DDD + Mr DDD on Wednesday attended the launch of Shaka Zulu, the multi-million pound South African super-restaurant in Camden's Stables Market - as did HM King Goodwill Zwelithini of Zululand. Read on for a first report on the venture …
Monday: A giant statue is wheeled past our dinner table at nearby Yum Cha
"Zulu" drummers welcome the guests
Location: Next to super-restaurant Gilgamesh. First left after the Lock. But whereas Gilgamesh is built up towards the railway line, Shaka Zulu is carved out below street level.
Design: The interior is covered in carvings, exactly like Gilgamesh next door, but the eclecticism of the art leads to a artfully cluttered look, much like Mayfair's Chor Bizarre. The upper and lower levels are joined by a central stairwell - and an incongruous escalator. Clearly the venue is courting the too-posh-to-walk crowd.
What's there? Well, it will be a restaurant including braai (grilled things), a seafood bar, and a bar. It's hard to see how the layout is going to work in normal operation. Perhaps eating downstairs and drinking upstairs?
Food: Pretty good. South African chef Barry Vera had designed a pre-starter of biltong, flatbread and dips ranged in influence across the African continent but formed a substantial plate of the kind of sharing food you might find in family restaurants, like a vastly superior Nandos. But the home-smoked salmon with pickled cucumber and celery shoots that followed was finer dining. If the braaid meats and more mimsy dishes are on the same menu, it may result in rather eccentrically balanced meals. It remains to be seen.
Seven-hour lamb with cumin salt was tender, generous and excellent - all the meat is very carefully sourced - though a chakalaka side disappointingly leeched all the delicious heat of the (spicy vegetable) relish by mixing it with soured milk (amasi), forming a bland pile more like chow mein than any South African food.
A rooibos (red tea) creme brulee with honeyed orange was the most successful dish, balancing the dense richness of the cream with a bottom layer of bitter-sweet fruit.
Sleb spots: Amy Winehouse, OFF HER FACE, trying to drink dip, spooning over Reg, then retreating to the pillar next to our seats to hide and cry.
One table over, towards the sublimer end of the spectrum, Mr DDD and I spoke to Shaka Zulu founder Roger Payne and Shaka Zulu descendant the king (beautifully attired in traditional leopard skin) who I've encountered before SA-side but never got the chance to talk to. Then nothing to do but dance the night away with princesses Zanele and Nthombi and their friend Sebenzile.
I'll post a review once the restaurant's on normal business. Watch this space. BAYEDE!
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