Wahaca, Canary Wharf, London

The other week I was in Canary Wharf at the customer's office working for the afternoon and me and a colleague decided to try out Wahaca, mainly because of the numerous adverts around Canary Wharf's shopping centre. Wahaca serves mexican-inspired dishes and from the adverts, seemed to be quite popular.

It's funky inside, with booths, tall stools and conventional tables making the restaurant look a bit different to usual. It makes it much more fun! One wall is glass which looks out over a small park and the staff, although incredibly busy, are nice. One perk was that when I asked for a jug of water, they actually brought me a jug. It's so annoying to ask for that and only get a glass of water in return. Personal pet peeve right there!

So, the food. We ordered some 'street food' and one 'platos fuertes' between us. Here's a list of what we got with descriptions:

- Chicken tinga taco (shredded, marinated chicken with chipotle chillies)
- Beef salpicon tostada (tender, shredded aromatic beef with spicy habanero and red onion salsa)
- Chorizo and potato quesadilla (Our special free-range, home-made Mexican chorizo, fresh thyme and steamed potato)
- Chicken taquito (With shredded lettuce, Lancashire cheese and fresh tomato salsa)
- Sauteed greens (tossed with steamed potatoes, fresh lime and smoky caramelised garlic)
- Mole enchilada (one of the seven moles from Oaxaca served enchilada style with shredded chicken)



So the food?

Not brilliant to say the least. Out of all of the dishes I only really liked the crunchy chicken taquito and the chorizo and potato quesadilla. The mole was vile. We were initially intrigued when we were told it had a chocolate and chilli sauce and yet the sauce tasted like perfumed mud. There was really no other way to describe it and I think when our server came, he realised that we hadn't been overly impressed with the food!

The other dishes were also quite poor. Some of them were lukewarm, some tasted soggier than I was expecting and some of the dishes had a funny taste that I couldn't identify. Either way I was eager to pay and get out and get an ice-cream from somewhere else to get rid of the taste. I honestly didn't enjoy it and wouldn't advise anybody to go there for a lunch with friends, business or even a special somebody. It was really that bad!

Damage: £30 I will never get back.

Vitals

Wahaca
Park Pavillion, 40 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5FW
Tel: 0207 516 9145
Website: http://www.wahaca.co.uk/flash/main.html

Nearest tube: Canary Wharf