Wahaca, Covent Garden
Originally uploaded by Manne.
Quite a nice little place. Mexican, good stuff, decent heat in the Habanero sauce, nice but a little bit stressed out staff.
Originally we were planning to go to Bincho for our semi regular restaurant outing, but less then two hours before our reservation was due they called me up and kindly and very apolgetically informed me that they were closed tonight due to the Oxo tower having neither gas nor water tonight... I was quite disappointed since I really looked forward to trying a yakitori place out, especially since friends have talked well about this particular one. Well, no need to cry over a ruined reservation in the city of London, if one restaurant lets you down, there are literally thousands more to choose from.
To make sure we got a table I decided to go for something simple though, and I came to think of the fairly new place Wahaca that I have seen a few not too shabby reviews of lately. Close by, according to reviews a Wagamama approach (doesn't even take reservations). Besides, Mexican is never wrong, as I knew J would agree.
When we got there we still had to wait a few minutes for a table for two though, obviously they do something right since they were really busy throughout the evening. Good looking and well lit place, comfortable sound levels despite the large amount of people and clear and descriptive menus with just the right amount of selections on them. You can either do "tapas" style of eating and order a bunch of small dishes, or go for a starter and a larger dish if you feel more in a dinner kind of mood. Since me and J both have short attention span, we went for the tapas option.
J looks pleasantly surprised?
Originally uploaded by Manne.
The feast on the table is the "Wahaca selection
for two", a nice assortment of mouthfuls. With a few side dishes we got
quite full. The fish tacos were the best
of the lot. Very fresh, all of it, not swimming in grease. Not a taste explosion or a visual feast, but you get what you pay for and as such this is great value for money.
Since it was a school night we didn't examine their drink list, but they did have an interesting selection of tequilas and I tried a new beer which went perfectly with the meal, Modelo Especial, made by the same brewery that brings us Corona.
Great place to go with a friend or a few, just to hang out and chat. The only downside was that the staff was way too busy. Friendly and informative, but certainly too stressed out. I hate it when you ask for refill of sauces or drinks and the waiter simply forgets and leaves you hanging.
Bargain though. Enough food for two to get full, two hibiscus soft drinks, two beers and a coffe each came to under 40 pounds in total. Next time I will make sure to try the tequila.
URL: Wahaca official web site
URL: Squaremeal about Wahaca
URL: Harden's opinion, short and to the point
URL: Times Online, quite the opposite of Harden's...
