Veganuary at Wahaca Brighton

Dry January certainly won’t be welcomed by the country’s already imperiled restaurants, bars and clubs, but at least the growing numbers of buff personal trainers will be able to comfortably keep themselves in Lycra.

On the subject of stretch, Veganuary doesn’t seem quite so unachievable these days, especially not in a venue like Wahaca, which is generally so chocca with ace veggie and bean-filled dishes that even flesh-hungry carnivores can potentially cope with all things plant-based.

Three of us trundled along to the seemingly perpetually full North Street restaurant early in the new year.

The trio was two-thirds flesh-eaters (one adult, one sprog) and one-third pescetarian aiming for a vegan January (although it transpires that went for a Burton the following morning with an absent-mindedly scoffed piece of cheese).

Our strategem was to steam ahead with the vegan set menu, and perhaps sneak in a few more dishes if the gutsier members of the threesome were in the mood for more.

But (spoiler alert) an additional sneaky starchy burrito wasn’t required because the £45 seven-plate vegan set (which is billed to serve two people) proved super value and more than enough for a part-time vegan adult and two fairly greedy meat-munchers.

As a grizzled veteran of the groovy Mexican street food restaurant I knew the dishes on their set menus come whenever they’re ready, and generally thick and fast, and before too long the table was heaving with trays of tacos and all sorts of lovelies.

The ecological imperative of veganism is difficult to argue with, and at Wahaca there’s always been plenty of consideration for sustainability.

Past efforts have included local eco-awareness and beach clean initiatives, a meat-free supper club with the Wahaca’s founder Thomasina Miers (see the short video above), and low air-mile British bean alternatives to guacamole.

Similarly, the Smoky Sonoran Hummus is made from chickpeas (obvs), roasted veg, British Carlin peas and cauliflower stems. And the leftover cooking liquid from the chickpeas (aquafaba) as an egg-white substitute for the restaurant’s vegan cocktails.

The delish sustainable dish was drizzled with chilli oil and served with homemade tortilla chips, of which the darker chips had a far nicer texture than their paler companions.

Of the three trays of tacos the Plant-Based Chicken and Avocado Tacos were the favourites of the 11-year-old meat-eater, who was impressed at the crispy-crumbed fake fowl, the grown-ups agreed and also made approving noises about the green tomatillo salsa (Wahaca can be relied upon to make the extra effort with traditional Mexican-style ingredients instead of easier equivalents, and besides a neighbour on your reviewer’s allotment grows tomatillos, so they don’t necessarily mean more air-miles.

El Nino was, surprisingly, less taken with the plantain tacos, but fortunately the wrinklies loved the combination of sweet and savoury and felt it was his loss.

The Ancho Mushroom Tacos were the best looking of the trio of tacos, remarkably plump and juicy pieces of funghi photographed well with beetroot crisps and slaw, and the jalapeño mayo did a good job bringing the whole proceedings together.

Strides have been made with vegan cheese in recent years, and while not exactly full of melting, stringy goodness the Black Bean & Vegan Cheese Quesadilla was better than expected, and helped along by the tasty smoky beans.

The Zesty bean tostadas always surprise me with their deep, but not overpowering chilli heat, and the Seasonal Greens had a nice crunch to them but would have benefitted from a little more of the mojo de ajo and lime dressing.

The Sprog surprised absolutely nobody by ordering some Churros with a vegan choccy dip, and the olds shared an impressively cocoa-heavy bowl of vegan chocolate ice cream.

We kept things simple on the drinks front with sodas and low-alcohol beer, Wahaca has introduced two tasty new booze-free additions to the drinks menu.

The Blackberry Sour (£5.50) is shaken with aquafaba, basil, apple cider vinegar, avocado leaf and a new and improved for 2024, the Non-Alc Margarita (£6.50) features Pentire botanical non-alcoholic spirit mixed with lime, agave and jalapeño.