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Events at Wahaca, News, Our News, Uncategorized, What you say, What's Happening

Wahaca voted Sustainable Restaurant Group of the Year

On Monday we went along to the Sustainable Restaurant Association’s first ever awards ceremony and picked up the Sustainable Restaurant Group of the year trophy.

We are over the moon to have received this award, not only in recognition of all the hard work we put into sustainability across the board, but also when there are so many other great restaurants working hard in this area too. Have a look at the article from this Sunday’s Independent to read about the other restaurants that took home awards.

We think the SRA’s awards are going to be a great annual event for shouting about what restaurants are doing, and can achieve, with all things green and want to thank the SRA for voting for us. Ever since we opened, sustainability has been a vital part of how we run our restaurant. It’s not always easy and it’s often quite a bit more expensive, but we think it’s worthwhile and when we receive awards like this one, it shows that work has paid off.

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Contributor Competitions, Guerilla Chilli Growing, News, Uncategorized, What you say, What's Happening

The chilli growing contest heats up!

Earlier in the chilli growing season, you might have seen our article introducing the chilli growing competition that’s going on in a quiet little muse in Maida Vale. Well things have been sprouting all over the place down there and we’re pleased to bring you their latest update on how things are heating up (Get it?) between Mydestination.com’s Team Inferno and the Vindaloo Vixen chilli growing nuts:

Who’d have known chilli growing could be so exciting? Mere hours after the first instalment of the MyDestination.com chilli war, the competition’s first keen shoot was seen poking through Team Inferno soil, sending the boys into a state of delirium. Having thought this moment would take at least six weeks to arrive, the euphoria was understandable. The fact the shoot looked more like a weed than a sturdy chilli stem was ignored.

In a bid to claw back their disadvantage, the Vindaloo Vixens took their pots into hiding, only to return them to the office shelf a few days later sporting a worrying amount of mould around the cardboard seed sticks. The situation looked bleak. Against these odds, however, and with a little inspiration from Team Inferno’s techniques, the girls’ pots soon featured an infantile shoot too, and then another, and another, until all four pots were awash with greenery, and the MyDestination office was a happy place once again.

But the harmony was short-lived.

On the 5th of April at approximately 10:32hrs, Team Inferno dedicate Will reported a crime on the street, where Captain Plimento had placed his team’s chillies in a bid to catch some direct sunlight. Some jobs-worth had taken a swing at the defenceless pots, leaving pot number four soilless and pot number three shaken. The shoots didn’t catch sight of the culprit before he fled, and neither did Will.

‘Scandal!’ they cried. It was a blatant act of sabotage; salvaged from the wreckage was a long, straggly hair and an elastic hair bobble. The Vixens vehemently deny any wrongdoing, and have pointed a well-manicured finger towards the street’s dogs. The investigation is on-going.

Courageously, Team Inferno overcame their shock by picking the traumatised baby shoots from the destruction and re-planting them in fresh soil. With a significant amount of TLC and cuddles over the ensuing days, the roots re-established themselves, and soon all the plants began sprouting leaves at a herculean rate.

It was around this time that Captain Plimento took a holiday, for the stress of the chilli competition had taken significant toll upon him. On his return he learnt that Stefan, the office’s token German, had become particularly attached to the chillis, talking to them daily about current affairs and sports news, and forcibly ensuring they were kept well watered. It was a powerful display of paternal instinct, as if he had incubated the seedlings personally in his very own womb.

The Vindaloo Vixens claimed further foul play during this period: a single upturned stalk that smacked of revenge. No further accusations have been made, however, and the incident is being viewed by the majority as recompense for the insensitive manner in which the Vixens reacted to Team Inferno’s previous misfortune.

The chilli plants have since faced a tough couple of weeks, suffering from abject neglect over the bank holiday weekends which has left them looking pathetically wilted and weak, and demanding of them another fight for life that belies their nonconfrontational nature. It’s difficult to imagine there ever having been a chilli plant which has gone through quite as much undeserved trauma as these plucky survivors….

Tune in next time, or follow the live updates on twitter by searching for #MDIChiliOff to hear if the growing competition turns fruitful.

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Contributor Competitions, Guerilla Chilli Growing, News, Uncategorized, What you say, What's Happening

It’s war! The chilli growing contest kicks off

A few weeks ago we spotted a tweet by @AnnaLucyT announcing that they were going to hold a chilli growing war in their office. Following the trends of the day, we thought it was only right to step in, and we agreed to arm them with all the chilli growing ammunition they required. In return we asked the avid chilli growers over at the offices of MyDestinationInfo.com to share their stories and photos with us so that we could all keep abreast of their growing challenge.

Here are our team captains – Anna Lucy Terry (Or AnnaBell Pepper) of the “Vindaloo Vixens” and Alex Plim (Or Captain Plimiento) of “Team Inferno”.

You can follow their updates live on twitter by checking out #MDIChiliOff, but here’s their first account of what’s going down in a sunny office in Maida Vale:

The first few days of the MyDestinationInfo.com Chilli Competition have seen a convivial office full of goodwill and friendships descend into near-anarchy, as whispers of underhand tactics, jealously and conspiratorial plots have circulated the desks.

Captain AnnaBell Pepper’s “Vindaloo Vixens” took a fairly indifferent approach to the potting process, relying upon rival Captain Plimento to prepare each tub for them so that they didn’t have to get their nails dirty. Captain BellPepper then decided to lavishly drench her tubs in water from a plastic beaker, while Team Inferno used a spray bottle from a pound shop to moisten their soil (having understood this was the right thing to do from their Wahaca blog research.)

It was the girls who then took the initiative and led the planting process, deciding on a stick formation (one seed in each corner and one in the centre) that the boys promptly copied, before slyly changing one of their pots to a circular pattern, hoping that this variance might place them ahead in the long run.

Both teams then decided to cover their pots in cling film – a tip that the Vindaloo Vixens had heard and failed to keep quiet – in an attempt to create miniature greenhouses that encourage seed germination. Captain Plimento went one step further deciding to source a couple of shower caps from his personal collection which he placed over his pots and secured with elastic bands to keep them airtight.

The Vindaloo Vixens keep their chilli pots on the office windowsill, while Team Inferno have made the first truly bold move of the competition by keeping their plants perched on an electric heater (which is completely safe, we hope…). They have since consulted a specialist chilli guru who has scared the team by suggesting this could bake the chilli seeds (presumably a bad thing.) Only time will tell whether this decision is inspired or tragically misguided.

At this stage it is impossible to tell which team is edging the lead. Captain Plimento nearly dropped one of his pots while in transit today, which he is trying to keep quiet in case it has had a malign effect on his team’s chillies. He feels pretty bad about this. Otherwise, there is little difference between the two teams; each pot just looks like a mound of dirt.

Keep your eyes peeled for more on this growing saga as the summer progresses. If you are growing some of our chilli seeds, please do post your pictures to our facebook page and bask in the glory of our collective adoration towards your green fingered exploits. Our favourites could win free meals at Wahaca. If you want to give some words of encouragement, or advice to this plucky group of chilli growers, please feel free to leave a comment below.

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Contributor Competitions, Guerilla Chilli Growing, News, Uncategorized, What you say, What's Happening

Wahaca helps Gateway Primary School go green

A few months ago now we had an email from Gateway Primary school near Edgeware Road who were looking for ways to expand their Eco-Club. Always keen to help out with community growing products, we eagrely popped some chilli seeds in the post to them and awaited the first news of shoots. 

We’re very happy to hear that now, they’re going stronger than ever with green-houses made from plastic bottles helping the seeds on their way through the winter. Here’s what they had to say…

Hello!  We are the Eco Team at Gateway Primary  School and we’re working very hard to make our school a more sustainable and environmentally friendly place!

We have lots of projects going on at the moment such as recycling at school and reducing the amount of energy we use,  but our favourite is our growing project! Last year we grew potatoes and chillies (thanks to our teacher having been for dinner at Wahaca in Covent Garden!)

 Here are 2 photos of us planting the chilli seeds and we were very excited to see shoots appear! 

This led us to think that we could get lots of children and their parents involved in growing chilli plants as we all love spicy food at our school!

So we have started an Eco-competition every week in our school newsletter… and the prize is a “Grow your own Chillies kit!” like the one here! 

We want to say a huge “Thank you!” to Wahaca for offering to provide us with the chillies we need to get the whole school growing!  Muchas gracias!

De nada! We’re looking forward to hearing more about how your Eco-Club grows, and hearing a little about the delicious food you make with those chillies! Please do keep us posted.

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News, Our News, What you say

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, how many do we get for our flickr group?

As you well know, we love to hear what you think of Wahaca, but recently some of you have been going the extra mile and sharing your Wahaca photos on-line – Extra points for you, well done. 

To make it even easier to share your photographic masterpieces, we’ve set up a Flickr group that allows anyone who has any Wahaca related photos to upload them to one place for us all to marvel at.  Why don’t you have a look and get uploading some of your own shots either of you having a great old time in the restaurant, or enjoying the wonders of growing some of our chilli seeds?

Here’s a selection of recent uploads that we love.  Hats off to you, you make us look wonderful.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

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News, What you say

Captain Morgan Conquers Wahaca with the Cunning use of Flags

Whilst playing around on Twitter we stumbled across this awesome picture by flying.giraffe and became intrigued. What on earth was going on? So we did some digging and before we knew it, had received a brilliant explanation from the guy who took the picture. So without garbling his words, over to Ian:

I have been wanting to do more with my photography for a fairly long time now. I enjoy taking photos, no matter the subject but recently I was finding myself taking my camera out with me less and less. So I wanted to do a project that would encourage me to photograph more and look for inspiration for creative shots.

So I had seen a few people doing 365 projects on Flickr but had always been daunted by the prospect of doing it myself. But then I came up with the idea of giving myself a theme to work with and that gave a whole new creative link to doing something like this. Rather than just being a random collection of images taken everyday there should be something to tie them together throughout the year and that made me want to tackle something challenging rather than be put off by it.


That’s where the Lego character came in, now I have something to base my photos around and it gives me a reason to take my camera with me (and the little man) almost everywhere I go, hoping to get inspiration for new photos and situations he can get himself into.

Now I see, and get, inspiration from all over the place, including when in Wahaca the other night. I was enjoying a meal with my good friend Mathilda and she noticed the little flag sticking out of one of our dishes and suggested posing him with it. The scale worked perfectly. I’m hoping this inspiration now spreads to other photos, not just ones involving Lego and my other work.


It’s proving a challenge, but a fun one. I’m only ten days in and there have been mixed results from my photos, but it’s making me think creatively more than I used to which can only be a good thing. 
I’m hoping by the end of the year to have 365 photos, of which there are at least a few ones that I am really happy with, enough to put into a small collection and possibly print.

If you’ve got any suggestions for Ian about ideal places that would make for a brilliant photo of Captain Morgan let him know by leaving a comment. Thanks Ian for sharing your story and good luck for the rest of your 365 project. And if you’ve got any fun photos you’ve taken in Wahaca we’d love to see them. You can either email them to us at loswahacos@wahaca.co.uk, add them to our Facebook page or add them to our Flickr group.

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Events at Wahaca, Food & Drink, News, Our News, What you say, What's Happening

Qype Autumn Menu Tasting

We invited Qype’s top reviewers to sample our new menu that we’ve put together for the cold months and this is what they thought, in bite sized chunks:

SMOKED HERRING TOSTADAS by Alex Sheppard

Photo by @kelsiemortimer on Flickr

The smoked herring tostada is something that I’d probably never have tried – I wouldn’t have thought fish and tacos would work well together. But I’m glad I did as it will be the main (but certainly not only) reason why I’ll be coming back to Wahaca. Not only is the fish MSC-certified and sourced from Hastings, they were delicious. The smokeyflavour stayed in the mouth long after they’d been eaten, but it wasn’t too overpowering. For me, they were the highlight of the evening.

PORK PIBIL TACOS by Almost Witty (Andrew Wong)

The pork pibils – from memory I think that was Johnny Depp’s dish of choice in Once Upon A Time In Mexico – and definitely the best. They dripped off the tongue as they should.

MUSHROOM AND HUITLACOCHE QUESADILLAS by Kate Matlock

The quesadillas…oh good golly… the crazy mushroom quesadilla that was creamy and gooey and unpronounceable. It’s a fungus (called huitlacoche) that grows on corn. Seriously. Can I just say it’s the best damn fungus I’ve ever tried because I will be back for more.

BLACK BEAN SOUP by Qyper ‘ShakinSwedens’

The black bean soup which was so full of surprises it almost deserves a review of it’s own. The bowl was filled with goodies like avocado and roasted chillies and then the black bean soup poured over by the waiter. Each mouthful was different with a burst of fresh coriander in one or the piquant chilli in another.

MOLE ENCHILADA by Jenny from The Red Mangetout

Photo by @tikichris for Qype on Flickr

The mole enchiladas initially looked like more black bean soup, except this time it was topped with crema and rice. Digging in, it became apparent that underneath the sauce lay an enchilada stuffed with tender chicken and vegetables. The mole sauce was rich and spicy, with a good hint of chocolate. This was one of the stand out dishes for me, and a good introduction to Mexican flavours, without being too scary for the British palate. My only regret was that by this point I was getting too full to manage more than a mouthful!

FISH A LA VERACRUZANA by Su-Lin from Tamarind and Thyme

Photo by @Kelsiemortimer on Flickr

The Fish a la Veracruzana was a large piece of pollack with tomatoes, olives and capers, all baked in a foil parcel. The perfectly cooked fish broke off easily into large moist flakes at the touch of a fork and its lightness was complemented perfectly by the freshness from the tomatoes. However, as well as rice, this was accompanied by a salad whose toppings I found a little too punchy and acidic for the delicate fish.

SEASONAL VEGETABLE BURRITO by Simon Doggett

Photo by Su-Lin on Flickr

The burrito caused a bit of a stir round the room with one particular controversial ingredient. The cabbage. Now, it’s a veggie burrito. Of course we expected veggies. But cabbage? Turns out this has been a bit of a talking point over the years between owners, chefs and us lot – it’s prevalent in a certain area of Mexico, but we really weren’t sure. Then again, those of them on the other side of the table were excited about something a bit different. I guess we’re waiting to see if it actually makes a reappearance! Before the tasting I was pretty clueless about ‘proper’ Mexican street food, and nine times out of ten would have plumped for the burrito option. But now, ya know, having been presented with the excitement beyond burritos, I’m not so sure about that.

WINTER BUERZA SALAD by Jess

Photo by @kelsiemortimer on Flickr

So perhaps I wouldn’t have normally ordered a dish like this at Wahaca. Firstly, it’s a salad, and secondly, it’s chocka with what might appear menu-wise to be too many ingredients, ending up as one confused salad amongst loads of hearty Mexicana goodness. But oh, what a revelation to have been fed this little beauty! It’s bursting with surprises – from the delicately deep fried anchochilli pieces giving the crunch to the fresh orange and pickled hibiscus over the feta and butternut squash, right down to the spelt hiding underneath it all.

BAJA CALIFORNIA TACOS by Mel fromTravels with My Fork

The absolute hit of the evening was next: a classic Baja-California Fish Taco – crispy fried fish with just the right kick of chipotle mayonaise served in a soft taco. I could have eaten a whole tray of these alone and am now contemplating throwing a fish taco party in the near future. High marks for this one.

CHURROS Y CHOCOLATE by Gail

When we reached the meal’s finale, a platter of golden churros arrived on the table – infuriatingly out of reach, initially. Once the people at the other end of the table realised that our conversation had died and we were all staring at them with intent – ok, at the churros – they surrendered them to us. Almost without a fight. Beautifully light cinnamon-dusted horseshoes of crisp batter, with a dribbly dark chocolate sauce – they were never going to last long. They’re better than any others I’ve tried, probably because they were obviously fresh and quickly fried. The perfect sharing dish for the end of the evening – as long as you get in fast, they won’t last long.

TEQUILA by Epicurienne

Photo by @kelsiemortimer on Flickr

Under Mark’s guidance, we tasted three tequilas from the Wahaca stable: a Blanco (white), served cold, a Reposado (rested) served at room temperature and an Añejo (aged), also served at room temperature, with a lovely, caramelly tang. As many will confide, I, too, have had the occasional clash with tequila, but the selection we enjoyed last night was an utterly different sensory experience to student union layback sessions in a vintage dentist’s chair. This was refined, smooth, flavoursome liquid, to be sipped and savoured, not consumed in one swallow. This was tequila for grown ups and it was better than good.

And… the last word from Qype Guru Tikichris who helped to set this all up

By inviting us twenty or so lucky Qypers along last Thursday for a sample of their new “cold months” menu at their stylish Westfield location, the good folks behind sensational Mexican street food restaurant Wahaca succeeded not only in delighting our appreciative taste buds and filling our bellies with more than ample amounts of their flavourful Latin dishes but in raising the bar for future Qype events as well. Really, I can’t even remember the last time I saw so much food laid out in front of me. That so much of it was incredibly delicious left me a bit dumbfounded (or was that the cumulative effect of all that lovely, free flowing Tequila Corralejo?)

Thank you Qype for making the evening so much fun, for providing so much valuable feedback and for all your kind words. And thanks for your great reviews which you can read in more depth here:

Tamarind and Thyme
Ravenous Libby
Epicurienne
Travels with My Fork
Qype Blog

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News, What you say

Chilli Seeds Roundup

When we first came up with the idea of giving away matchbooks of chilli seeds we had no idea you were all going to love them so much. Just looking on Twitter on Google we realised that loads of you have been successfully growing our chillies which is brilliant. This is the tweet we liked best from Paul Gayfer

We’ve also discovered lots of fantastic pictures on Flickr. So we’re going to start a Flickr group to collect all these great images. So if you’ve had any success growing our chillies let us know by leaving a comment and tagging your picture with Wahaca so we can find it!

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