Evening Standard
David Ellis was thrilled by the “one-off” cooking at former Kiln head chef Meedu Saad’s Egyptian-inspired grill, which he hailed as “fusion food without the naffness” in the mould of "West-African-but-not-really" Ikoyi or Tomos Parry’s Welsh-Basque Mountain.
It is, though, “authentic to Saad: authentic to his childhood holidays in Ismailia, to growing up in Tottenham, to his teenage years scrubbing plates in a Turkish Cypriot greasy spoon just off Turnpike Lane. Authentic to his years at Kiln cooking food from Thailand, Burma, Laos.”
David recommended “faultless” orzo braised with oxtail and black lime; “transcendent” veal sweetbreads with a Bordelaise glaze; “stunning” Dexter beef tartare with Djerba harissa; pureed white beans with wild herbs and bottarga which “stopped our conversation”; glazed sausage with cloves and cinnamon; dandelion salad; and bread that “had me gurgling idiotically”. Duck, turbot and featherblade steak were not as good, but the wine list was “masterfully curated — with, thank God, enough bottles in the £20s”.
David Ellis - 2026-04-12The Guardian
Grace Dent was left “punch-drunk with memories” after a meal at this new venue from the all-conquering Super 8 group, where chef Meedu Saad has conjured up a “hazy blend of styles, cuisines and shabby-chic luxury” that might just be “the next era of restaurants”.
The menu – “essentially a 3D printout of Saad’s mind” – needs some explaining from the servers, with dishes like bird’s tongue pasta (a type of orzo) braised with spiced oxtail; molokhia (braised jute leaf and shoulder of cull yaw sheep); and aish baladi (an Egyptian wholegrain bread). A mush of pounded white beans was “insanely good”, as were monkfish wrapped in grape leaves and cooked over coals, grilled short rib infused with rosemary and three varieties of black pepper; and a “riotous, salty-sweet date and pistachio custard tart” that was the only dessert.
“Impala is shamelessly, brilliantly too much”, Grace said. Its “extraordinary, inimitable and delicious” food somehow blending “a long-ago holiday in Tunisia mixed with late-night dinners on the boundaries of Stoke Newington, complete with throwbacks to the cocktails at the weird, industrial-chic Alphabet Bar back in 90s Beak Street and sprinklings of London’s Turkish-Cypriot scene.”
Grace Dent - 2026-04-26
