Wokamama - The Ball is Slipping

By Unknown - August 26, 2013

Wokamama is a hot favorite of Gurgaonites when it comes to Chinese and Southeast Asian food. The restaurant is located on the Main Nathupur Road, DLF Phase III, Gurgaon and offers a casual indoor ambiance coupled with a beautiful terrace with private “cabanas” which are fabulous to dine in especially in Winters. The food selection is a potpourri of dishes selected from Chinese, Thai, Japanese and other South East Asian cuisines.

Wokamama by far is the best place to eat Khaw Suey in Gurgaon which was part of our order. Khaw Suey (Rs.595) is the traditional Burmese noodle soup made with curried coconut milk and comes from from the mountains of Shan. It is usually accompanied with with boiled and chopped eggs, peanuts, browned shallots, lemon, burnt garlic cloves, chopped coriander, scallions and paprika. Khaw Suey in itself is a full meal and Wokamama does perfect justice to it. Moreover, the portion is good enough to fill three bellies.

The second dish on order was Thai Chicken in Red Curry (Rs.425) which is made with a paste made with garlic, shallots, (dried) red chili peppers, galangal, shrimp paste, salt, kaffir lime leaves, coriander root, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorns and lemongrass to which coconut milk is added. To finish the dish, fish sauce, sugar, Thai eggplant, bamboo shoots, Thai basil and boneless chicken cubes are added and cooked. We requested Thai Chicken in Red Curry to be served with a portion of Steamed Rice (Rs.195). I also requested the steward for some Jasmine Tea (Comes Free) which came almost instantly and was quite refreshing.

So what is going wrong with such a popular place that Gurgaon dwellers swear by? It was clear to me that the ball is slipping when we walked into a near empty restaurant on a Saturday for lunch. We were seated comfortably. The menu was presented and the order was taken in time but what caught my attention that the restaurant looked dark & dingy as if it had bent with age. When not attending to guests, the staffers were huddling together and whispering in hushed monotones which is I found distracting while consuming my meal. So there are service and infrastructure issues that need to be looked into to counter the pigeonhole effect.

A restaurant’s backbone is its food. While we found the Khaw Suey to be consistent and delicious as always, the Thai Chicken in Red Curry failed to make its mark totally. The consistency of the Red Curry needs to be like a thick soup but this one was watery. The manager was quick to note our disappointment and offered to get it corrected which allows me to better their marks on the service front. However, the corrected version that landed back was indeed thicker but had turned bitter. A wasted effort totally. The steamed rice was fine, but obviously could not be eaten by itself. I also noticed that my Jasmine tea had mysteriously vanished. The aerated drinks seemed to be steep charge with a Mirinda priced at Rs.95 and a Diet Pepsi at Rs.145.

Feedback forms were presented where all this was duly noted. The bill was presented and exuded mixed feelings – Wokamama had billed us for the Thai Chicken in Red Curry and to make good the shortcoming gave us a 15% discount on both food and beverages. The total bill including taxes came to Rs.1632.

Next time, I’ll visit them just for the Khaw Suey.

Address: Wokamama

Main Nathupur Road, Above Italiano Restaurant DLF Phase III,

Gurgaon, Haryana – 122002

Phone No.: 0124 4969191; +91 9958919191

Eatery Type: Fine Dining Restaurant: Pan Asian – Chinese | Thai | Japanese | Burmese

Vegetarian Only: No

Do they deliver: Yes/ Takeaway: YES

Do they cater outdoors: Yes

Hours of Operation: 12 Noon to 3:15 PM, 7 PM to 11:45 PM

Meal for Two: Rs.1500 (VAT & Service Charges extra)

Bar: Yes with a decent wine list