Wahaca has been a long time in coming to Edinburgh. Many of our friends have talked about the great food they’ve had in London and in Cardiff so when we had the chance to try out the latest Wahaca opening in Edinburgh we couldn’t wait. St Andrew’s Square is a hive of activity with lots of new food places opening up. Wahaca is the first of quite a few.
The menu is full of the usual suspects along with new dishes putting a twist on the classics. We do love a good Mexican and having fallen in love with El Cartel we wondered if Wahaca could live up to the standard we expected. We were booked in at 6pm on a Sunday evening, usually for most places you would think it would be quiet but it was a hive of activity. We didn’t have to wait long until we were shown to our seat up on the first floor. The interior is colourful and trendy with lots of tables everywhere. Our table was between 2 others and we could have possibly done with a little more space between the tables. Hearing the conversations on other tables isn’t how you really want to spend your evening. Our server for the night was Julio and he was great. Quickly checked if we had been before and then explained the menu and gave us time to browse the menu and order our drinks.
As Mr E was driving I had the chance to try out their passion fruit margarita. It was delicious and certainly packed a lot of tequila. The passion fruit flavour was refreshing and it quickly disappeared. The good thing about Wahaca is the food comes as it is ready, rather than waiting until everything is ready and bringing it all together. To get a better idea of the menu, we ordered 3 smaller dishes each rather than 1 big dish. Between 2-3 smaller dishes is a good amount.
Even although we are now married we still don’t really do sharing food 🙂 so we ordered 3 dishes we each wanted and then maybe shared a little of each. I ordered the Chorizo & potato quesadillas – British chorizo, made to our own special recipe, with diced sauteéd potatoes and fresh thyme, Tender, marinated chicken taquitos – poached chicken seasoned with lime & black pepper, topped with Lancashire cheese & chipotle salsa and Crispy prawn tacos – corn tortillas stuffed with chopped prawn, chillies, spring onion & coriander, cooked until crispy, served with guacamole, tomato salsa & chipotle mayo.
Each dish was delicious. It tasted like it had just been cooked. All the ingredients were fresh and full of flavour. My favourite dish was the chicken taquitos. The chicken was soft and tender and I loved the crispy tortillas.
To keep Mr E happy he ordered Chorizo-topped frijoles – frijoles topped with a Trealy Farm Mexican style sobrasada & chorizo oil, served with tortilla chips, Grilled British steak – flash-grilled skirt steak with chipotle & tomatillo salsas with crisp grilled cheese, MSC battered cod – beach-shack-style battered MSC cod tacos with shredded slaw, chipotle mayo & pickled cucumber and Chicken tinga – grilled chicken thigh in a sweet & smoky chipotle & tomato sauce.
Again Mr E loved each of his dishes. It didn’t look like an awful lot of food but by the time he was finished he was pretty full. His favourite dish was the cod tacos. Fish in tacos is an unusual choice but I can say from the little bit I tried it was delicious. Each dish was full of flavour and well cooked.
Julio checked in on us each time food was brought and the empty plates were taken away quickly so we didn’t run out of room on the table. He quickly persuaded us to look at the menu and before we knew it we had ordered something each. Churros for Mr E and salted caramel ice cream for me. Unfortunately I had tucked into most of my ice cream before I remembered about a picture but I can assure you all it was delicious. The ice cream was rich and milky with pretty big chunks of chocolate through it.
The churros were according to Mr E fantastic. I’m not the biggest cinnamon fan so I didn’t taste them but the chocolate sauce I did and it was so rich, the leftover sauce was quickly poured onto a spoon.
Overall we had a lovely evening at Wahaca, the food was great and the service is also on of their strong points. With so many delicious sounding dishes on the menu I don’t think it’ll be long before we’re back. It was easy to see why on a Sunday night it was pretty busy.
Wahaca Edinburgh | 16 S St Andrew St, Edinburgh EH2 2AU | Tel: 0131 202 6850 |
Very good