Wagamama Chicken Teriyaki Soba

Wagamama chicken teriyaki soba costs £17.70 and carries 769 kcal, the entry point to the teriyaki end of the teppanyaki page. Glazed chicken over teppan fried soba noodles with mangetout, bok choi, onion, chilli, beansprouts and sesame seeds, the teriyaki lacquer doing the talking.

Teriyaki is a technique before it is a flavour: soy, mirin and sugar reduced until they shine, teri meaning lustre, painted over the protein late so it glazes rather than burns. Against the plainer yaki soba a teriyaki soba eats sweeter and stickier, and the fresh chilli scattered through the vegetables is there to argue with that sweetness, a low constant warmth rather than an event. The bok choi keeps its stalk crunch, and the noodles underneath carry the smoke.

Of the three teriyaki soba plates this is the lightest at 769 kcal and the cheapest at £17.70, with a proper 38 g of protein and the lowest salt of the trio. The sugar runs higher than the plain yaki soba for the obvious glaze reason, around 17 g, which is the honest cost of lustre. All three teriyaki soba prices are published by wagamama.

Its position in the trio also makes it the calibration order. Try the chicken version first and the steak and salmon plates become informed decisions rather than gambles, since the glaze, noodles and vegetables are identical across all three and only the protein changes. Plenty of regulars never move on from it, which says something about how much of the dish's pleasure lives in the glaze and smoke rather than the meat.

People asking how much is the chicken teriyaki soba usually mean it against the steak and salmon versions: this one leaves the most budget for the rest of the table, and loses only richness, not construction. A plate of chicken gyoza doubles the theme without clashing, and the high five juice cuts the glaze better than a soft drink. For a first teriyaki order at wagamama, this is the sensible door in.