DOES anyone remember when Manchester’s only Mexican restaurant was called Amigos and had a couple of Speedy Gonzales knock-offs as its company logo? Seriously, any food company that are of the opinion that mice make for great branding (“and when they think of our restaurant I want them to think ‘vermin’!”) is not off to a good start, so it’s no surprise Amigos is long gone and for a while Mexican food in Manchester was represented by, um, Chiquitos.
Wahaca ranks well above Nando’s and somewhere around Jamie’s Italian as a dependable option
Recently, however, Mexican food has had a bit of a resurgence; as a side note to all the dirrrrty burgers clogging up the place there are a few places doing burritos, chilli and the like (think Luck, Lust, Liquor and Burn, El Capo, Pancho’s, The Beagle and Barburrito). So what can Wahaca offer Manchester? Well while Luck, Lust and the Like still veer towards the Tex end of the Mex spectrum, Wahaca promises a more autentica experience. After all, Mexican cuisine has gained the status of UNESCO intangible cultural asset which is a pretty solid endorsement. I’ve never been to Mexico myself so I’m completely unqualified to judge. Still when has that ever stopped anybody, especially when it comes to matters of the palate?
Founded by MasterChef winner Thomasina Miers, Wahaca is a high-end chain that actually jumped on the whole ‘street food’ schtick a while back, contrary to its more recent image of being powered by hipster beards in food trucks. I’d just like to point out that I realise that street/market food was pioneered by, y’know, those market thingies (which have actually been around for a while, although they didn’t always sell artisanal flatbreads, can you imagine?), but it’s only fairly recently that the concept has become a main feature in a brand director’s sexy dream. Wahaca is wildly popular in London and more recently Bristol and Cardiff, and although it has only been open a couple of weeks, fans have already propelled it to the top of Manchester’s increasingly baffling Trip Advisor list.
Wahaca, Corn ExchangeWe visited the new Corn Exchange venue on a rammed Friday night and the staff were understandably still in settling-in mode. After being waved brusquely through by the front of house, we managed to get a seat upstairs and though the atmosphere is still a bit dampened by the unopened units in the rest of the building, Wahaca has grabbed a fine plot and has installed some interesting features, notably a sensuous spiral staircase and some colourful street art.
Both diligence and greed (let’s face it, mostly greed) led us to order from both the ‘street food’ (modelled after tapas) and the ‘bigger dishes’ (modelled after, er, bigger dishes) menus although normally I think it would be one or t’other. The street food is clearly what Wahaca is really all about, with the bigger dishes intended as a sop to people who might be repulsed by the concept of sharing.
Cactus & corn tacosOf the street food, the two kinds of tacos – pork pibil (£4.10) and cactus and corn (£3.95) - we ordered were easily my favourite dishes. The pork was straightforwardly satisfying, smoky pork lightened with pickled pink onions, while the cactus provided an unusually vegetal taste, light, sweet and for want of a better word, green.
Chicken taquitos (£4), meanwhile, were rather pedestrian tubules of chipotle-flavoured protein while the pinto bean quesadilla (£3.75) would make great hangover food, being essentially a stodge-filled blankie of cheese and beans.
Moving on to the bigger dishes, the fish tacos (£9.50) were the Mexican equivalent of a fishfinger sandwich – battered fish with slaw and two different types of mayo – differentiated mainly by colour (ointment pink and the standard creamy) although I gather one was meant to taste of chipotle. The watery ‘slaw’ (though I could only see cabbage) meant the taco collapsed rather too easily, even by my hamfisted standards.
Tacos
Grilled haddockGrilled haddock with parsley mojo (£10.50) came with green rice (rice cooked in a herb mixture) and salad, though the promised salsa verde was nowhere to be seen. This was a well-balanced dish, with a good chunky salad, although the fish wasn’t quite firm enough – it tended to dissolve rather than flake. We finished with the churros and chocolate (£3.95) and a rather nice tequila.
For all the striving for authenticity, Wahaca is beholden to its chain status. It can’t go too bold or spicy because it has to appeal to the majority of people, the majority of the time. And if you think that’s me being patronising check the Wahaca promotional magazines littered around the place with perky, exclamation-mark laden articles promising that chillies don’t have to be spicy and reminding you not to eat a taco with a knife and fork. Thanks for the hint.
But if you view it through the prism of the chain, accepting that there is going to be a certain amount of mass production and overly enthusiastic product-speak, Wahaca ranks well above Nando’s and somewhere around Jamie’s Italian as a dependable option. It’s a slick operation and the freshness of the ingredients and emphasis on vegetables, fish and salads is certainly commendable. It would be a reliable post-shopping or pre-theatre choice, but somehow I can’t get excited about it either. Still I don’t think they will be coming to me for marketing advice; ‘Putting the Meh in Mexican!’ is probably an even worse branding concept than those cheeky sombrero-wearing mice.
Wahaca, Corn Exchange, Manchester M4 3TR. 0161 413 7493.
Rating: 11.5/20
Food: 6/10 (guacamole 7, tacos 7, taquitos 5, tostadas 5, quesadilla 6, haddock 6, fish taco 4, churros 5).
Ambience: 3/5 – lively and will only get more so.
Service: 2.5/5 - rushed and uncertain, though it's early days.
Fish tacos
More tacos
Wahaca
