Midweek Feasting at Wahaca

We were invited to Wahaca this week to sample their newly opened wares, Rich is here to tell you all about our visit...

Wahaca’s anticipated and well-publicized opening in Bristol was met somewhat cynically by myself. Having grown up with Mexican food, and tasted numerous bad examples of it in this country, with many of the worst offenders having gone out of business, and some desperately hanging on, and with Wahaca being a chain (albeit a respected one), I was fairly ambivalent about the whole deal. Reading the numerous good reviews it’s already received however raised my view on the restaurant, but I still went in with a good degree of caution.

The initial surprise when you go comes from seeing just how big the place is. From the outside it doesn’t give much away, as all you can really see is the bar area and a tiny portion of the dining space. It’s much larger than it looks, and they’ve used the space well, considering they’ve had to add a kitchen to what used to be a homeware shop.

Anyway, enough about all that, the food.

First up for us of course were some tortilla chips and guacamole. So far so standard you may think. And this is exactly what I thought. But I was pleasantly surprised here. Most places that do ‘chips n dip’ do so very basically, very ‘economically’, and are very often obviously shop bought, and of poor quality. Most guacamoles commercially available for instance hardly even have any avocado in them at all. So I was impressed with Wahaca. The chips were obviously made in house, and the guacamole was both nicely fresh and full of flavour, but also had decent chunks of avocado, rather than it just being a pureed creamy green mayonnaise.

Chipotle chicken quesadillas were the first of our main dishes to arrive, and it too ticked all the right boxes. The chicken was tender and perfectly smokey and spiced with the chipotle, but not overly so, so as not to risk overpowering the meat, and there was enough cheese to add flavour and a nice texture, without it smothering everything.

The sweet potato chips side was good too, with each piece being the right size so that it had a nicely crisp yet chewy skin, but still enough of the distinctive sweet potato flavour. Our other side, the coleslaw, was by comparison fairly unexciting. But it would be – it’s coleslaw. That undersells it though, as it was cool, crisp, had a light tang to it, and with the just right hint of creaminess (no-one wants watery creamy coleslaw).

Advertised as a main dish, the fish tacos were served as three slightly larger corn tortillas filled with fresh pickled vegetables, chipotle mayo and panko bread-crumb covered fish. The mayonnaise really complimented the fish and the portion of goujons was generous. It managed to be both generously sized and a great tasting dish. 

fish tacos

Another smaller dish from the street menu was the more fusion sounding, bound to have the authentic cuisine zealots up in arms, salmon sashimi tostada - one of Abby’s highlights. Two crispy corn tortillas with good size portions of salmon, enhanced with a creamy avocado and chipotle, and topped by a garnish of crispy onions. This was fresh and surprisingly moreish, definitely one to order on a return visit.

salmon sashimi tostada

My pork pibil tacos worked brilliantly too. The pork was flavour-some and moist (dry pork is even worse than a creamy colesaw) and had the perfect accompaniment of pickled pink onion. Apart for looking really rather nice, they add a nice sweet and sour hit that really raises the dish.

pork pibil

I’d chosen chicken caesar taquitos as my third small main – though I confess partly out of suspicion. Chicken taquitos, yes fine, no problem, but chicken caesar? Sounds like a wrong mix. But it worked. The taquito itself was properly crisp and the Caesar flavoured chicken really did go well with it, and the salad that it comes with. Best of all, the taquito was nice and dry, there wasn’t any grease running out of it, or dropping off and congealing on the plate.

chicken caesar taquitos

Now, the thing I was really looking forward to was dessert. Wahaca do churros. And I love churros. Rather annoyingly though, finding good churros tends to be quite difficult. Not a lot of places do them, and many that do have a habit of making them soggy, greasy lumps. Wahaca’s churros then made me very happy, coming both as a decent sized portion and nicely crisp with a decent smattering of cinnamon and sugar. We had two dips as well – the standard dark chocolate and the more exciting salted caramel. 

In truth, the dark chocolate, though the right consistency, was perhaps just a little too bitter for me. Not bad but personally not my flavour. The salted caramel however was just fantastic. The phrase ‘deliciously sinful’ may well have been created just for this, and I found myself having smaller bites of the churros, just to get more dipping in. If you have to choose between the two dips, there really is no contest. Salted caramel all the way.

honeycomb chocolate bites

churros with salted caramel dip

One funny thing with Wahaca is the perceived portion size. You order a few things and it may not look a huge amount, but they are packed with food, and also are incredibly filling. We perhaps under-estimated exactly what we were getting, and finishing the desserts was a mission. Luckily I wasn’t going to waste anything that delicious, so you’ll be pleased to hear there was zero wasteage. But we were both pretty full afterwards.

Food then, is very good, and is an excellent addition to the array of casual dining eat-out options in town. It’s a slick operation too, with plenty of staff, in both the kitchen, and out and about in the restaurant. All of the staff seem to be very well-trained, knowledgeable and friendly, and all appear to have their own genuine opinions on their favourites. We were lucky enough to briefly meet Wahaca co-founder Thomasina Miers too, which though nice in itself, also highlights something else as well. Despite it being a chain, she is making sure she is involved, and is actually being hands-on, unlike other chain venues, and specifically other celebrity chef owned restaurants, where a place is opened and the name is just stuck on there – no names mentioned.

I’d happily go there again.

Although we were invited as guests of Wahaca this did not impact our opinion of the food. To learn more about Wahaca visit their website.

Sunday Burgers at Byron

Two Sundays ago we were invited by Byron to try their newly opened restaurant on the Triangle. Byron, supplier of 'proper hamburgers' is well known in London and with branches opening further from the capital it was only a matter of time before Bristol got their own one. Burgers are Bristol's thing at the moment you can't move without running into a new burger place, whilst I love a good burger the market is a little saturated.  Byron's manifesto is simple burgers done well. So don't expect to be able to order sky high burgers with pulled pork, black pudding or macaroni cheese.   What you can expect is bacon, a selection of cheeses, pickles and dips.

The venue itself is a mix of dark woods and distressed tiles, at the back to be honest it looks a little more on the shabby side of shabby chic but as we weren't sat at that end it was more of a fleeting thought.  On to the menus. There is a big selection of fairly pricey beer, above average soft drinks selection, a slew of milkshakes and to Rich's delight, root beer. I chose a Fentimans ginger beer. The food menu is fairly small, keeping it simple afterall, so I decided to go for the Shady, which is their current special and Rich picked the Smoky.  Both these burgers cost £9.95 which is a touch steep for a burger which leads me nicely on to my next point.

One thing to note when ordering is that sides are not included, this is definitely something that annoys people when going to a burger or steak restaurant. Very few people would want to order either without some accompaniment so why consider it an extra?  Rich picked fries and I went for the skin on thick chips, which will set you back £3.50 if you decide to go for them, plus chipotle mayo and blue cheese dips. It didn't take too long for our food to arrive which was lucky as I hadn't eaten breakfast.

The Shady

Smoky

The burgers were tasty. I particularly liked the crispy cheese in my Shady, think toastie run off, they should add it to the house toppings rather than just making it a special. Rich was impressed by the barbecue sauce in his Smoky and the structural integrity of the bun.  I liked the burgers but I wasn't in love with them. Mine was not as pink as Rich's was and I was a touch disappointed over all. Where I was impressed was with the chips, some of the nicest thick cut chips I've had with a burger but for £3.50 they would have to be something special. I also recommend getting the chipotle mayonnaise, if you like more spice than usual then this will be right up your street, it has a proper kick to it and is a worthwhile dip.

Byron is good but not quite good enough to tempt me away from my two favourite burger places, The Burger Joint and Three Brothers Burgers, especially for the price. But the milkshakes and sundaes are meant to be excellent so if you find yourself on the Triangle it is worth popping in to check out, but I think they should consider lowering the prices by a couple of pounds on the burgers or at least start including chips because there are better deals in Bristol. Check out what Byron has to offer by visiting their website.

Please note that this meal was received free of charge by Byron but this did not have any affect on my opinion, as you may be able to tell.

A Rainy Monday Burger Deal at Racks

A couple of Mondays ago we celebrated Jo's birthday at Racks, we had a bigger celebration the weekend before so this was a little extra. On Mondays Racks offers 2 for 1 on their burgers which means they work out at £5 per person, which is a pretty good deal.  I have always had a bit of a hate/hate relationship with Racks, it stares at me across the road from my flat with it's ludicrous £120 New Years Eve tickets and noisy closings but I cannot ignore such a deal. After Jo had finished teaching her final Jolates class we met her at 9pm at the bar.

Four burgers are on offer to choose from, beef, lamb, chicken and veggie. I decided to opt for the beef which comes in a ciabatta with smoked applewood cheddar, salad, fries and homemade relish on the side. I also opted for a side order of onion rings, seeing as my burger worked out so cheaply.

mass onion ring order

burger close up

First things first, we ordered about 9.15 the bar was fairly empty, probably because it was hammering down with rain outside, and found a seat out in the back area. We waited, and waited by this point I was gnawing at the table edges with hunger. When our burgers finally arrived, with no apology, it had taken 40 minutes, it's a burger, is it me? The portion sizes were pretty good, chips in the mini fryer as seems to be the norm these days. The patty was pretty chunky and came with what tasted like a tamarind flavoured relish.

The burgers for the money were good, not the best I've ever had but nicely flavoured, my only complaint was the toasted ciabatta.  It was a perfectly tasty roll just personally maybe too hard and crunchy to envelope a burger.  For me Racks does some very good onion rings and a generous portion to boot. For the money you cannot grumble really, it will fill you up nicely for a frugal feed on a Monday evening. To find out more about what Racks offers check out their website.