Impala - Is this the best Natural wine list in London ?
Impala
The Soho restaurant that could change how London thinks about fire
Five years in the making, Meedu Saad's debut solo project brings Cairo's energy to Dean Street—complete with what may be one of the best natural wine lists in the UK.
When Meedu Saad left his post as head chef at Kiln—the Thai sensation that cemented Soho's reputation for claypot brilliance—he didn't travel far geographically. Just a few streets, in fact. But culinarily, he's crossed continents. His debut restaurant, Impala, which opened its doors on Dean Street in March, represents a journey that began with a cherry-red 1964 Chevrolet Impala and the sun-drenched summers of his teenage years in Egypt.
Named after that borrowed car—a "symbol of freedom and exploration," as Saad describes it—Impala is the fruit of a five-year odyssey that has seen the London-born chef traverse the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa, collecting techniques and memories like other people collect stamps. The result is a charcoal grill restaurant that doesn't quite fit any existing category: part Cairo Friday market, part North London mangal house, entirely its own creature.
The Room
The space itself, housed in what Saad candidly calls an "awkward 1960s concrete building," has been transformed by Super 8 co-founder Benjamin Chapman and designer Dan Preston into something that feels both sculptural and lived-in. Taking cues from architects Carlo Scarpa and Carlo Mollino, they've created a room where concrete pillars meet polished veneers with ornate grain patterns, and four unexpected pitched skylights filter light through sheer fabrics. At the front, a bar flanked by repurposed cinema horns promises the "energy of the Friday markets in Cairo, colliding with a Soho bar."
The Grill
But it's the grill that commands attention. Positioned at the centre of the room, visible from nearly every seat, this is not the high-heat inferno of an American steakhouse. Instead, Saad has imported a gentler Egyptian technique where skewers sit "impossibly close to coals" that have been fanned by hand until they glow white and flaky. The distance is higher, the heat softer, the result something unusually delicate: a "gentle smoky char" that preserves texture rather than obliterating it. Saad refined this approach during recent stints cooking in Tokyo with chef Toshi Akama of Ukiyo, and it shows in the precision.
The Menu
The wood oven is equally vital. Here, chefs bake rice from Luxor—a highly polished small-grain variety sourced specifically for the restaurant—until sticky and fragrant with ghee and woodsmoke. Yoghurt is set overnight in clay pots by the dying embers. This is food built on relationships forged over years: five generations of Cumbrian dairy tradition providing cream for house-made cheeses; Matt Chatfield's cull yaw sheep from Cornwall, their deep flavour developed over years of grazing; and a new project with Moss farm on Exmoor, where lambs graze on fragrant mountain herbs until they become mutton.
The Wine
And then there's the wine. Led by Penny Vine and Martina Lanarch—the duo behind the award-winning list at Mountain—Impala's program focuses on producers who share the restaurant's farming ethos, with multiple cuvées and vintages from inspired winemakers. They're importing cult zero-sulphite Champagne producer Bourgeois Dias specifically for the restaurant and stashing away back vintages of Italian alpine wines. The result is an idiosyncratic, distinct list that may stand as one of the best natural wine selections in the UK—a serious draw for oenophiles alongside the food.
"Growing up, I saw river fish baked in bran around the community ovens in Ismailia, opened clams over small fires along the beaches of the Red Sea and watched spit roast sheep turning in smoke-filled Cypriot kebab houses in Haringey. All of these memories are carried through into our cooking today." — Meedu Saad
Saad remains executive chef at Kiln while leading Impala, and his front-of-house partner Fanny Derozier brings seven years of experience from the Thai restaurant to helm the room. Together, they're offering something that feels increasingly rare in London: a restaurant with genuine narrative cohesion, where every element—from the repurposed cinema horns to the hand-fanned coals to the Luxor rice—speaks to a life spent paying attention.
Visit
Address
14 Dean Street
London W1D 3RS
Reservations
Book online
28 days in advance
Tables for 1–6 guests
Contact
Walk-ins
Kitchen counter seats
available for walk-ins
The Menu
The menu reads like a map of Saad's life. There's dry-aged duck from Devon, stuffed with black lime and chillies from Aswan, roasted over wood embers with molasses—a translation of a mango harvest feast he once attended in northern Egypt. Bird's tongue pasta (similar to Cypriot kritharaki) is slowly braised with spiced oxtail, nodding to the Greek and Turkish Cypriot diaspora of North London where Saad grew up. Fish—sides of sea bass and bream from Kernow Sashimi in Cornwall—are prepared using the Japanese ike jime method, aged until the skin dries and the fats develop, then grilled until the skin crisps and the flesh finishes gently above the fire.
The Wine
