Fresh Mexican Food for Collection
As the UK’s restaurants begin to dust off their tables and high street favourites start to reopen their doors once more, popular Mexican restaurant chain Wahaca recently announced that Wimbledon is to be the first of its 25 sites to reopen on a takeaway, click and collect and delivery basis.
“We know we have a loyal fan base in and around SW19, so we thought that our Wimbledon restaurant would be well-suited to lead the charge as we gradually roll out collection and delivery across the UK.” Wahaca’s co-founder Thomasina Miers said.
Wahaca was born in 2007 from a love of Mexican Market food. First inspired by Miers’ travels to the country and a stint living in Mexico City, she and co-founder Mark Selby then set about recreating Mexico’s vibrant flavours and social dining culture at home in the UK with innovative dishes made for sharing, as per the style of Mexican eating, as well as large plates.
I love Mexican food and had missed its fresh flavours and chilli heat during lockdown, so I was excited to tuck into the restaurant’s trademark, taco-filled, street food-inspired dishes once more.
The collection was straight-forward enough – plenty of easy-to-follow 2-metre markings and hand sanitizer at the door. The marvellous Mike greeted me like an old friend and handed me two brimming bags (it’s a mouth-watering menu, so hard to keep the order small…).
We started as any self-respecting Mexican feast should – with tortilla chips and a tub of guacamole, drizzled with toasted chilli oil.
The bag of chips was disappointingly small, but on the other hand, the guacamole was generous, and delicious too. The addition of the toasted chilli oil added a lovely heat to the cool and creamy mashed avocado.
Next up we tucked into tacos - soft corn tortillas, grilled and filled - which came ingeniously packaged and presented in recyclable taco trays.
We went for the plantain tacos – generously stuffed with chunks of sweet, chargrilled plantain, covered in creamy crema and tangy crumbled feta. They were delicious, as were the battered fish tacos, filled with meaty pieces of MSC certified fish, with a crisp shredded slaw, lightly spiced chipotle mayo and fresh pickled cucumber. I could have eaten a lot of those.
We then tried a couple of Wahaca’s platitos - small plates inspired by the market. We had the sweet potato and feta taquito, with caramelised onion and chipotle mayo in a crisp blue corn tortilla, and a small pot of fresh salsa to drizzle over the top.
It was a wonderful combination of soft cheese and satisfying crunch, fresh zingy spice combined with a pleasing sweetness.
We also tried the cauliflower bites, which may sound ordinary, but they were, in fact, the star of the whole show for me – wonderfully crispy buttermilk-battered florets, with a totally moreish roast serrano aioli.
On the side, we had delicious fried chunks of sweet potato, which had been tossed in smoky caramelised garlic mojo de ajo.
We also had some grilled tenderstem broccoli tossed in lime juice and ajillo dressing, served with dressed slaw – a risky dish for a takeaway but the broccoli was perfectly cooked, so it was still crunchy and full of flavour by the time we got it home.
And finally, we had the frijoles crema – a substantial pot of creamy black beans served with crumbled cheese and crema on top. This is a favourite of mine when eating in Wahaca, and it tasted just as good at home.
Miraculously we still had room for pudding, and who could resist fresh churros (long, Mexican-style doughnuts), which were perfectly crisp, coasted in a light dusting of crunchy sugar, and served with a pot of rich and incredibly tasty chocolate sauce.
I enjoy eating in at Wahaca – it’s often a pre-theatre staple of mine – so I was delighted that the quality and vibrant flavours of the takeaway food absolutely matched that of the restaurant, and it was a treat to be able to eat it at home.
This week, Wahaca Wimbledon has reopened for dining in once more (with substantial outdoor space too) but takeaway and collection also continues, so there are plenty of options, however, you wish to get your delicious Mexican fix.
35 The Broadway, Wimbledon, SW19 1QD. wahaca.co.uk
