Wagamama to open 10 more restaurants this year

Wagamama has revealed plans to open 10 new sites in the UK in 2024, up from the six it launched in 2023.

New locations include Bentley Bridge, Wolverhampton; Glasgow (February); Epsom (March); Doncaster (April); Chatham Maritime (May); and Woodside Leisure Park Watford (May).

The pan-Asian restaurant opened its first site in London’s Bloomsbury in 1992 and has since grown to over 165 restaurants.

Wagamama said “demand continues to grow” for its classic dishes, such as chicken katsu curry, pad thai and bang bang cauliflower.

The restaurant pipeline is expected to create 500 new jobs, ranging from kitchen porters to general managers.

Thomas Heier, chief executive of Wagamama, said: “We’re proud to be opening 10 new sites in the UK in 2024. The past year has been an exciting year for us where we’ve evolved the brand through innovative new menu launches bringing new dishes such as vegan k-dogs, Korean-style hot pots and gochujang rice bowls to our benches whilst also launching new brand collaborations such as our slow fashion uniform partnership with Pangaia.

“Our teams have done an excellent job in continuing to elevate our guest experience and we very much look forward to welcoming more guests to our benches as we head into 2024.”

It comes after the owner of Wagamama, TRG, was sold to US private equity giant Apollo Global Management for £506m in December last year after months of pressure from TRG’s activist shareholders.