Aliens, Dinosaurs and Everything In-Between: Burrito Quest

The next leg of my burrito journey took me to Wahaca, which like Las Iguanas is another sit down restaurant. Priya and I went there for lunch before we watched the new Star Trek movie. Wahaca has numerous locations all around London and Priya has been there many times before so she knew what we were getting into. The location we went to is in Westfield Shopping Center at Shepards Bush. Westfield is one of the larger indoor shopping malls in London. Wahaca is attached to the mall but can only be entered into from the outside. It’s on the south side of the mall.

Now unlike Las Iguanas Priya and I decided to get our own dishes and of course I went for one of their burritos. Again I judge the burritos based on eight categories. First is the quantity of available options on the menu. Second is the quality of the individual ingredients. Third is the ratio of those ingredients in the burrito basically how much of each ingredient is there. Forth is the strength and execution of the wrap, does the tortilla tear easily or fall apart in my hand? Fifth is the size of the burrito bigger is usually better. Sixth is the overall taste of the burrito. Seventh is the price of the burrito. I’m willing to pay for quality. Eighth and lastly is what I call the two hour tummy factor. Meaning how does the burrito makes me feel a few hours later because it can be great in your mouth but not so great in your digestive system especially if you are walking home, which I almost always am. Now the other variable that is much harder to take into account is that of the individual server who is helping you. Often when a burrito is made it is difficult to know if the ratios of each ingredient given to you are those that the restaurant wants or just those that the server feels like giving. Similarly when it comes to the strength of the wrap it often comes down to the skill and experience of the person wrapping the burrito rather than just the quality of the tortilla. Due to this is can be hard to properly judge a place without going there a few times unless the food is just horrible than what’s the point, right? So I try to be fair to all the places I go especially the first time and focus more on the food rather than the service.

I ordered their slow cooked pork burrito. The burrito was filled with shredded pork, frijoles, shredded cabbage, green rice, crema and avocado salsa, pink pickled onions, habanero chilies and was wrapped with a toasted flour tortilla wrapped. It also came with a side of totopos.

So let us begin. First is the quantity of options. Now unlike burrito places like Chipotle or Chilangos where you walk down the line and tell the person exactly what you want in your burrito Wahaca only has a few burritos on their menu whose ingredients are set. I greatly prefer the places where I have complete control over what goes in my burrito but since Wahaca’s is a more formal restaurant I was not surprised to find their choices to be limited. Still I consider these limitations to be shortcomings for Wahaca.

Second is the quality of the individual ingredients. Here I can say that a majority of the ingredients were quite nice. They were fresh and well cooked. The pork was very tender and well marinated. The crema and avocado salsas tasted very good but they were a little too mild for my taste. The menu warned customers that the pork burrito was the spicy burrito but I didn't find it to be very spicy at all. The chilies were good as well but I thought they would add more heat than they did. I ended up adding some of the hot sauce they had on the table to my burrito to give it more of a kick. I didn't expect to like the pink pickled onions but they were quite good and complemented the rest of the flavors very well. The rice was moist, which is good, but it was also fairly bland. Now since I had salsa and chilies and other ingredients mixed in the blandness of the rice was not a big deal but Priya got a side of rice and I had some of it plain and found it to be very underwhelming. The cabbage was probably my least favorite part of the burrito. I know a lot of people prefer cabbage to lettuce in their burritos because cabbage tends to be crunchier and maintains that crunch throughout the burrito. But for me I don’t really like that harder texture and crunch in my burrito and thus I prefer lettuce to cabbage in my burritos. Lastly the tortilla was okay but they toasted it, which I did not like. A toasted tortilla becomes very fragile and difficult to hold plus I don’t think it adds anything beneficial to the flavor so that was certainly something I thought detracted from the burrito rather than enhancing it.

Third, the ratio of the ingredients. The ratios were okay but not great. There was quite a lot of pork, salsa and cabbage throughout the burrito but the chilies, onions and rice were sparser and spread out awkwardly in the burrito. This was most noticeable with the onions. The pickled onions were collected in a large pile at the very center of the burrito so I only ended up having 3 or 4 bites with any onion. And as I said before they were surprisingly good so I wish they had been spread out more evenly. Now while I liked the salsas there was quite a large amount spread out in the burrito so it was a very wet burrito with almost no bite that didn't include large amounts of salsa. Now I’m sure many people would like it this way but for me I like some bites that are drier allowing you to taste the meat and/or rice more clearly. And there was just too much cabbage in the burrito. Obviously since I don’t like cabbage in my burrito I might be being a bit unfair to the ratio but I felt that even if I had wanted cabbage I wouldn’t have wanted as much as I got. In a lot of burritos the rice dominates the space but in this one it felt like the cabbage did. So overall I would again say the ratios were okay but if I were in charge I would definitely change of few of the things I noted.

Forth is the strength and execution of the wrap. As I said before they toasted this burrito, which I’m not a fan of because what that usually does, and did in this case, is make the tortilla brittle and break easily. With this burrito there was simply no way to pick it up without it breaking open. The toasted tortilla combined with the very wet inside (lots of salsa) made for a burrito that was just waiting to fall apart. The ends were also cracking before I had even touched the burrito and sauce and juices were dripping out. So in the end I had to eat this burrito with a fork and knife rather than with my hands and I really don’t like doing that. It doesn't feel like a real burrito if I can’t hold it in my hand.

Fifth, is the size of the burrito. Here Wahaca did quite well. While I wouldn't say the burrito was large but it was well sized. It was a nice length but a little more slender than I would prefer. Still it really was a good amount of food since it came with chips and salsa on the side as well.

Sixth is the overall taste of the burrito and here I would rank Wahaca’s as quite high. Despite some of the ingredients and ratios I didn't like the burrito tasted good. It is certainly one I would have again if I went back to Wahacas. The pork is definitely worth having though next time I will probably try the chicken and see how that tastes.

Seventh is the price. Considering that Wahaca is a sit down restaurant the price isn't too bad. It’s basically 7 pounds. Now once you add a drink to that you end up at close to 10 because they charge quite a bit for their drinks. Also you have to think about the tipping of your service. Here in London not everyone tips the servers, it doesn't seem to be expected the way it is in the States but Priya and I do it so in the end my meal probably cost 11 to 12 pounds. That ends up being a bit higher than I would like to pay for this burrito.

Eight and lastly is the two hour tummy factor. Now after we ate at Wahaca we walked around the mall for a little while and then went to see Star Trek. During that time I didn't have any stomach problems or gaseousness so that’s a big plus I would give to this particular burrito.

So that was my meal at Wahaca. Overall a good burrito though it’s a little pricey as well as being toasted and too mild for my taste. So I would have to give this burrito a 6.5 out of 10. It’s better than Las Iguanas and Nineteen Ten but not as good as Chilangos or Chipotle. There are numerous other things you can get at Wahacas besides the burritos including full meals or what they call their street food, which are typical Mexican dishes like tacos, taquitos or tostadas sold individually rather than as a meal.

Here’s some pictures of my food.