Larry Olmsted

Special for USA TODAY

The scene: One of the most popular restaurant chains in the United Kingdom, Wagamama has quietly moved across the Atlantic, and based on its showing to date, the brand is likely to enjoy just as much a success here as at home. Wagamama doesn’t serve fish and chips or pub fare, rather an eclectic Japanese-inspired menu with a noticeable Korean influence. One of the reasons for its popularity is that it offers something for just about every taste, spicy or not, at very reasonable prices, in a high-energy setting that is well above fast casual but warmer and more relaxed than fine dining.

Wagamama was created 25 years ago in London by restaurateur Alan Yau, who would go on to launch high-end trendy Chinese brand Hakkasan, which has also gone global. Wagamama was ahead of its time on a few fronts, expanding dining horizons for Japanese cuisine far beyond then-popular sushi, using handheld electronic devices for waiters to take and submit orders, and offering an extensive signature cocktail list before the dawn of the mixology trend. Today the chain has more than 150 restaurants all over the world, from New Zealand to Bahrain, across Europe, and four locations in the USA, three in and around Boston, and a New York City flagship that opened last fall in the Flatiron district, with a second Big Apple location reported to be under construction in the East Village.

The best sushi bang for the buck in America

The New York eatery is long and linear, spanning an entire block between Broadway and Fifth Avenue, divided into two halves with entrances at either end. The Broadway side houses an open kitchen along one wall with unusual rectangular high-top bar tables set perpendicular to it, so everyone enjoys a good view while still sitting across from friends and enjoying conversation. The opposite wall has regular tables of sleek blonde wood and some booths for larger parties. The Fifth Avenue side has the main façade and entrance, and houses a dedicated bar with more seating at Japanese-style stools and additional tables, which are set close to one another, though high ceilings give a sense of space. The whole place has a buzzy, modern, slightly Asian feel, with sleek wood and exposed stone walls, and a sense of fun — paper placemats each depict an exotic ingredient with image and description. Chopsticks are standard (you have to ask for a fork), green tea is always on the house, and the aesthetic is buzzy and lively.

Reason to visit: Pork and beef buns, Katsu curry, Firecracker chicken or shrimp, chili squid, duck gyoza, fried banana dessert

The food: While Wagamama is best known as a noodle specialist, especially for its ramen and udon dishes, the menu is much broader, and the bestseller is actually the chicken katsu curry. Katsu is a breaded cutlet popular in Japan, usually pork but often chicken, and in this case covered with a curry sauce. Wagamama sells more than 40,000 orders of this dish weekly in the UK. I can see why — it was my favorite overall, with a rich, creamy and not pasty curry sauce that is quite flavorful but not spicy at all, breading that stands up to the sauce without getting soggy, and a meaty enough cutlet where you can taste the juicy chicken. However, I also tried the vegetarian version, with katsu made of sweet potato, eggplant and butternut squash rounds, and it was also excellent with the curry sauce. Both come with rice and a side salad. Also under the curry section of the menu is another bestseller, Firecracker chicken (also available as shrimp), so beloved that several food websites have published recipes for “copycat Wagamama Firecracker chicken.” It is a mix of stir-fried chicken with both fried and fresh chopped chilis, snow peas, scallions, onions, and red and green peppers in a spicy sauce, served around a central mound of rice flavored with shichimi, a typical Japanese dried spice blend of chili pepper, black pepper, sesame seeds and other spices. If you like spicy, this is the way to go.

Here in the USA ramen has proven more popular than katsu, and the top sellers are chicken, chicken chili and the Wagamama, with a little bit of everything. The namesake dish takes a mixed grill approach with chicken, mussels, shell on shrimp (unusual in this country), Japanese fish cake, and rich, fatty, tender pork belly. Along with ramen noodles, scallions, pea shoots, seaweed, bamboo shoots and a tea stained egg, this is all in a chicken-based broth. Like all the entrees here, the ramen is a lot of food for the price, and the Wagamama gives a good representative sampling for those who find it hard to choose. While some of the components, especially the pork belly, really stand out, the ramen and the broth itself were a bit bland and needed a dose of the powerful chili sauce found on every table.

I preferred the udon noodle dishes cooked stir fry-style on a teppanyaki grill, the big flattop you’d find at a Japanese steakhouse (like Benihana). The menu has an entire section devoted to these, including my favorite, steak bulgogi udon, a Japanese dish starring a Korean classic, stir-fried thin strips of marinated sirloin along with miso coated fried baby eggplants. This and the ginger chicken are the most popular, and all the noodle dishes come packed with lots of veggies such as snow peas, bean sprouts and onion.

There is also a laundry list of appetizers, and Wagamama is a very good place to share dishes or graze on lots of small plates. There are several variations of gyoza, Japanese pan-fried dumplings that are usually pork, but here come in chicken, shrimp, vegetable, pork or the most interesting variant, duck with a cherry dipping sauce, a very tasty match I’ve never seen on a menu elsewhere. But the standout apps are the chili squid and pork buns. Squid are very lightly breaded, more like coated in flour, then fried, tossed in shichimi, and accompanied by a chili cilantro dipping sauce. The pork buns are the open, folded “taco” style on steamed bread, not the more typical sealed Chinese dome-shaped variety, and are delicious here, maybe the best thing on the menu — a perfect mix of rich meaty filling, condiments and soft warm steamy dough. They come in two varieties, both standouts, and both finished with tangy Japanese mayo: one has pork belly and panko-crusted fried apple, a surprising ingredient that goes perfectly with the tender, fatty pork; the other is Korean barbecue beef, dressed with cilantro and red onion. It is hard to go wrong with the starters here in general, and another strong choice is the fried breaded katsu shrimp with spicy chili garlic sauce.

Besides generous portions, flavorful ingredients and reasonable prices, especially for this Manhattan neighborhood (and similarly pricy London real estate), one signature of Wagamama is artistic presentation, and just about everything comes beautifully plated. There is also an extensive list of specialty cocktails, wine and sake, along with Japanese beers such as Sapporo on draught. Even the desserts are interesting, mostly staples given a Pacific Rim twist rather than authentic Asian sweets, such as fried panko-crusted bananas with sea salt and caramel ice cream, my favorite, or chocolate layer cake drizzled with a spit chocolate wasabi sauce. In a city like New York or Boston, if you want great ramen, there are lots of places specializing in it, and the same is true for many of the menu categories here. But there is just about no place else where you will find all this variety under one roof, with style, good service, fun and value, and it is a great choice for groups, families or travelers seeking a meal outside of standard lunch and dinner hours in some of the most heavily visited neighborhoods in these cities.

Pilgrimage-worthy?: No, but a great choice for a fun, eclectic and varied meal, especially for larger parties

Rating: Yum! (Scale: Blah, OK, Mmmm, Yum!, OMG!)

Price: $$ ($ cheap, $$ moderate, $$$ expensive)

Details: New York, 210 Fifth Ave., 212-920-6233; three Boston locations: Harvard Square, Faneuil Hall, Prudential Center; and more than two dozen other countries around the world; wagamama.us

Larry Olmsted has been writing about food and travel for more than 15 years. An avid eater and cook, he has attended cooking classes in Italy, judged a barbecue contest and once dined with Julia Child. Follow him on Twitter, @TravelFoodGuy, and if there's a unique American eatery you think he should visit, send him an e-mail at travel@usatoday.com. Some of the venues reviewed by this column provided complimentary services.