Wagamama

Annerea

I was planning on going to Wagamama's tonight, thinking that their food was reasonably healthy.

But I checked the MFP database and my usual dish of Chicken Ramen (which as far as I'm concerned is basically chicken and noodles in chicken-flavoured water) is coming up as 840 calories!! This would seem like a lot for what is in the dish (and I won't even mention the sodium content!!).

Then I got even more confused when I checked the Wagamama Ramen - it's coming up as 425 calories even though there are more (and less healthy) ingredients.

Wagamama's website is no help:-

" we currently do not have any plans to release nutritional information on our dishes, but remain committed to providing fresh and nutritious food at all times to our customers"

Does anyone have accurate nutritional information for Wagamama's?

clahut

Hi,

I can't speak for the accuracy of what values are in the DB, but looking at the 2 dishes you mention, I would pick the Wagamama Ramen as potentially better as:
- is vegetable broth rather than chicken and pork broth, and I always think that meat stock has more calories & fat
- has seafood, tofu and chicken rather than just chicken - so I'd imagine that it has around 1/4 amount of chick in the Wagamama Ramen than the chicken one, and seafood and tofu have less cals/fat than chicken, I think.

Having said that - I'd be surprised if the difference is more than 400 cals!!!

Probably the healthiest option would be to avoid rice or noodles at all, as there are quite a lot of cals in pasta. I usually opt for the mandarin and sesame chicken salad when I go. Don't have values for it, but it is really nice.

C

kidtechnical

It's very frustrating that big chains are incapable of pro active by advertising the nutritional content of their dishes. They would never be accurate, but it would provide a rule of thumb for making choices at least. The only ones who seem to do it are ones who are pressured into it by bad press (MacD's, BK, Subway et al) :sad:

Annerea

Thanks for the help Clahut!

Kid - I was surprised that they don't show nutritional information, especially as they seem to advertise that their food is nutritious and healthy. A bit of proof would help!!

clahut

I find it sooooo frustrating that they don't publish it - since it is one of my fave places to eat out.

Some places are really good though. Pizza Express and Nando's in particular (Nando's is lower in cals than I'd thought!)

One of the ways I get around this is that, although a lot of places don't publish their info, WeightWatchers manage to score a lot of their dishes using their system, so I buy their eating out guide and pick the lowest values from that.

C

kidtechnical

Kid - I was surprised that they don't show nutritional information, especially as they seem to advertise that their food is nutritious and healthy. A bit of proof would help!!

It makes me suspect that they can't substantiate their claims!

clahut

Kid - I was surprised that they don't show nutritional information, especially as they seem to advertise that their food is nutritious and healthy. A bit of proof would help!!

It makes me suspect that they can't substantiate their claims!

Probably! :laugh: