This is excellent service. I had no desire to demand new or free food. £3.95 is by no means a hefty price tag, particularly for something that has (one assumes) had quite a bit of preparation put into it. I was very impressed by the service. It is in stark contrast to the responses I've had from other places where I've spoken my mind -notably Momo, where they have consistently uncommunicative, unfriendly, and often incompetent service, and numerous managers who all have very little time for customer opinion. Wahaca and Momo are the opposite ends of the scale when it comes to popular modern 'ethnic' restaurants in central London in terms of service. (and value -Momo is insultingly overpriced, Wahaca could increase prices 25% and not feel expensive.)
Another thing that I'm fairly blown away by is the Wahaca social media. Without mentioning their account, they found my initial tweet-review. This is, in my mind above and beyond normal levels of customer interaction.
To briefly explain why they scored 6/10, which their response described as 'a harsh scoring system!', I should clarify that 6/10 is a good score. If you score 60% in your undergraduate degree, you'll probably recieve a 2.1 -an unusually high qualification. (one which I do not have...).
The local Indian takeaway, Anis, would score maybe a 2. Their food is genuinely terrible. (garlic chili chicken was very nice, but the bread was made of sugar, the tikka massala was disgusting and the onion bhaji was greasy and flavourless).
Maze would score a solid 8 for the tasting menu. (If they had dropped the beetroot and goat cheese course, it would be an 8.5 or 9)
On a scale of zero to ten (zero being inedible, ten being sublimely impossible), 5 should be the median score. Perhaps this is harsh, but this is how my out-of-ten system is configured.
This, therefore leads me on to the other part of my tweet-review: 'Revisited after a year, Wahaca was a terrible disappointment.'
When I visited about a year ago, following wave upon wave of endorsement from all over, I had relatively low expectations -my experience of Mexican food in the UK was pretty poor. Everything everyone had said about Wahaca was true: a genuinely exciting atmosphere, friendly and eager service bringing plate after plate of vibrant, moreish and surprising treats. I loved it. If you asked me for an out-of-ten score this time last year I would struggle to justify anything below a 7.5, or frankly, 8.
With this in memory, I was looking forward to this meal.
The disappointment came from the Chicken Tinga Tacos and the Ceviche Tostada. The former, as I mentioned earlier, really did have the feeling of something that was left over from the other night, and reheated from the fridge. Neither I, nor my dining partner care much for coriander leaf, which was really overpowering in this dish.
The Ceviche, which on paper sounds fabulous -shrimp, scallop, habanero (my favourite chili), lime and mint- should be a hot-yet-cool, robust-yet-light mouth-teaser, but failed to deliver on all counts. There was no discernible seafood element, or -perhaps more alarmingly- no heat whatsoever. It was essentially some green bits and salsa on a (really very tasty) crispy base. This would have been fine, and did taste fine, but wasn't by any means what it was meant to be.
These two aside, the food was excellent. I thought the pancakey flavour of the Chorizo Quesadillas was wonderful, the combinations of crunchy and smooth textures in the Summery New Potato Taquitos was delightful, and the rich sweetness of the Pork Pibil Tacos was quite literally gorgeous.
The surprise triumph, for me, was the salad with the new potato taquitos. (I disapprove of adjectives in titles, btw). Contrary to my usual dislike of coriander leaf, this was used to perfect effect in this lettuce, feta and habanero salad. I must admit, I'm not a fan of salads per se, but I could have eaten bowlfuls of this. Each layer was strong, the mild saltiness of the feta underpinning the cool sour cream and fresh lettuce, with a pitch-perfect citric chili finish. What really set this off, however, was the coriander, which delicately fragranced and lifted the dish.
This, again brings me back to the disappointment of the Ceviche. As far as I could tell, the lettuce, chili and salsa on the taquitos was exactly the same as that in the ceviche. Indeed, throwing a couple of big prawns and a cup of seafoody broth and lime juice onto that salad would make a dream of a ceviche. But one plate tasted special, the other was mediocre.
The hit-and-miss food, when it hits, it hits hard, when it misses, it isn't too far off, really. Wahaca is a very good restaurant. An interesting space, with a varied and enticing menu, delivered with (on the most part) style and control, with some of the best service I have encountered.
Perhaps I was a little too harsh to punish them for two disappointing dishes, but they really did bring down the evening for me. I shall definitely return, and I have no doubts that it will still be excellent. Let's settle between the 2010 and the 2011 scores and say Wahaca is worth a 7 out of 10.
