Wahaca is actually the first time in four years I’ve been fairly impressed with Mexican food. I come from the West Coast of the US where there are a lot of Mexican’s and this is pretty darn good. It’s more authentic Mexican instead of tex-mex, which means small dishes, usually with very simple ingredients focusing on the meat rather than then huge burritos stuffed with beans and rice.
The guacamole is some of the best around, very chunky with the right amount of lime and coriander and their tortilla chips are homemade and fried and oh so good. We all started with a Pacifico Beer, a blast from the past from my Spring Break days in Mazatlan; they went down nicely with the guacamole, hot salsa and chips. Then we decided to share the street food platter which consists of a sampling of all their good dishes: Fish tacos done in a habanero chili spice rub and served in a tiny corn tortilla; same with the steak tacos; aubergine and goat cheese quesadilla; chorizo quesadilla; and a couple others, all served with more guacamole and spicy cole slaw. We couldn’t finish our platter probably because we stuffed our faces on the guacamole. It was pretty good food. The only thing I didn’t like was the potatoes in the quesadilla’s – they shouldn’t mix English with Mexican food; it would have tasted better with just the other ingredients.
It’s a Wagamama-type experience where they take your order on a handheld device and things could arrive out of order, but our food didn’t. Probably because we had to wait a long time to get our food, but we weren’t too fussed about it. And James, our waiter, was really good. He was extremely hung-over (like the rest of us) yet was polite and efficient and had a great sense of humour. Service means a lot to me so I rate that place highly because of it.
If you want good Mexican, go here. It’s worth it.