than we were used to, this does not have to be negative as it felt more authentic, I for one loved it but others at the table had a tougher time with it. -------------------------------------------------------All in all, I liked the food and the staff, and if I shall ever return to Aiya Napa, I will definitely revisit here! - Service: 8.4/10 Atmosphere: 7.2/10 Food: 8.9/10 Hard recommend this place!