Mexican-style street food restaurant group in the United Kingdom
Wahaca logoWahaca, Islington, 2016
Wahaca (phonetic spelling of the Mexican State of Oaxaca) is a UK restaurant group selling Mexican-style street food, co-founded by Thomasina Miers, with 13 branches in the United Kingdom.
Miers opened the first branch in Chandos Place, London in August 2007, focused on Mexican street food.[1] In October 2008 a second Wahaca opened at Westfield in London.[2] Two further branches in Canary Wharf and Soho followed in 2011, and Wahaca launched its first mobile street kitchen. In 2012 it opened its Top One Wahaca Southbank Experiment. In September 2015 Wahaca opened its first restaurant in the north west, based in Manchester.[3]
In July 2016 Wahaca launched its "at home" range.[4][5][6]
In October 2016, Wahaca opened its first restaurant in Scotland, in central Edinburgh.
Wahaca mobile street kitchen, 2012
As of December 2017, Wahaca had 25 branches,[7] up from 19 branches in September 2015. They also have three bars and two street kitchen locations.[7]
In November 2017, Wahaca used the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead as the basis for a three-day festival to promote their business.[8][9][10]
In August 2020, Wahaca announced that it would close ten of its 28 restaurants due to a downturn in business caused by the coronaviruspandemic.[11] As part of the restructuring the following Wahaca restaurants were permanently closed: Bluewater (Kent), Bristol, Brixton (London), Charlotte Street (London), Chichester, Manchester, Liverpool, Kentish Town (London), Southampton, and St Paul’s (London).[12]
In November 2020, Dick Enthoven, owner of Nandos, bought a £4m majority stake in Wahaca's parent company, Oaxaca Ltd. Wahaca entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), in which shareholders and lenders agreed to write off £25m of debt while injecting £5m into the restaurant chain.[13][14]
In April 2023, Wahaca announced that it would no longer serve steak with a view to reducing its carbon footprint.[15]
Wahaca has won awards for its food, design, and sustainability.[16] In 2016, co-founders Mark Selby and Thomasina Miers were voted restaurateurs of the year by Caterer Magazine.[17]
In 2016, Wahaca became the first restaurant group in the UK to be certified as carbon neutral.[18]
In November 2016, Wahaca restaurants primarily in London, but also in other locations including Manchester, were suspected as the source of a norovirus outbreak leading to 1000 people falling ill, with symptoms including vomiting.[19] In response, Wahaca temporarily closed nine outlets and apologised to those who had been unwell.[20]
In June 2019, Wahaca was criticised for making serving staff pay part of the bills of customers who left without paying. Following a backlash on social media, they changed the policy.[21]
