Super 8 is the restaurant group behind some of London’s coolest tables (Kiln, Brat), but distinction, not domination, defines its approach, with restaurants taking half a decade to develop. Chef Meedu Saad began planning Impala five years ago, when he was head chef of Kiln – and his debut solo restaurant has been worth the wait. Named after the 1964 Chevrolet that the chef used to drive on family holidays in Egypt, Impala has roared into Soho as one of the year’s hottest openings.
Wallpaper* dines at Impala, London
The mood: Concrete concept
Super 8 co-founder Benjamin Chapman has worked with the group’s long-term design collaborator, Dan Preston, drawing for inspiration on everything from Italian modernist architects Carlo Mollino and Carlo Scarpa to Friday-night markets in Cairo.
Preston has softened the concrete exterior of the 1960s building with an iroko-wood frontage, screened with timber blinds. Inside, the light from four industrial skylights is diffused through fabric panels suspended from a steel frame, while bespoke lighting by Joe Armitage, nodding to Mollino’s Casa Vladi Orengo in Turin, is hung across the bar tables.
Materials become visible as the day unfolds, with concrete pillars contrasted with polished veneers – though all eyes are on the open-fire grill, visible from almost every seat in the 90-cover space. The audio element is just as important as the visual, however. The bar at the front is framed by a custom-built speaker system fashioned from repurposed cinema horns.
The food: Thrilling grilling
Saad grew up in north London, where his first job was at a Turkish Cypriot grill on Green Lanes, before he spent a decade training in classical French kitchens, followed by eight years at Kiln, arguably London’s best Thai restaurant. Here at Impala, he’s putting a lifetime of influences on the menu, including research trips to Egypt, the eastern Mediterranean and Japan, all centred on the custom-built charcoal grill and wood-fired oven.
It’s not just any old grill, though. The charcoal is fanned down to soft white coals by hand, a technique for controlled, low-flame cooking that Saad picked up working with chef Toshi Akama at Ukiyo in Tokyo. As for the oven, it’s modelled on shared community ovens in Egypt.
What ends up on the plate, however, is based on British ingredients: grilled Tamworth pork sheftalia wrapped in caul fat; slow-cooked shoulder of cull yaw from Exmoor farmer Matt Chatfield, braised with jute leaves; and the signature dish of dry-aged duck from Cornish butcher Philip Warren, stuffed with black lime and chillies and roasted over wood embers with molasses – the dish that inspired Saad to open Impala when he first ate it at a friend’s house in Egypt.
Is the cooking authentically Egyptian? Maybe not, but it is authentically Meedu Saad –and it is absolutely, exhilaratingly unique.
Impala is located at 13, 14 Dean St, London W1D 3RS, United Kingdom