CHEZWaWa

Food places keep popping up in Brussels all the time, introducing cuisines from all over the world. We’ve seen Mexican or Tex-Mex on some restaurants before, but so far, they haven’t been able to impress us. Cali-Mex, or Californian Mexican however, was new to us, and I believe to Brussels.

After having tried this Cali-Mex food for the first time at CHEZWaWa, we’d say: welcome, and bring on the giant burritos, the soft tacos, and the hot salsa! After you get over the initial surprise over the crazy, but beautiful interior, you can make your way up the steps, all the way to the back, where the counter is. “Life is full of so many choices” you then read above the menu, and that was exactly the problem: there are many things to choose from when eating at CHEZWaWa.
The easy way out is to order the Meal of the Month, but since we didn’t want to order the same dish twice, one of us actually had to pick all the ingredients to compose a meal…

To complicate things further, the staff weren’t completely familiar with all the ingredients and all their names in three languages yet either, although this is quite understandable, since it was only the second day they were open.
Luckily the boss was there to guide us through the process! Pick a base — a big tortilla for a burrito, smaller tortillas for the soft tacos, or baseless for a salad — choose the protein, the rice, the beans, the salsa, etcetera. There are so many options, you can probably go there every week of the year without having to choose the same combination twice!

So we ended up with a large beef burrito and a bowl with three soft tacos, and we loved them! Prudently having chosen the medium spiced salsa, there was still some room for extra spiciness, so I could try the salsa Picante Negra de Chile Habanero available from the Hot Sauce Station: spicy indeed, but not too much (for me)! Add a bag of tortilla chips and some more salsa, and you’ll have very satisfying and tasty meal.

Of course we had a beer with our meal, and we were surprised to find some beers from a Belgian brewery thus far unknown to us: Belgo Sapiens. Their red ale and their porter were quite nice indeed. CHEZWaWa also has some beers from our neighbourhood brewery Brussels Beer Project in the fridge.

As far as Mexican beers are concerned: Corona (by InBev), Desperados and Dos Equis Special Lager (both by Heineken)… That was a bit of a letdown, since over the past decade, Mexico has seen an explosion of cervezas artesanales. Wouldn’t it be great if CHEZWaWa served some of those new, much tastier beers, from  La Santísima Flor De Lúpulo for instance, or Cervecería de Colima?

We’ll have to come back to CHEZWaWa to try some other combinations, and maybe convince the boss to order some Mexican cervezas artesanales, but we’re already a fan of Cali-Mex cuisine!

  

  

  

tl;dr

Beers

• A nice selection of beers from Brussels Beer Project and Belgo Sapiens
• Even proper glassware!

Bites

• Big, tasty burritos, soft tacos and all the necessary sides

 

CHEZWaWa Châtelain
Amerikaansestraat 91 Rue Américaine
1050 Elsene
+32 2 534 63 30
http://www.chezwawa.com
chezwawabxl

 

What have people been drinking here recently?