BACK in a 2013 interview, Wahaca co-founder, MasterChef winner and Guardian food writer Thomasina Miers said the Mexican food chain was ready to roll-out.
What's important about Wahaca's plans for Manchester are not so much the food offering - we've got Mexican spilling from the ears - but the brand and the location. They're an 'anchor tenant' for the all-new Corn Exchange.
Roll-out to where? Well... 'Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool, Cardiff, Leeds, Brighton and Bognor'... Bognor?
Wahaca, marketed as 'Mexican market eating', already has thirteen (and counting) restaurants in London, the latest having just opened in Brixton, with a new site in Cardiff opening mid-November.
Seems the roll-out is on, and Manchester looks to be next in-line.
The new Corn Exchange - set to open Spring 2015
Following in the footsteps of Iberica (Spinningfields) and Hawksmoor (Deansgate), two major London-operators soon to open their first-non-London restaurants in Manchester, Wahaca are eyeing up a unit in the Corn Exchange and have just applied for a licence.
Manchester's Grade II listed Corn Exchange is currently undergoing a major £30m 'all-food' makeover following a dismal stint from 2000 as The Triangle shopping centre. The re-imagined Corn Exchange, set to launch around Spring 2015, will feature around ten to fifteen restaurants and a boutique 86-room hotel.
So, what's Wahaca about?
Having won the BBC's MasterChef in 2005, chef Thomasina Miers teamed up with businessman and fellow Mexican food fanatic, Mark Selby, to open a restaurant designed around the bustling food markets of Mexico - both having spent considerable time there - which they did in Covent Garden in 2007.
The 'Mexican market eating' restaurant smashed it, and with their modish no-reservations policy had folk queuing around Covent Garden for three hours at a time.
Seven years later and Wahaca are branching out nationwide, while the pair have unveiled a further two Mexican concepts in the capital - Burrito Mama and DF Mexico.
Wahaca, Southbank
Thomasina Miers (credit To Tara Fisher)
Let's talk menu and money...
The menu starts with 'nibbles' (from £3 to £4), such as guacomole, beans and tortillas, and moves onto the mandotary 'street food' (from £3.50 to £5), smaller plates of soft tacos, crisp tostadas and quesadillas filled with slow cooked pork, marinated chicken, char-grilled steak, fish, veg or beans.
'Platos fuertes' (from £7 to £11) are bigger plates (mains, if you will) offering yet more slow cooked pork, marinated chicken, char-grilled steak, fish, vegetables and beans. Sides (from £2 to £4) include spicy slaw, grilled corn and sweet potato fries, there's puds too (from £4 to £5), with festival-favourite chocolate churros and a Mexican tart, she's called Maria.
As you may expect, Mexican beer (£3.65), tequila (from £3.50), margaritas and mojitos (£6), and Spanish wine (£15) are rife across the drinks menu.
Wahaca
Is this a good addition to the city. Yes. Although there's no shortage of Mexican food-outlets in Manchester, actually there's bloody loads: Luck Lust Liquor and Burn, Lucha Libre, Bar Burrito, Pancho's Burrito, Changos Burrito, Chiquito, Las Iguanas...
What's important about Wahaca's plans for Manchester are not so much the food offering - we've got Mexican spilling from the ears - but the brand and the location.
Although former-residents Salvi's and Tampopo have been confirmed for the Corn Exchange's 2015 re-opening, the development has been lacking an 'anchor tenant' - a young, exciting and (soon to be) nationally recognised brand to give the new plans some prestige, some cool, draw the others in.
Wahaca can be that brand. Fingers crossed then, eh?
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