Wahaca Oxford Circus

Good service, generally great food, and convenient location.
For the food, the Super-​Charged salad was great (minus the carrots), and very flavorful, and my husband enjoyed the spicy pork Pibil tacos. The only thing we did not like was the chips and salsa, since the chips were horrible. (They tasted like slightly stale store bought chips.)
The toilets downstairs are also very clean, albeit a little interesting décor.

So this maybe a little bit of a misleading 1, the food was great, the staff were ok, in fact our whole experience was good (I would only say it was as I would expect), until the bill arrived.
Forgive me if I’m wrong, but aren’t the costs of the dishes served in your restaurant calculated to cover not only the cost of the food, but also all the overheads incurred in its preparation and delivery to the customer?
So please explain to me why there is an automatic 12.5% service charge added to the bill when 5 or more people eat at the same table? Why 3 adults & 2 children incur an additional cost over and above a table of 4 adults? Especially when they’re consuming ‘street food’ that is served to the table at random intervals.
I do trip where I feel appropiate, but really dislike the idea of not being able to make this judgement. How do I remove this cost if the service was awful?

We love wahaca. Yummy food, good with kids, reasonably priced. Today we tried the Oxford Circus location for the first time before spending a fortune on new school shoes (but I digress). We arrived, I guess, between the handover of breakfast to lunch-​which given they are the only wahaca that serves breakfast you would think would be pretty normal. Instead, we spoke with three people who told us three different times that we would be able to order lunch. Not a major drama but something to consider. Maybe show up at 12:01 if you really want lunch :-) Once ordered the food was pretty much as we expected, we love the chicken Caesar tostadas and the girls enjoyed a chicken quesadilla. My wife and I both decided to try their fruit smoothies for the first time and they were lovely. We then went for a new quesadilla of peppers and feta cheese which I really enjoyed while my wife felt she could only taste «hot». Rounded out with our normal steak tacos-​good as always and a new try of their smoky cheesy cauliflower as a side and we left satisfied as always.

I’ve dined in Wahaca at several different locations and since this one was the last one I visited, here is my review.
The good: Wahaca food deserves an overall 3.5−4 star rating. The food tastes fresh and is close in quality (but not quantity and value for money) to a comparable US based Mexican restaurant chain.
The bad: They are stingy on items they shouldn’t be stingy with. For example, you have to pay (a lot) for a tiny portion of chips and salsa. That is BS and simply unacceptable! Similarly, a small portion of chips and guac (a regular person needs at least 2 – 3 of these) is severely overpriced.
Here are the details:
Guac — good. For the price and quantity it should be a lot better. In my opinion, it needs more cilantro, more lime and definitely some chopped jalapeño peppers for an additional kick.
Salsa (pico de gallo) — good acidity, but needs both more jalapeños and more cilantro.
Steak tacos — good, would have preferred them medium rare for an additional juicyness.
Pork tacos — very good. Good spicy kick.
Sonora salad w/​Chicken — good, also needs more dressing, an additional kick. Chicken was properly seasoned but since it is cut in small pieces, it was slightly overcooked and on the dryer side. The tortilla shell that the salad came in (in the US we’d call it tostada) was overcrysped and way too greasy.
Fish tacos — another solid dish, but needs adjustments to be perfect. For example, the fish needs less batter and less time in the fryer so it can retain all of the juicyness. Also one big filet is always better than smaller chunks.
Drinks — margaritas and mojitos. Too sweet and stingy on actual booze.

Food was super tasty. I had the veggie burrito which was packed with black beans and fresh crunchy veg, lots of flavour! The smoked chipotle cauliflower on the side was amazing. Very reasonable prices too

Nice casual place for a meal.. typical Wahaca quality.. friendly waiting staff… churros with chocolate to die for …

Wahaca is a great Mexican chain restaurant offering up modern Mexican street food. The portions are just the right size, and the food is tasty to boot. Pricing wise wahaca is similar to any of the other chain restaurants such as wagamama for example.
This branch was very good, the food here is on par with other branches of wahaca that I have eaten in and the service was very good too.
Overall I would recommend.

We Had:
Pork Pibil (really deep tasting)
Chicken Tinga (fresh and spicy)
Cactus & corn (unusual but in a nice way)
Black bean (rich and filling)
fish tacos (breaded fish but nice nonetheless)
It’s a while since I visited Wahaca and this was the first time I thought we had got the food right. Generally it’s easy to under order given the smallness of the tacos and to leave wanting more (or a Macdonalds). This time it was just right. The food was great and we had a margarita to start. They don’t do frozen ones which is a shame. They were pretty good and we then had Modello’s. This branch is very large and service was especially friendly. Everything we could have hoped for.

Popped by for some take away, got me some chicken burritos and the host was very welcoming. I love Wahaca and I try to visit different venues. The only minus here goes to the bartender who was working and based on what I saw he lacks quite some knowledge unfortunately and I would not want him to make my cocktails… But, wonderful venue, good food and welcoming staff!

London has serious discrepancy of quality Mexican food places and this place is (starting) to fill it. Believe they’re opening up more places around London. Affordable, relatively quick, and not terribly difficult to score a table

Well it’s a step up from Nandos really isn’t it? For a chain joint it was ok. Service was lazy, food was standard.

Delicious food with fast friendly service and a price that is very reasonable (particularly for Central London). 100% recommended.

I have tried Wahaca at another location near embankment and i would say it was WAY better than this outlet. The other location had some seriously fresh guacamole! The best i’ve possibly ever had in my life!
Other than that, we ordered an assortment of dishes here such as quesedilla and tacos etc and everything was ok. It was nothing memorable. Still, it has a very fun and hip design space which is fun to dine in and take pictures.

This place has very good tacos. I ordered the Chicken Pipian tacos, and they were good. They come in threes, and they have a hint of pumpkin flavor from the pumpkin seeds. I also ordered a Passion Fruit Margarita with was good as well, but I would try something else next time this is a great place to get some food while you are visiting Oxford street. My waitress’s name was Paula. She was friendly & helpful, giving good recommendations. Overall, I would definitely come back here.

Nice Mexican joint with nice people, nice waiters (ours was from Madrid!) and a great décor. The dishes were great and tasty (too many to describe!!). It was a great way to start our London trip! The guacamole wasn’t amazing, but it was eatable! Nice place to have a long lunch! The tres leches dessert was phenomenal!

The latest branch in the Wahaca family, it follows in its older sibling’s path of brick and chain-​link fence meets cantina. Possibly a bit less busy because it is the newest, or it’s a bit out of view from the busy Oxford circus, but that doesn’t mean it has any less charm.
Staff were very genial all night. Drinks were always offered and refreshed, and plates swept away from under your nose. Food came quickly, great high standard as always. Lots of veg plates and dairy-​free drink options as well.

Love love love Wahaca. The colourful comfy décor, friendly staff always cheers me up! The food is excellent, particularly the street food, perfectly formed morsels of deliciousness. And my favourite is the tamarind twist sweet and sour tall drink which disappears faster than hoped. The chilli salt rim drink adds a zing along with the intense and delicate flavour of agave tequila is a total taste explosion. A fab overall experience.