Wahaca, London

The proliferation of Wahaca out of its Chandos Street flagship restaurant is impressive. This Mexican Street Food restaurant from Masterchef winner Thomasina Miers appears to have taken over London, not that I'm complaining. I used to hate having to arrive an hour before I wanted to eat, put my name down, disappear for an hour and then come back and queue to see if we were next on the list and could be seated at the Covent garden stalwart. So, it was with delight that I found out recently that there is a Wahaca, not 10 minutes walk from my office in One New Change, but that this one also take reservations. What a result.


We were also due a team lunch out, so I added Wahaca to the outlook email voting buttons with a couple of other choices and it won by a large margin. Many of my colleagues were extremelly excited having never been before and I eagerly booked us a table for 8 (yes, booked!).


We arrived on time, took our seats and revelled in the decor. The super efficient and keen staff were at the ready with our menus and asked about our drinks. I had a hisbicus cordial (I think) whilst my colleagues all partook in various other soft drinks.


When the waitress returned with the drinks she was keen to take our order, as they do want to turn the tables over quickly - remember its meant to be like street food, fast. Unfortunately we were waiting for a colleague and had to send her away twice for five minutes at a time. This was quite disappointing for the rest of us who were chomping at the bit to order. So, once my colleague arrived we all began in turn giving our dishes to the waitress, asking whether we were ordering too much, clearly aware our eyes were bigger than our stomachs on and the menu too large to be fulfilled in just one lunch sitting.


The fish tacos which came with frijoles and rice were extremelly popular, as were the burritos and one colleague had the fish a la pimenta.

I meanwhile, had the plantain taco, which came with the frijoles, crema, feta and the hot chipotle adabo and the black bean tostada, which special refried beans topped with avocado salsa, crema, lancashire cheese and fresh tomato salsa. As mentioned above, the too many dishes, not enough time sentiment also led me to ordering the sweet potato, wonderful chunks of sweet potato topped with smokey caramelised mojo de ajo - others did the same.

The food all came out quickly, looking beautifully presented and very appetising. It doesn't come at once, but remember, this is street food, so everyone just tucked in as the dishes arrived. Everything tasted fresh and flavourful and we also started sampling the various hot sauces on the table. The great thing about Wahaca is its commitment to sustainability and the use of local produce (to make Mexican dishes - no mean feat!), plus you get all of this at an approximate price of £15 for a lunch with a soft drink. I think that's a bargain.


It is for the consistent quality of food, freshness of ingredients and efficiency of service, that I come back to Wahaca. Now I know I can book in some of the restaurants, you'll be seeing a lot of me Wahaca.