Impala, the latest restaurant from the Super 8 group, has arrived in Soho with a blaze of hype. Executive chef and co-founder Meedu Saad, formerly head chef at Kiln, has created a menu that defies easy categorisation. The restaurant's influences span North Africa, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and beyond, resulting in a dining experience that is both familiar and utterly unique.
The dishes are as intriguing as they are delicious. Starters include beef tartare with smoky Tunisian harissa and crunchy deep-fried bread, and a pounded white bean mush topped with bottarga. Mains feature monkfish wrapped in grape leaves and cooked over coals, and grilled short rib infused with rosemary and three varieties of black pepper. The menu also offers rustic Egyptian wholegrain bread, langoustine kibbeh, and a fattoush salad with pistachios and Greek anthotyros cheese.
The wine list is eclectic, ranging from French pouilly-fuissé to Slovakian orange wines and Moroccan reds, while cocktails include banana rum punch and bathtime martinis. The restaurant's décor is dark and dreamy, with diners using iPhone torches to read the menu. The atmosphere is lively, with loud jazz adding to the sensory overload.
Impala is a testament to Saad's personal history, with nods to childhood trips to Egypt, the Turkish-Cypriot cooking of Green Lanes, and the raw, take-me-or-leave-me style of Kiln. The result is a restaurant that feels like a mesh of memories and influences, from holidays in Tunisia to late-night dinners in Stoke Newington. It is shamelessly, brilliantly too much, and that is precisely its charm.
