Wagamama
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40 free Wagamama trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Wagamama has been part of the UK high street since 1992, and plenty of diners have a regular order. Fewer know where the name comes from, who started the chain or how a breaded chicken curry became its best-seller. This quiz covers the story of the company, from its first restaurant and its changes of owner to its vegan experiments, along with the Japanese words and ingredients on the menu: katsu, ramen, gyoza, teppanyaki, donburi and more. It is written for regulars who think they know the menu and for anyone curious about the food behind it. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Curry, the base of Wagamama's katsu curry, most likely reached Japan with the navy of which country?
Britain
Britain's Royal Navy most likely brought curry powder to Japan, where the Imperial Japanese Navy thickened the sauce with flour so it would not spill at sea.
Q 02Wagamama's vegan 'tuna' dish, launched in January 2020, was actually made from which fruit?
Watermelon
Watermelon stood in for the fish; Wagamama had earlier worked with vegan chef Gaz Oakley on a dish topped with a vegan 'egg'.
Q 03Wagamama's founder modelled the chain on the fast-paced ramen bars he had seen in which city?
Tokyo
Tokyo's ramen bars served fresh food fast to strangers sitting side by side, and Wagamama says it set out to bring that exact experience to London.
Q 04Wagamama waiting staff are known for scribbling on which paper item laid in front of each diner?
The placemat
The placemat doubles as a notepad, and Wagamama's original menu was short enough to fit on a single sheet of A3 paper.
Q 05Which fruit does Wagamama coat in breadcrumbs and serve with toffee sauce as a katsu dessert?
Banana
Banana katsu borrows the crumb coating of Wagamama's best-selling chicken curry and turns it into a pudding.
Q 06Wagamama is credited with pioneering which style of seating in UK casual dining restaurants?
Shared benches
Shared benches put strangers shoulder to shoulder, a layout Wagamama's founder copied from the noodle bars of Japan.
Q 07Wagamama's chicken katsu is coated in which Japanese breadcrumb, made from bread baked without a crust?
Panko
Panko is ground from bread baked by passing an electric current through the dough, which leaves no crust and gives a lighter, crisper crumb.
Q 08The noodle chain Wagamama takes its name from a Japanese word that carries which meaning?
Wilful
Wilful is one sense of wagamama, a word that also covers self-indulgent, self-centred, picky, fussy and disobedient.
Q 09Gyoza, a staple side at Wagamama, spread across Japan after returnees brought recipes home at the end of which conflict?
World War II
World War II ended with Japanese settlers returning from north-east China, and many opened food stalls selling ramen with gyoza on the side.
Q 10Diners at Wagamama's test kitchen were once asked to review katsu curry served as which dessert?
Ice cream
Ice cream flavoured like katsu curry was tried out on customers, who rated new dishes on digital tablets.
Q 11Which restaurateur opened the first Wagamama in 1992 and left the company five years later?
Alan Yau
Alan Yau went on to launch a string of London restaurants and was appointed an OBE in 2006 for services to the restaurant industry.
Q 12Wagamama's very first restaurant opened in 1992 on Streatham Street in which London district?
Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury hosted the original Wagamama for 24 years, until the Streatham Street site closed for good in June 2016.
Q 13Which Japanese business philosophy, famous from Toyota's production lines, does Wagamama say sits at its heart?
Kaizen
Kaizen means 'good change', and Wagamama says the idea of always finding better ways shapes every dish it creates.
Q 21Which Wagamama curry, given a vegan tofu version in 2021, was then its second most popular after chicken katsu?
Firecracker
Firecracker curry takes its heat from hot red chillies and a dusting of shichimi, and comes with chicken, prawns or tofu.
Q 22Wagamama's mild and warming raisukaree curry, served with mangetout and peppers, gets its sauce from which ingredient?
Coconut
Coconut is the base of raisukaree, which Wagamama serves with chicken, prawns or tofu and finishes with sesame seeds.
Q 23Which seafood does Wagamama serve crispy and covered in shichimi spice as one of its best-known sides?
Squid
Squid is fried until crisp and dusted with shichimi, a Japanese spice blend whose name means 'seven flavours', then served with a chilli and coriander dipping sauce.
Q 14Which owner of Frankie & Benny's bought Wagamama in 2018 in a deal valuing the noodle chain at £559 million?
The Restaurant Group
The Restaurant Group began life in 1987 as City Centre Restaurants, a company set up to run the Garfunkel's chain.
Q 15Which American private equity firm took over Wagamama's parent company in a 2023 deal worth more than £700 million?
Apollo
Apollo paid 65p a share, a 34% premium on its share price at the time, for a business with around 380 sites across the UK.
Q 16Which London Chinese restaurant, opened by Wagamama's founder, won a Michelin star in 2003?
Hakkasan
Hakkasan opened on Hanway Place in 2001, won its star in 2003 and later grew into a group with restaurants from New York to Dubai.
Q 17Wagamama's founder moved to King's Lynn in Norfolk with his family in 1975 from which birthplace?
Hong Kong
Hong Kong was his first home: he was born in Sha Tau Kok in 1962 and is of Hakka ethnicity.
Q 18Wagamama set up its 'noodle lab', where customers rate experimental dishes, in which London district?
Soho
Soho's lab asked customers to review new dishes on digital tablets, in a chain whose staff have keyed orders into hand-held terminals since its early days.
Q 19For Veganuary 2021, Wagamama pledged that half of its main menu would be what by the end of the year?
Meat-free
Meat-free dishes were to fill half the main menu, a promise Wagamama tied to growing concern about the climate.
Q 20Wagamama's 'vegatsu', a vegan katsu curry launched in the late 2010s, swapped the chicken for which meat substitute?
Seitan
Seitan is made from gluten, the main protein of wheat, and the dish helped Wagamama tap a fast-growing vegan market.
Q 24Wagamama's vegan 'bang bang' side coats crispy florets of which vegetable in a spicy sauce?
Cauliflower
Cauliflower stands in for the meat in a dish Wagamama says was inspired by bang bang chicken, a Chinese street food.
Q 25The katsu in Wagamama's katsu curry is short for katsuretsu, the Japanese rendering of which English word?
Cutlet
Cutlet became katsuretsu in Japanese, and English had itself borrowed the word from the French côtelette.
Q 26Wagamama's kare burosu ramen swaps the usual noodles for which thick variety, also offered in its yaki soba?
Udon
Udon is a thick noodle made from wheat flour, and in Japan its simplest form is a soup topped with chopped scallions.
Q 27Soba, as in Wagamama's yaki soba, usually means Japanese noodles made from the flour of which plant?
Buckwheat
Buckwheat makes true soba, but the noodles in yakisoba are Chinese-style ones made from wheat flour.
Q 28Wagamama's teppanyaki noodle dishes are named after the teppan, which is what piece of kitchen equipment?
A metal plate
A metal plate, the teppan, gives the style its name, while the word yaki covers grilling, broiling and pan-frying.
Q 29Kimchee and gochujang, both found across Wagamama's menu, come from the cooking of which country?
Korea
Korea's gochujang is a fermented red chilli paste that gets its sweetness from the starch of cooked glutinous rice.
Q 30Which salty fermented Japanese paste does Wagamama pair with caramel on its dessert menu?
Miso
Miso is fermented with salt and a fungus called koji, and in Japan it is best known stirred into dashi stock as soup.