Wahaca - Westfield, Stratford

On Sunday afternoon we visited the brand new church of capitalism that is Westfield, as the boy was in need of a new suit. Despite being the biggest urban shopping centre in Europe, it was ludicrously busy and full of the kind of people who like to stop dead in their tracks causing a human pile up. I'm not a fan of shopping centres, as they're normally so soulless, however, it must be said that Westfield is very nice and shiny and a vastly more pleasant experience than Oxford Street.

Ceviche tostadas

We had a meander around the different restaurants, but nothing really took our fancy. Jamie's Italian had a queue outside and I wasn't in the mood to wait. We also had a look at Bumpkin, the menu looks good, but after reading some pretty scathing reviews online, we decided to opt for Wahaca as we know the food is good. Often when small chains begin to expand, they lose the quality somewhere along the way, but I'm happy to say that it's every bit as good as the original.

Pork pibil

To start our meal off we had guacamole with tortilla chips, which were delicious as always; nice and chunky and packed with flavour. For our main we ordered pork pibil from the classics section, slow cooked pork served with a salad and black beans. The meat was out of this world, incredibly tender with a delicious smoky marinade. It was lovely with the black beans, but could have done with something carby. Having re-read the menu I've realised it was meant to come with green rice, which must have been missed off - oops! We also ordered a couple of dishes from the street food menu, the summer vegetable tacos and ceviche tostadas. The taco's were topped with spicy vegetables and feta cheese, a nice side to the rich pork. The tostadas were my favourite, tasty shrimps and scallops topped with a fresh tomato salsa and plenty of lime.

Summer vegetable tacos

As we didn't order a huge amount for the main course it meant we had space for dessert, hurrah! We shared churros and vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce and pumpkin seeds. Churros are deep fried Mexican doughnuts, topped with cinnamon sugar and served with a rich, dark chocolate sauce, they taste even better than they sound! The ice cream was good, the crunch of the pumpkin seeds was great against the smooth vanilla, but they were a little stingy when it came to the caramel sauce.

AMAZING churros

Overall, it was a great meal. The service was very friendly and incredibly speedy - 5 minutes between ordering and the food being on our table. If you have to go to Westfield and you're looking for somewhere speedy to eat, this is the place!