Rewind to several years ago and I was watching Thomasina Miers on Masterchef. I liked her back then, but even more so when she brought out her own Mexican cookbook (she has spent years travelling in Mexico and creating unique Mexican-style dishes) – a copy of which my sister bought me for my birthday that year. When I learned that she had opened a Mexican restaurant in London, I was desperate to go, but alas I never quite made it.
So imagine my delight when they opened a branch of her restaurant, Wahaca, in the newly-refurbished Corn Exchange (which, as a side note, is such a better use of the space than the old shopping mall – super-swanky food destination for the win!) We decided to head there for a late lunch on New Year’s Eve.
We of course started with some chips and guac (a must for me when eating anywhere even vaguely Mexican) and a couple of margaritas – original for me and the Tamarind Margarita for Scott.
Both instantly whisked us back to our time in Mexico and the west coast of the US. The tortilla chips could have been better – they were more like high-end bagged tortilla chips from a store as opposed to the ones found in Mexico, which are actual tortillas fried until crisp – but the guacamole was creamy and had balanced flavours (I hate over-powering lime or garlic in my guac).
We perused the menu and opted for a few smaller ‘street food’ dishes each. We went for the plantain tacos, the sweet potato and feta taquitos, the black bean and cheese quesadilla and the fish tacos.
The sweet potato taquitos came out first (dishes are delivered as and when they are ready, not in any particular order) and were wonderfully crispy, just like the ones I adored in Mexico. The sweet filling was offset by the smoky sauce and feta cheese slathered on the top.
The rest of our food came out promptly after. The fish tacos (cod) were topped with crunchy slaw, chipotle mayo and pickled cucumber and I have Scott’s word that they were definitely a good imitation of Baja-style tacos. They came with a side of green rice and black beans.
The black bean and cheese quesadilla was pretty underwhelming – but to be fair to Wahaca, putting black beans and cheese in a tortilla isn’t rocket science and as I’ve made similar things at home for a snack before, I guess I should have known better than to order it at a restaurant.
The star of the show, for both of us, had to be the plantain tacos. The crispy plantain was so sweet but the spiciness of the salsa on top complemented it perfectly. I didn’t get the blue corn tortillas, or the caramelized onions, that were specified on the menu, but I’ll let that slide considering how damn tasty the tacos were.
We couldn’t resist dessert, and chose the Mexican churros with both a dark chocolate and salted caramel dipping sauce (we had to pay extra for the salted caramel, but after the waitress did such a good job of selling it to us, how could we say no?). I have no good photos of the churros unfortunately, as nighttime had fallen by the time we got to dessert and the flash was just a big no-no, so you’ll have to take my word for it that the churros were light and crispy and the salted caramel sauce was to die for. In fact, there were too few churros to finish the sauce, so I ended up just spooning it into my mouth, lest it should go to waste. Stay classy, folks.
In short, I cannot wait to get back to Wahaca again, and am so happy to have found somewhere decent to go for a marg, some guac and a portion of tacos in the UK.
- Corn Exchange, Exchange Square, Manchester M4 3TR
- Open Mon – Sat 12pm – 11pm, Sun 12pm – 10.30pm
- www.wahaca.co.uk/locations/manchester/
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