Are you a Wagamama lover living in Brixton? If the answer is yes, I’d like to tell you about a medium sized Japanese noodle bar called New Fujiyama as I’m pretty sure it’ll be right up your street. It’s impossible to say who inspired who, but New Fujiyama is the closest I’ve got to being in a Wagamama, without actually being in a Wagamama.
My friend J and I hadn’t planned to go to New Fujiyama last Monday. Instead, we stumbled across the busy restaurant after realising our beloved Brixton Village was closed. Although the menu was large, I honed in on my usual Wagamama dishes – Ebi Gyoza to share with J and my glass of wine, and Yaki Udon for main.
There is one word to describe the Ebi Gyoza and that word is delicious. To give you a bit more of an explanation, each little prawn dumpling was crispy on the outside, sweet on the inside, with a spicy soya sauce to cut through the grease.
I wish I could say the same about the Yaki Udon, which definitely didn’t blow me away. It’s not that there was anything fundamentally wrong with my choice, I still loved the fat noodles, mixture of shellfish and chicken, and sprinkling of ginger on top, it’s just that being a one-off noodle bar, I wanted it to be twenty times better than Wagamama. Instead, the dish didn’t leave an imprint in my food memory, so will probably get lost in a sea of Wagamama Yaki Udons.
New Fujiyama gets a LLE Rating of 6/10. I’d certainly recommend it to anyone out in Brixton on a Monday night as, even though it isn’t extraordinary, the food is still tasty and certainly fills a hole for a very reasonable price.
New Fujiyama, 5-7 Vining Street, Brixton, SW9 8QA
Sounds a nice enough place, but they should make themselves a little more ‘bespoke’.
I have been back since and I think their menu is too big – thats the issue. I cannot falter the starter though, yum!
Agree … their menu’s too big and the wagamama rip-offs aren’t much better but the salmon skin rolls there are incredibly cheap and delicious!