Wahaca Covent Garden — Restaurant in London

Downright awful. Walked in as a table of four and were sat down after a few minutes of waiting, no issue at all. Waitress came by probably 10 min later to get our drink orders and we also ordered chips and salsa. Drinks came around 15 minutes later. Not the best but not going to complain because I’m not even worried about the quality of their food at this point. Waited another 10 minutes to even see the waitress at our table again. She brought the salsa and we asked where’s the chips and she was like oh I can go put in the order for the chips, but we had already ordered them and even common sense would lead her to think what are they gonna do with the salsa, drink it? No obviously we need chips, as we stated I think even twice when we ordered. At this point it had been around 45 min of slow drinks and salsa with no chips so we decided to cut our losses and just go somewhere else on the street since the entire experience somewhere else would be shorter than what was to come at this restaurant. The waitress was a bit sassy with us when we told her we were leaving but we just brushed it off so we could and pay and leave. However, she was confused as to why we were leaving so we politely explained it was just too slow and we didn’t have hours to spend but it was okay and we would just leave and she started to try to argue with us even though we weren’t mad and said we would just go nicely. She said that other people were at the restaurant too and we said we were aware of that but we had been there a long time but it was ok and we would just go. She continued to try to argue with us and said people were here before us and we told her actually the table we were originally sitting at (we moved to a booth) came in quite a bit after us and they had already were deep into enjoying their meal. She said they were there before us but we told her actually we knew for a fact they were after us because we were originally sitting there and she gave up on that argument and she switched to explaining how that was a different section that she was not in charge of. We looked around and saw the other section had very obviously a great amount more tables than her section which only sat one table of four (us), a one top, and two two tops, but we didn’t say anything. Again, remember that we were fine with leaving and were pretty lowkey about it, it was her egging this on. We said it didn’t matter and that we were just going to leave and she was like well your chips are ready now (as we were paying) and she said since they are ready she charged us for them but at this point we were so hungry we didn’t even care we just paid and left. We walked by our original table on the way out and they had the same amount of people as us, four, and all had food and drinks. Worst service I think I have ever experienced anywhere, at least don’t argue and just let us leave if you’re admittedly overwhelmed by a small amount of tables.

Edit: I wasn’t going to mention food/drinks but I feel like I need to now. I ordered the picante margarita and despite it being very late to arriving, I received it and it was INCREDIBLY spicy. I am a big spice person, my spice tolerance is very high and I often enjoy spicy things that others find to be too extreme. But this was an entire new level. My lips were burning and I had to hold a glass of water to my mouth as if I was stuck in mid sip in order to ease the pain. It did not indicate that this was an extreme level of spice, I love my spicy margaritas but this was not drinkable. After about 10 minutes the pain began to subside and I thought it was over, but later I was hit with a terrible burning stomach ache that could be easily attributed to the drink. At dinner hours later still feeling sick… The other members of my table enjoyed their drinks but mine made our bad...

On a recent night out in London, with visiting friends, we decided to catch up early for dinner, seeking sustenance and sanctuary before "The Lion King" roared into our evening.

Our friends were a travelling family of two joyously tired parents and their two sons with beaming smiles, full of perpetual joy and contagious energy.

We decided the menu at Wahaca looked good, and noted it was a large, busy, family-friendly haven right near the theatre that promised both good food and quick service - exactly what we needed.

We grabbed a couple of serves of the guacamole for the kids, these were deliciously simple and were served with tortilla chips. While the kids’ told stories about their exploring of London and a dramatic recent loss of a tooth - I think the adults ate much more of the guacamole. The Mexico City Nachos hit the table, loaded with Trealy Farm chorizo, black beans, and a nice combo of salsas - I was glad to give them a go.

I ordered one of the Summer Special "Pea & Mint Empanadas" - I thought they’d be better based on the ingredients and write up, but I was happy to give them a try.

We got the Crispy Cauliflower Bites and Sweet Potato 'Bravas', they were good also, but the sweet potato bravas weren’t that crispy, but were still nice, served with jalapeno allioli and hibiscus salsa.

For drinks all the adults decided that we were craving coffee instead of booze, but fate intervened cruelly as the waitress told us the coffee machine was broken. This led me to order a Coffee Tequila—a cheeky detour that I enjoyed.

For mains, we went with a range of the tacos - chicken, beef and fish - and a chicken quesadilla to share. The kids enjoyed their own delightful bowls from the kids menu. No complaints with any of these and they came out fast as promised.

We got the Churros for desert.

After we paid the bills and prepared to leave, our waitress walked past us confidently and delivered a round of coffees to the table next to ours. It was a strange, hilarious twist that could not have been better planned or timed.

It was a great space and a fantastic pre-show feast which allowed for a good value meal, some nice conversation, good laughs and just the right amount of absurdity before a magical...

One of the worst Wahaca experiences I had and because of that my last visit. I used to like it when the owner lady who won masterchef UK back in the days. Nowadays it's just a soulless franchised food concept not any better or worse like Wagama, Costa Coffee or Leon.

The welcome was rushed and performed like a robort by a very friendly and chatty guy. After we complied to all health and safety regulations we were ushered to our table. Server arrived and the very charming and friendly lady started her service intro. For some reason she was either very nervous or not well trained. She tried to exain the menu to us on what to order in terms of portion size and variety without great sucess. The daily special were printed on a sticky note and stuck on the table. Drinks order was taken but we had to ask twice for tab water as this was missed when other drinks arrived. Food started to arrive." The favourite menu" was choosen which came for two people only. As we had to order the menu for two people food selection should come in even numbers but instead some of these items were either single portions or came as in theee items. Again we were two people. We voiced out our fustration about portion size to a supervisor lady who was very appologetic but mentiomed that even she could not understand why some items were tasteless( Chipotle lime slaw- which we retruned it was simply inedible) or came in uneven numbers. For the rejected lime slaw she offered us any alternative or dessert item on the house which we declined. At the checkout process, which is card payment only we were asked to insert our table number, but that number was nowhere to be found. At the end we had tonasknthe waiter for it. On top of that we were charged a discretionary service charge for today's experience. Well it goes without saying, we would like to have our money back and shall never return. In all fairness I have to say that the service and the two female staff members were very polite and friendly, howecer this didn't make up for the poor food quality and taste, poor portion size and overall poor experience hence the one star...