Tag: tacos

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Back to Wahaca

I was travelling back from London and rather than catch a busy peak train, I decided I would have some dinner and catch a later train. The other option was to catch a busy train, probably stand or be cramped, and then cook when I got home. So dinner it was, and I had already made up my mind to visit Wahaca.  I had heard about the branch at Wahaca at Paddington when it opened, but I hadn’t had the chance, or the opportunity to make a visit until this week.

It’s just outside the station and upon entering the restaurant you climb a set of stairs to get to the tables. Even though it was early the place was buzzing and quite busy. I was initially offered a seat at the bar, but as I wanted food and not a drink, I asked for a table.

I sat down and looked over the menu. I had a voucher for a free portion of tacos, so that was the first area of the menu I went through. I was tempted by the buttermilk chicken tacos, but went with the Ancho Mushroom Tacos, with jalapeño mayo, beetroot crisps and dressed slaw, in two soft corn tortillas

I had really enjoyed the Mexico City Nachos when I had them a few years ago. So that was next on my list of choices. I went for the veggie version, as I didn’t think the addition of the chorizo really added that much to the dish, and the veggie dish was cheaper as well.

My final choice was the Zesty Bean & Feta Tostadas, with chickpeas, borlotti beans and organic peas with fresh tomato salsa. I had hoped they would have the crab tostadas they use to have on the menu, but they didn’t.

The nachos arrived first and I was a little surprised by the size of the dish. Either the dish was smaller when I had it a few years ago, having made my own version of this plate, I was expecting something smaller, or more than likely I had just plain forgotten how large the dish was. 

There was plenty of crunchy tortilla chips, a large helping of guacamole, black beans, crema, pink pickled onions, cheese sauce, fresh tomato salsa and jalapeño. I left the jalapeño, but the rest of the dish was delicious.

I really enjoyed the Zesty Bean & Feta Tostadas, full of flavour and contrasting textures of crunchy tostadas and soft beans.

The Ancho Mushroom Tacos were really tasty, I liked the mushrooms and the intensity of flavours across the two tacos.

I really enjoyed all three dishes and the experience reminded me how much I enjoy the food at Wahaca. Service was excellent, warm, friendly and efficient. It’s a real pity that the branch in Bristol closed, as it would be nice to have somewhere local to visit.

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Tres Tacos

Needing a quick lunch, I went to Tortilla and had their three tacos. You have a choice of flour or corn tacos. This time I went with flour tacos.

three chicken tacos

For the filling I would usually go for the beef, but this time I went with the chicken. I have gone for the beef in the past, thinking it would be steak, but it usually isn’t.

The chicken was a much better choice. It was very tasty, and I enjoyed my choice of toppings of tomato salsa, sour cream, guacamole, and cheese.

It’s quite a light lunch, which is what I wanted. If you wanted something more substantial, you could have the burrito option.

I always think it is a little cheeky to charge extra for guacamole and then put essentially a small spoonful on each tacos. I remember having (takeaway) tacos once from a place which did this, I actually went to Tesco and bought a tub of guacamole rather than pay more for less.

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I forget about those Fish Tacos

Whilst writing another blog post I realised I had not written about a meal I had eaten last year. Back in March 2023, I was staying at the Drayton Court Hotel in Ealing. I have been staying here for a fair few years now. It is significantly cheaper than central London, and with the Elizabeth Line, hitting central London is really fast. West Ealing Station is a few minutes walk from the hotel, from there you can catch a train to central London in less than twenty minutes. The hotel has an Ealing comedies theme, there are rooms named after films, and there are numerous photographs from the films framed on the walls.

I was going to have the steak sandwich, but I misread the menu, they stopped serving sandwiches at 5pm. So instead, I had the fish tacos and then the Florentine pizza.

I’ve had the fish tacos many times before at the Drayton Court Hotel. These are crispy strips of battered fish served on flour tortillas, with salad, dressings, and a mango salsa.

It’s in many ways quiet a simple dish, but isn’t one I have recreated back home. I have made similar tacos using crispy chicken, and I have also made my own salsa as well. Though I’ve not made a mango salsa. 

These tacos were delicious, and I really enjoyed them.

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Disappointing Tacos

A year ago I was staying at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel in Ealing. I don’t recall why I wasn’t in one of my usual haunts, though I had stayed at the Doubletree a few months previously in November 2022. Then I had some nice food from the hotel restaurant, so was intrigued to see what was on the menu this time. 

I went with the tacos. Now when I think of tacos, I think of soft flour tortillas, filled with delicious fillings, grilled or slow cooked meat, delicate salads, piquant sauces and dressings. What I got was this! 

cheesy tacos

These were hard crispy tacos (from a packet), filled, and then grilled to melt the cheese. 

These were really disappointing. It was the kind of thing you might expect from throwing something together in the kitchen after a night out. It was not what I expected from a hotel restaurant. I really do think they could have done better.

I have had some nice tacos at other hotels, I really like the fish tacos I have at the Drayton Court Hotel in Ealing.

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Time once more for the Fish Tacos

three fish tacos

I was back in London and staying at one of my regular haunts, the Drayton Court Hotel in Ealing. I have been staying here for a fair few years now. It is significantly cheaper than central London, and with the Elizabeth Line, hitting central London is really fast. West Ealing Station is a few minutes walk from the hotel, from there you can catch a train to central London in less than twenty minutes.

The hotel has an Ealing comedies theme, there are rooms named after films, such as Kind Hearts & Coronets and Passport to Pimlico. There are lots of photographs from the films on the walls.

Going down for dinner, I went with the fish tacos. I’ve had the fish tacos many times before, and these were just as good as the ones I’ve had previously.

The dish arrived, it comprised three tacos, each was served with a piece of fish in a crunchy coating, shredded lettuce, mayo and the aforementioned mango salsa.

These were nice and tasty fish tacos. I liked the crunchy fish strips, the mango and lettuce added some nice freshness to the tacos.

They are slightly different to the first time I had them, which was back in 2022, when they also had some grated cheese on top. 

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These weren’t the tacos I was expecting

We headed to Cabot Circus to have a celebration meal. The place that was chosen was the Coal Kitchen.

Though it took me a while to work it out, the last time I had been to Coal, was over ten years ago, in January 2013, when it was called Coal Bar and Grill and I had a burger.

It is now called the Coal Kitchen. We had booked, but were still given a choice of tables. They have quite an extensive menu, but also a set menu. I went with the set menu and started with the chicken tacos.

two soft tacos, marinated chicken, lettuce, tomato, pickled chilli and harrisa yoghurt

This description from the set menu shows what it was supposed to be, two soft tacos, marinated chicken, lettuce, tomato, pickled chilli and harrisa yoghurt.

However not sure where the tomato, chilli and yoghurt went, I certainly didn’t have any on my tacos.

As a result they were a little dry, but I did still quite enjoy them. 

Obviously they took the menu away after we ordered, so didn’t realise until I was posting a photograph of my food to the Instagram and copying the description, that I realised three components of the dish were missing. If I had known I would have probably asked about it.

Checking the Coal Chicken Instagram feed they actually had a photograph of the dish from the (new) set menu.

two soft tacos, marinated chicken, lettuce, tomato, pickled chilli and harrisa yoghurt

Well mine certainly did not look like that!

I do find it frustrating when restaurants (usually) chains, don’t follow the recipe for their dishes, resulting in this kind of experience. Had a similar experience with a hotel in Salford.

The real result is that it puts me off going back to the restaurant again. It had been ten years since I last went to Coal, it might be sometime before I head there again for something to eat.

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Fish Tacos once more

Staying at the Drayton Court Hotel I went for dinner and I really wasn’t sure what to have. I did quite fancy the crab pasta starter on the specials list, but it was unavailable. Looking over the starters I decided to have the fish tacos, a dish I have had before.

The dish arrived, it comprised three tacos, each was served with a piece of fish in a crunchy coating, shredded lettuce, mayo and the aforementioned mango salsa.

I have enjoyed these before, and I enjoyed these as well. Nice crunchy fish, with fresh salad and salsa. Delicious.

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Time for Tres Tacos

I was up in Manchester for some meetings. Before a long afternoon meeting I headed out into Manchester for something to eat. I needed to be quick, so I went local.

Many years ago I had some excellent tacos from Chilango in Manchester. When I was in Manchester in May 2022 I went to Chilango, they no longer sold their tacos, so I had a hotbox instead. 

So when I was up in Manchester this month (January 2023) I was intrigued to see that the branch of Chilango had closed and had been replaced by a branch of Tortilla.

They sell tacos and I like tacos, so I ordered some grilled chicken tacos with cheese, salsa, guacamole, and sour cream.

These were very fresh and tasty tacos.

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Time for Fish Tacos

I was staying in a hotel in Glasgow close to the SECC where I was attending a conference. Having arrived around lunchtime, I went for a walk to get some air and find somewhere for lunch. I headed up to Argyle Street with every intention of eating at the Crabshakk. However when I got there I wasn’t quite sure it was the kind of place for a quick lunch. I did also quite like the idea of the Ox and Finch, but for lunch it looked rather expensive! Maybe another time. In the end I went to Number 1082.

I started off with a double espresso, well it had been a fair few hours since my last coffee at Bristol Airport. I looked over the menu, having perused it outside, I was thinking tacos. I ordered some fish tacos and a side order of skinny fries.

On two warm tacos there was some sliced fried fish with slaw, guacamole and mayonnaise.

They were very nice, though not as good as the fish tacos I had had in London back in May.

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Time for Tacos at Wahaca

The last time I went to Wahaca it was just before lockdown. In May 2022 I was up in London for an event with my son, and afterwards we decided to get something to eat. Our first choice was Bills in Victoria, but they were full. So, I suggested that we head to Oxford Circus and go to Wahaca. We caught a tube across London.

We arrived to find there was a bit of a wait for a table, well it was a Friday evening in London, not too surprising. We decided that we would wait. It wasn’t too long before a table was free, we sat down and looked over the menu.

We chose six dishes, the one we started with, was the Mexico City nachos which I discussed here and was the highlight of our meal.

We also had three plates of tacos.

We had the grilled chicken and avocado tacos with ancho rub, guacamole & green tomatillo salsa, served in two soft corn tortillas.

I have had these before, the chicken for me was slightly overcooked, but the flavours were excellent. I like the addition of the guacamole to the spicy chicken.

There was also the chargrilled steak & cheese tacos, chargrilled bavette steak with grilled cheese, chipotle and avocado salsas, in two soft corn tortillas.

Another dish I have had before, these were very tasty. Though I think I have had better ones before. The steak was nice and tender and the salsas added a contrast of flavours and textures. Never see the point of the grilled cheese, preferred it when it was an option and I could choose not to have it.

Our final choice of tacos were the buttermilk chicken tacos, this was crispy fried chicken, with pink pickled onions and spiced mayo, in two soft flour tortillas.

I have had these before also. The chicken was overcooked and dry, but I liked the pink pickled onions. 

Overall these were nice tacos, not the best I’ve had, but certainly they were tasty.