Rate My Bistro

This Chiquto was quite a big Mexican restaurant and it sure did not feel like it lacked on space. It felt a little dark though as it was quite dimly lit even though it was the daytime.

While we were deciding on what to order, we were served with some tortilla chips and a salsa type dip! It was nice to munch on these as we went through the many items on the menu!

We started off with a few starters as we were fairly hungry! The garlic flatbread tostades were a lot like quesadillas. They were filled with spicy chicken and topped with some cheese. The flatbread tostades were a little greasy but that may have been due to the cheese and the garlic base.

The calamari was a fairly small portion. They were cooked well and we enjoyed them with the chipotle mayonnaise. The last of our starters were the classic sticky barbeque chicken wings! These did not disappoint and were thoroughly enjoyed by all!

Surprisingly, after the starters, we did have some room for the main dishes! The spicy chicken burrito was a really big and filling dish. It was generously filled with the chicken, spiced rice, refried beans, chilli con queso and cheese. All the flavours went well together and it was good that it had additional toppings of guacamole, salsa, sour cream and tomato sauce.

If you’re wanting something quite meaty, then the chicken and ribs is a good option. The chicken was grilled and tender and the ribs were glazed with a smokey barbeque sauce. It was a complete meal as it came with chunky fries, coleslaw and corn on the cob.

I decided to have a couple of side dishes. The Mexican spiced rice was a big portion and to accompany it, I had the refried beans. I was expecting the refried beans to be fairly mushy but it was nice that they were a mixture of mushed up beans and whole ones!

Chiquito has quite a lot of non alcoholic cocktails and other drinks too. The virgin pina colada was perfect with its rich coconut milk combined with the pineapple juice.

The staff were fairly helpful and efficient. They did not rush us but asked us throughout the meal if everything was ok. We got service with a smile!

A cute thing to note is the gecko just inside the entrance of Chiquito! It has a little sign by it to say to rub its head for good luck! So, if you feel the need for some good luck, don’t forget to pay the gecko a bit of attention!

Chiquito, Hagley Road West, Warley, Birmingham, B68 0LH

Our Rating:

Tex-Mex Experience was discovered when we were trying to escape from a very rainy evening in Fulham! Initially, we went into the Fulham Broadway shopping centre to take shelter from the rain and then realised that there were restaurants in the building. Another enlightenment was the fact that it was actually time for dinner and once seeing the restaurants, hunger seemed to appear!

This Tex-Mex restaurant had a quirky red and lime green decor including Mexican hats along shelves and great ornamental artwork on the walls. There is the bar at one end and the restaurant dining area at the other.

The breaded mushrooms were filled with Mexican cheese and garlic and were served with some salad. I chose the rice and beans to make it into a main meal. It was all very tasty and the flavours worked well together.  The mushrooms were not greasy and I was pleased that they were not overfilled with cheese!

I’m not sure what type the beans were! They were in a tomato based sauce. When we asked two different staff what type of beans they were, we were given two different answers! One said that they were pinto beans and the other said that they were Mexican beans! Whatever they were called, they were good!

The vegetarian chimichanga was a soft tortilla filled with lots of vegetables and topped with cheese. It was a generous portion as it came with rice and beans as well. A great choice for a satisfying meal!

The mango juice was very nice; quite a big glass of it! It wasn’t pure mango juice, more of a carton drink, but that was fine. There were also a tempting range of non-alcoholic cocktails on the menu!

The service was good and the staff were friendly. Even though the restaurant got busier towards the end of our meal, we were not rushed and could easily have spent a lot of time sitting there. At the end of the meal, one of the waitresses brought us the wrong bill. When we raised the issue with another waiter, he swiftly replaced it with the correct bill. As we were leaving Tex-Mex Experience, the waitress apologised to us about the mistake.

Tex-Mex Experience has daily offers on drinks and food! This makes it an even more appealing place to go for dinner!

Tex-Mex Experience, Unit 2, Fulham Broadway Retail Centre, London, SW6 1BW

Our Rating:

Wahaca calls itself Mexican market eating! This restaurant is located below street level. It all looks bright with a turquoise colour theme, wood panelling and bare concrete walls.

First impressions definitely count for something on most occasions and for Wahaca, this did not work in its favour. When we arrived, the restaurant was fairly empty. We asked for a table for three people and the waiter showed us to a table that was clearly just for two people. So we asked if we could change to a slighter bigger table and he let us but wasn’t too happy with us doing so.

I’ll talk about the food and drinks first and then go onto the service. Two very different experiences! I decided on sampling the street food, so had the seasonal vegetables tacos. These were three palm sized soft corn tortillas topped with vegetables. The seasonal vegetables were the autumn ones which included winter greens, butternut squash, red onions, garlic, mushrooms and ancho chilli. The vegetables were chopped up into bite size pieces and were tasty. The kick of the chilli came through even though it was not supposed to be a spicy dish!

To accompany the tacos, the green rice was a good choice. This was rice with onion, coriander and garlic. The rice was not served that hot, it was more like lukewarm.

To have something different to drink, the Horchata almond and rice milk took my fancy. This dairy free milk was served cold with cinnamon. It was too sweet for my liking. I’m not sure if sugar was added to it. If it was, then it would have tasted a lot better without it.

Now onto the staff and the service. The food was served fairly quickly and we were told that the dishes were likely to be served at different times, depending on when the kitchen made each one. We were fine with that aspect of it.

What really got to us was that the waitress was really annoying and very abrupt. She kept coming over constantly and asking if we needed anything or wanted to order additional items. This is acceptable the once or the twice, but we found it very rude of her to keep doing it. It meant that we could not have a conversation among ourselves without being interrupted.

Also, we felt that we were not allowed to take our time to enjoy the food and drink. We were given the impression that the staff wanted us to order, eat up our food and leave. Wahaca did get really busy while we were there and there were so many people all gathered and queuing around the seating area. It all did not make for a good dining experience.

At the end, the waitress just cleared up our table and told us that she was bringing us the bill. Even if there was a queue of people waiting for tables, we should have been allowed to take our time to enjoy the food and the company of friends. We were paying customers who had come out for a dinner get together. It is a shame that we had such a bad experience with the staff. They need to learn some basic manners and about good customer service.

Wahaca, 66 Chandos Place, Covent Garden, London, WC2N 4HG

Our Rating:

This is a really good Mexican restaurant with nice decor and a good atmosphere. We only had the appetizers but they were as filling as a main meal.

The chicken taquito (a corn tortilla filled with shredded chicken) had tender chicken with taco sauce and a good amount of vegetables. The taco sauce was not too spicy and it complemented the chicken. The fries had some seasoning on them which gave them the Mexican twist.

The cheese and refried bean nachos were moreish. The flat crispy corn tortilla was cut into bite size triangles and they hadn’t skimped on the fillings. It was nice that it came with some salad so that the flavours were balanced.

The staff were so friendly and they definitely gave us service with a smile. They also accommodated us when we asked if we could move to the comfy seating area to have our after dinner drinks!

The mochas were perfectly sweet. The only thing is that they do not serve soy milk. I was also tempted by the non-alcoholic cocktails they had to offer!

Oscars, 2nd floor, Whiteleys Centre, Queensway, London, W2 4YJ

Our Rating: