food according to pedders

Wow, I got to this earlier than expected. Didn’t think I’d have time to sit and type till post-work tomorrow. However, since I’ve put my photos up on Flickr, let’s have a bit of blog time. I’ve been a busy bee this last few weeks and I recently re-tried Wahaca. I did have a bit of a bad time at this restaurant before (see here) and did have some lovely feedback from the PR guys at Wahaca themselves.

However, a year later, I did return and I’m very glad I did so. My main gripe with Canary Wharf was the experience & the food - The service was slow, the food was massively average and overpriced for the quality we had. Covent Garden was much different and thank god for that… Firstly, the place. You go downstairs into this kind of cavernous restaurant with lots of little different areas which makes it a lot more fun. There’s white with coloured accents and funky decoration as well as a decent-sized bar where you can wait & drink at before sitting if there’s a queue. My tip is to go quite early: we were there for 6 and sat down straight away. We also had (I imagine) better service as the restaurant wasn’t that busy.

Tortillas & guacamole

Ordering was simple as we’d both been there before - I also, thanks to being a follower of Wahaca on Twitter, had filled out a sneaky prize to get us some free Steak Tacos… Score! For anybody who isn’t au fait with the way Wahaca works, it’s all around the concept of market eating, sharing plates and letting your tastebuds get a workout on the different types of food available. Food comes as and when it’s prepared and there’s a lot of variation on the menu.

Hibiscus (left) and passionfruit margheritas

Whilst deciding on what we wanted, we got some tortilla chips & guacamole (£3.35) as well as a couple of margheritas - hibiscus & passionfruit (about £5.95)… Yum! The guacamole, I’m glad to say, has improved massively. Last time it was shiny & goopy, this time it was chunky and simply delicious. The tortilla chips were also exceptionally crunchy.

Steak tacos with grilled cheese & salsa

For food, we ordered quite a lot. The steak tacos with salsa were a must due to their being free (£4.35), some pork pibil (£3.95), potato & chorizo quesadilla (£3.70), frijoles w/ cream and cheese (£2.35), fish a la pimienta (£9.95) and some churros y chocolate (£3.85) as a dessert.

Pork pibil (hot sauce on the one nearest to the camera - eek!)

It was all gorgeous. The steak tacos were delicious, with the meat done this side of medium and plenty of guacamole and toppings. Pork pibil was next with a very distinctive flavouring which was savoury yet gorgeous - I went a little crazy on the hot sauce and regretted it when my tongue started to burn though. Frijoles worked wonders to help with that, creamy & full of savoury flavours that were a perfect balm to the hotness of the other dishes. The potato and chorizo quesadilla was milder than I would have liked - I love myself some hot chorizo - yet it was pleasantly spicy.

fish a la pimienta - simply amazing

The star of the show however was the fish, mullet cooked with a melting onion, black pepper, fresh lime and pumpkin seed sauce. This was served with green rice & salad and was just amazing. The fish was boneless, had been cooked so it was deliciously flaky and yet not overdone and the sauce on top was scrumptious, going so well with the rice & the texture of the fish. This was definitely my favourite dish and one I would have again and again. 

Apologies for a rather blurry photo of churros

Churros y chocolate finished off the meal and the cinnamon-dusted goodies went down a treat with some dark chocolate. I may or may not have dipped my finger in the pot to finish off the remaining chocolate once we were done with our meal.

This meal wasn’t too pricey with our free stuff - I believe it came to about £22 with the tip which was great. I still think it’s pricey for Mexican but the atmosphere was buzzy, the food was of a much better quality than last time and lastly, our server was great fun and really chatty!

Rating: 7/10

Address: Wahaca, 66 Chandos Place, Covent Garden, WC2N 4HG

Telephone: 020 7240 1883 (no bookings taken)