Re-opening date for Aylesbury wagamama's revealed

The screens, inspired by Japanese partition designs, cleverly take advantage of the long wagamama bench designs to ensure safe dining.

The team at Wagamama used guest feedback to devise the sliding screens which sit on tiny rollers and can be moved up and down the full length of the benches discretely separating parties of guests from one another.

The ‘stay safe the Wagamama way’ re-opening will allow customers to experience the restaurant making a feature of the restaurant’s iconic benches.

Wagamama reopened four trial sites to test the safety and efficiency of the designs which were put in place to meet strict social distancing and increased hygiene measures.

The first restaurant to open was at the Royal Festival Hall in central London on Saturday July 4 and included a wide variety of innovative ideas to keep customers and team members safe.

The first site was then followed by three others at the Trafford Centre, Stevenage and Swindon from Monday July 6.

The next wave saw a further 15 open and on Monday July 27 Wagamama will reopen 28 and on July 31 a further 29. A further site will be opened on August 3, five more on August 4 and the remaining four on August 5 (full list below)with a further 31 restaurants re-opening early August, locations to be confirmed.

By the end of August there will be 138 Wagamama restaurants open and all will participate in the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme.

Other measures the restaurant is taking to ensure guests stay safe the Wagamama way include social distancing queuing, disposable menus on placemats, front of house team members in face visors and the restaurants will also be cashless , providing a simple pay on phone mechanic at the end of the meal which minimises staff contact and adheres to the government’s request of taking the name and phone number of at least one person in the group visiting the restaurant.

The return to dine-in has been guided by a survey of Wagamama customers which asked what was important to them when considering reopening restaurants. Safety, whilst maintaining the much loved ability to sit on our benches within the restaurant came back as key messages.

During the first weeks of re-opening guests have been asked to give Wagamama feedback so that they are constantly learning and improving.

Design Director Mark Standing said: “Sliding screens (shoji) are at the very heart of the Japanese architectural aesthetic. They have been used for hundreds of years to divide spaces in buildings and rooms. I took my inspiration for the design of screen dividers for our long sharing tables and benches from this tradition”.

CEO Emma Woods continued: “The main question we have been working on as a team is how can our guests feel safe but still have a communal Wagamama experience, sitting on our benches. The team have applied our philosophy of kaizen - good change - to this challenge and I am delighted we have found a design solution which provides social distancing for our guests in a way which is true to the design ethos of the brand.”