Open for: Lunch and dinner
Price: $$$
Chef Meedu Saad’s hotly-anticipated Soho restaurant feels all at once brand new, a fixture of Soho and primed to remain in situ for years to come. Super 8, the group behind it and celebrated venues like Kiln, Brat, and Mountain, has a knack for creating the restaurants that Londoners (and tourists) really want, before they know they want it. Impala embodies the qualities that give the group its edge — a buzzy, handsome dining room, thoughtfully curated playlists, attentive and cool service, plus clever dishes prepared with fine, carefully-sourced produce. The group also promotes its best talent to give them a platform; in Saad, backed by development chef Songsoo Kim, they have a star. This north Londoner, British Egyptian chef is cooking his own food: North African leaning with French and modern British accents, most of it over hot coals or from a wood-fired oven. Try the aish balady with Tunisian harissa, ftira with egg, a grilled squid and green leaf salad, sheftalia, molokhia with lamb, Cantonese-ish-style roast duck with fig sauce, or an elegant pilaf. And save room for the one dessert: a pistachio and date custard tart.
Must-try dish: Cantonese-style roast duck with molasses and fig sauce. (Get it with the pilaf.)
Adam Coghlan
