Category: mexican

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Wahaca Feasting Menu

Though Wahaca is one of my favourite places to eat, I hadn’t been there since December 2024, when I visited the branch at Paddington and had the Wahaca for One deal. They use to have a branch in Bristol, but that closed way back in August 2020.

My son and I were in Wimbledon, and there are lots of places to eat there, however it was during the recent heatwave, so I wasn’t in the mood for spicy Korean food. So, we went to Wahaca. It was a Friday evening, and they looked busy, it took while for us to be seated, we then looked over the menu.

They have an extensive choice of small plates on offer in their menu, and they recommend 2-3 plates per person. I also quite liked the idea of ordering some Mexico City Nachos as well. However, I did though like the sound of their feasting menu. This is six dishes, and one of those, the Yellowfin Tuna Tostadas was one I wanted to have. One thing I like about having a set menu like this is you get dishes you probably wouldn’t order if you were ordering separate plates. We ordered the feasting menu and two bottles of Corona.

The first four dishes to arrive were a Sweet Potato & Feta Taquito, Beef Gringa Tacos, Grilled Brindisa Chorizo Quesadilla and the Yellowfin Tuna Tostadas.

The Beef Gringa tacos were made from grass-fed, slow-cooked beef, with grilled cheese and salsa fresca, in two soft corn tortillas. A dash of lime added a nice sharpness and freshness to the rich beef filling.

Beef Gringa Tacos

Yes, you could eat these in your hands, but it could be messy. The beef was rich and tender with just the right amount of spice.

The Grilled Brindisa Chorizo Quesadilla is not the best looking dish, but this was tasty.

Grilled Brindisa Chorizo Quesadilla

There was ample chorizo within the quesadilla to add heat and bite to the filling of grilled cheese and crunchy tortilla.

The Sweet Potato & Feta Taquito with caramelised onion, salsas and chipotle mayo in a crisp blue corn tortilla, was served on a bed of lettuce.

Sweet Potato & Feta Taquito

The sweetness of the sweet potato was offset by the saltiness of the feta and the spicy heat of the chipotle mayo. It was a lovely combination of flavours and textures.

One of my favourite dishes of the feasting menu was the Yellowfin Tuna Tostadas. This was raw line-caught tuna, marinated in soy and lime, with avocado, tomato salsa and salsa macha, on crispy tortillas.

Yellowfin Tuna Tostadas

I had enjoyed tuna tacos from Bills before, but these tostadas were very different approach and appearance. The crispy tostadas added a nice crunch to the fresh zingy tuna and the accompanying salsas added flavour and heat. Like the beef tacos, slightly messy to eat, but these were delicious.

As we were eating the final two dishes arrived, the Buttermilk Chicken Tacos, and the Chipotle Glazed Aubergine.

The Buttermilk Chicken tacos would probably have been a dish I would have ordered if I was ordering separate plates. These was crunchy fried buttermilk chicken with habanero mayo and pink pickled onions, in two soft flour tortillas. 

Buttermilk Chicken Tacos

This sounded great, and they were very nice, but out of all the six dishes I had these were probably my least favourite. I liked the habanero mayo and pink pickled onions, but I think the dish was let down by the chicken, which to be honest was a little dry (and possibly overcooked). They were okay, maybe I had higher expectations, but I was slightly disappointed.

I forgot to take a photograph of the Chipotle Glazed Aubergine: however, this was roasted slices of aubergine that had been brushed with a chipotle glaze and was served on top of macadamia mole, with jalapeño oil and crumbled feta. I doubt I would have ordered this dish if I was ordering separate plates, but this was one of the best dishes in the six.  It was beautifully presented with a topping of crumbled feta. It had a lovely strong flavour, some heat, there was sweetness from the glaze which contrasted with the saltiness of the feta and the slight bitterness of the aubergine. Delicious.

Overall, we had six excellent plates of food. Obviously, I preferred some over others, but it was a nice variety and I was pleased we had made the choice to go with the feasting menu. 

Service was excellent, warm, friendly and efficient. I would certainly visit again.

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Grilled Nachos

Nachos

A simple dish which takes tortilla chips, dressed with some tomato salsa and then dressed with cheese before hitting the oven to melt the cheese. It is then served with guacamole and sour cream.

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Mexican Style Salad Bowl

Mexican Style Salad Bowl

This salad bowl was from Aldi and cost £1.39. As well as mixed leaves there was shredded carrot and beetroot. The salad comes with a (quite a) spicy sachet of mayonnaise. I mixed mine with some “normal” mayonnaise. I then dressed the salad with the accompanying mini tortilla chips. It was a quick and tasty salad.

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Unlimited Tapas

Down in Ealing there is a branch of Las Iguanas. It took over the site occupied by Bills four years ago. I remember been saddened, as I had some excellent food from Bills, and my experience with Las Iguanas (in Birmingham) was somewhat disappointing. Though I have eaten many times in Ealing, I had never got around to visiting Las Iguanas. The main reason for this is that there are plenty of other choices in the area.

Looking for somewhere to eat, in the end we went to Las Iguanas as they had an unlimited tapas deal for £17 each. Having seen the adverts for this offer, I have been meaning to try it for a while. We did think it might be a bit sketchy, but for £17, it sounded like good value for money.

Save you reading to the end of the blog post, we had a lovely meal and enjoyed ourselves.

You have to pre-book, which to be honest, we did outside on the app and then walked in. It was a quiet Tuesday so it wasn’t busy, and we were offered a table by the window. We were given a menu, but mentioned we were here for the unlimited tapas deal, so we were given the menu for that.

There are 13 choices on the menu, well there are really only 12 as the tacos have a £5 supplement. There is a nice mix of dishes including salads. Alongside you can purchase additional sides such as fries, mac & cheese, and different kinds of salad.

You can’t just order everything all at once, they place a limit. We could only order three dishes (per two people), and we could only order food for 90 minutes.

Out first order was for the loaded nachos with fresh guacamole, fresh salsa, cheese, jalapeños, spring onions, pickled red onions, chipotle cheese sauce, sour cream, a portion of popcorn squid with garlic aioli, and some buttermilk fried chicken with agave aioli.

The nachos were nicely loaded, though some of the nacho chips were soft and chewy, the rest of the plate was delicious.

The popcorn squid was interesting, similar to popcorn chicken, these were small portions of squid covered in a crispy batter. They were interesting, but tasty. The buttermilk chicken was a portion of fried buttermilk chicken sliced and served with the agave aioli.

After finishing off those dish we ordered three more plates of food. We had calamares with garlic aioli, some hot honey fried halloumi with chilli flakes, and a plate of patatas bravas, fried potatoes, chipotle sauce and garlic aioli.

The calamares were excellent, crunchy on the outside, tender and soft in the inside. I really liked the hot honey fried halloumi which were salty and sweet, but not too squeaky. The  patatas bravas was very tasty, a nice spicy sauce offset by the aioli.

Our final order of food was some hot honey chicken wings, the roasted red pepper salad fresh red pepper salsa, cherry tomatoes, rocket, pumpkin seeds and pineapple dressing.

These were excellent chicken wings, moist and tender and full of flavour. I have found with other places chicken wings can be somewhat dried and overcooked, these were really nice, and I was impressed. The salad was lovely and refreshing and the fresh red pepper salsa had a real zing to it.

We also had some extra portions of the hot honey fried halloumi and the calamares.

Overall the food was good, much better than my previous experience of Las Iguanas. I could not fault the service which was excellent. 

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Tres Tacos

tacos

I had stopped off at Cribbs Causeway to charge my car and grab a late lunch.

Was going to go to Wagamama and try out their tteokbokki. However, they were quite busy, and I couldn’t see the tteokbokki on the menu. In the end I went to Tortilla and had tres tacos.

I do like the tacos from Tortilla, they are tasty, fresh and I think good value for money. I went with three chicken tacos and added extra guacamole. That is probably my only annoyance, is that I have to pay extra for guacamole, and it’s not as though you get a massive portion of guacamole either, it’s a small spoonful on each taco. I remember once getting tacos from somewhere else, a street food market, and then popping into Tesco Express to get a pot of guacamole as it was significantly cheaper and you got more guacamole. Don’t think I could do that at Tortilla unless I did takeout.

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Tacos from the Halls

trains

When arriving at Paddington and needing something for lunch, I have on the last few occasions headed to the Market Halls.

Having been impressed with the meal I had there, I had thought about repeating the steak and chips I had before. However, there is quite a choice of places to eat and I do like to try new things. I decided to try out one of the other stalls, so this time I headed upstairs and went to try out the tacos from Breddos Tacos.

I had their lunch deal, which was three tacos and some rice for £15. I went with three different tacos.

I did enjoy all three tacos, but in order of preference, my least favourite was the chicken taco. This was Yucatan grilled chicken, pico de gallo, habanero salsa, and avocado. I had anticipated a warm chicken taco, but this wasn’t to be the case. Don’t get me wrong it was really nice, but I was expecting hot grilled chicken.

The mushroom taco was full of flavour. This mushroom guisado taco was filled with braised mushroom, onion, jalapeño, and habanero salsa. I do like mushrooms, a and this was really tasty.

The fish taco was the best of the three. The Baja Fish taco had tempura cod, pico de Gallo, and habanero mayo. The taco looked great, the cod was hot and crunchy and the accompaniments were tasty.

Overall I really liked the three tacos and it was a nice meal, the rice in my opinion didn’t add much. I think next time I would forgo the rice and just go with the three tacos.

It’s interesting to compare this with the Wahaca lunch deal for one, which is available next door. I think the Wahaca meal is a better choice if you want tacos.

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Taco Holders

I like making tacos at home, but this usually means making them one at a time at the table. I have been thinking about getting some taco holders so that I can prepare them in advance before serving them to the table.

I had a look online and in the end I got some colourful plastic taco holders.

These will hold two tacos, or turn them upside down and they can hold three.

Having tried them out, they work a treat, makes it very easy to construct tacos for serving.

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Tres Tacos from Tortilla

tortilla

I have to say I am a bit of a fan of the tacos from Tortilla, and is one of my go to places for a light lunch. They make a nice fresh and tasty, but light meal. This time I tried out the branch of Tortilla at Cabot Circus. I had three chicken tacos with all the trimmings and added guacamole as an extra.

Tres Tacos from Tortilla

What I like about the food, is it tastes very fresh, true the chicken has been around for a while, but combined with the fresh salad, salsa, and toppings, they are delicious. Can be a bit messy to eat, so I usually use a fork, but in theory you can eat them by hand.  Really enjoyed these tacos and they made a nice lunch.

I do wonder why places charge extra for guacamole, and in the case of Tortilla they also charge extra for hot cheese sauce. Can make a cheaper deal a little more pricey.

One time I will get a burrito from Tortilla and see how that is.

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Wahaca for One

I had really enjoyed my last meal at Wahaca at Paddington, so had thought about going again at some point.

Arrived in London and went to Wahaca for lunch. They do a deal for one, which looked nice. Better than a sandwich. Initially I thought do I want to go there, as it was quite early, just approaching midday. But then I thought, what was the alternative? A sandwich from Pret? So headed on up the stairs. I was the first person in the restaurant. However, by the time my food arrived twenty minutes later, the place was packed.

What you got was:

      • Guacamole & Tortilla Chips
      • Smoky Sonoran Hummus
      • Sweet Potato & Feta Taquito
      • Two tacos of your choice, I went for the Buttermilk Chicken Taco and the Beef Gringa Taco.

I loved the way the food was presented on a wooden board.

The guacamole tasted nice and fresh, and it was nice to have the mixed tortilla chips as well. I really liked the smoky Sonoran hummus, not too smoky, but I liked the addition of the sunflower seeds. The Sonoran hummus is a Mexican hummus, made with roasted vegetables, chickpeas, guajillo and herbs, drizzled with chilli oil.

At the heart of the board was a sweet potato & feta taquito. There was a variety of textures and flavours in this taquito. It came with caramelised onion, salsas and chipotle mayo, and was served in a crisp blue corn tortilla. The crunch of the rolled taco and the smooth sweet potato made this a tasty treat.

I had gone for the buttermilk chicken taco and the beef gringa taco. You got one of each. The gringa taco was slow-cooked British grass-fed beef with grilled cheese and salsa fresca, in a soft corn tortilla. The beef was tender and full of flavour.

The buttermilk chicken taco was chicken crispy fried in WildFarmed flour with pink pickled onions and spiced mayo, in a soft flour tortilla.

It was a great meal, really tasty. Service was excellent as well.

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Time for Tacos

One of my go to places for a light lunch, is Tortilla. I always go for the three tacos, usually with added guacamole.

I was at the Mall doing some shopping and decided to grab a bite to eat at Tortilla. I went for the chicken tacos.

What I like about the food, is it tastes very fresh, true the chicken has been around for a while, but combined with the fresh salad, salsa, and toppings, they are delicious. Can be a bit messy to eat, so I usually use a fork, but in theory you can eat them by hand. One time I will get a burrito from Tortilla and see how that is.