Dinner at Wahaca in Edinburgh

Yesterday evening after my work I went into the town (Edinburgh) and had dinner with a friend at Wahaca on South Street beside St Andrews square. We, by luck attended on the opening night and after a brief wait for a table the pager we were handed started buzzing and flashing to indicate our table was ready so with drinks already in hand we were sat at an upstairs table. We were next to a metal pillar which had a metal arm sticking from it with a very bright bare light bulb shinning at head height, somewhat distracting but perhaps authentic Mexican style if you were in Guanajuato being interrogated by the Police. This would be my only complaint to what was otherwise I decent experience.

Wahaca is a UK fast food chain selling Mexican food, co-founded by Thomasina Miers, with 19 branches. The founder, Thomasina Miers was a Masterchef winner (2005) who also has a cookery book published (called Wahaca) There recently was a food truck parked in St Andrews square playing live music and giving out free tacos are certain times, it had the “Wahaca’s” logo so can only guess this was a taster of Mexican street food before the opening of their restaurant yesterday. The menu is very extensive and reasonably prices. You can get lots of small dishes and sample loads of different tastes (we had 7 different dishes and were stuffed by the end of the night) We had the following … Pea and Mint Empanada, Taquito Sw P (don’t ask), Ancho Taco, Devon crab and MSC shrimp taquitos (my Fav), Chick Tost CM, Lamb Taquito and Bean + Rice…. All nice and beautifully presented. There is also 3 different bottles of sauces on the tables, one is smoky chipotle salsa, the other two I can’t remember offhand but one was extremely hot.

There is also a novel way of paying the bill there by downloading an app, entering your card details, reviewing the details, adding a tip if deserved then paying online there at the table, Wahaca wi-fi available if you don’t have a 3G signal. All paid and you just get up and walk out, no waiting for your bill to arrive. From what I have read, Wahaca restaurants is designed to have as low an environmental impact as possible. All ingredients used in the restaurants are sourced as locally as possible or transported with care for the environment. Where specialist ingredients have to be delivered from Mexico, the approach is to buy direct from local co-operatives that support local farming communities which is all very commendable.