Running until 9 June, consumers will be able to offer their opinions on a variety of dishes on Twitter and Instagram via the #BetaEater hastag.
The most popular dishes will go on to feature on the menus across all of Wahaca’s 16 London sites throughout the summer.
Created by Wahaca founder Thomasina Miers and her team of chefs, the new dishes have a heavy ‘green’ emphasis, with items such as broccoli with green goddess dressing and pumpkin seeds (£4.50) and a selection of smoothies including the Green & Lean – made with apple, cucumber, mint and lime (£3.75) – leading the way.
Street food
A new Market Treats section delves deeper into Mexico’s street food culture, and includes the chorizo and chapulines memela (£5.95), a small Mexican-tyle chargrilled pizza topped with Trealy Farm sobrassada, crumbled fresh cheese and sustainable grasshoppers.
According to the restaurant, the dish proved popular earlier this year as a limited edition special at its Covent Garden site.
Mexico’s famous savoury pastry, the empanada, will also be introduced, with fillings of British chorizo and squash (£4.85) or pea, mint and shoots (£4.15).
Wahaca – which won the Sustainable Restaurant Association’s Innovation Award 2015, and was crowned Sustainable Restaurant Group of the Year 2012 and 2013 – is expanding its range of responsibly-sourced fish.
Its MSC crab stuffed avocados (£7.75), are said to be made with the most sustainably caught crab in the UK and the first to receive Marine Stewardship Council certification.
Salmon sashimi tostadas (£4.50), meanwhile, use sustainable Scottish salmon, served raw atop a crispy corn tortilla with crispy onions, avocado and chipotle mayo.
Customer opportunity
Oli Ingham, marketing manager at Wahaca, said the company wanted to give customers a chance to try the new dishes out and ask them what they are loving most.
He said: “Our customers' favourites will stay on the summer menu, and anything that’s not going down so well will go back into the development kitchen for more tweaking.
“We think it’s a nice way to come up with a summer of Mexican market eating that our customers have helped shape. So far, it’s safe to say that our new Salmon tostadas with crispy onions and chipotle mayo are staying put, as are our new chorizo and squash empanadas.”
According to Ingham, the new menu has 25 new food dishes (out of 49 food dishes in total) and seven new drinks.
- Inspired by her travels to Mexico, Wahaca was founded by Miers and business partner Mark Selby in 2007.