Kudu Restaurant

Neighbourhood restaurant in Peckham run by a couple team; serving seasonal ingredients, creative plates, wines and cocktails.

Kudu Home Page

http://kudu-restaurant.com

Kudu: Review

Kudu’s ‘thing’ is that they serve food inspired by South Africa, and to be fair, this part of the world has been so far quite under-represented in the capital.

There’s Vivat Bacchus, a South African steakhouse and wine bar that’s been doing its thing on Farringdon Road for a number of years now, and though the food isn’t wildly brilliant they do have a walk-in cheese room, so full marks for that.

So Kudu would only need to be fairly good to stand out from the competition, and to make the most of its South African heritage.

In fact, it’s such an exciting, vibrant little place, serving food of such intelligence and charm, that it makes the case for this previously rather quiet section of South East London to become a genuine food destination.

In many ways of course, Kudu are simply continuing the Modern British path forged by the Dairy and the Manor (both of which head chef Patrick Williams spent time at), and the way the menu is divided into snacks, small plates, large sharing plates and desserts will be familiar to most of you.

Kudu

We are struggling to think of a good South African restaurant in London, while bad examples spring to mind like a leaping kudu.

Chef/owner Patrick is South African and has come up with a menu of modern South African dishes, which nod to the country’s traditional dishes rather than slavishly reproducing them.

We love the sound of the pig’s head tortellini with mushroom and hay broth and crispy onions, and braai (barbecue) lamb neck with smoked yoghurt, lettuce and brussel tops.

Desserts sound fab, too, like a chocolate mousse with mint ice cream and peppermint crisp (HELLO – bring back mint and chocolate, we say), plus pumpkin tart and a cheese option.

We remain optimistic that it is possible to open a good South African restaurant in London.

Kudu review: Out of Africa, at home in Peckham | London Evening ...

There are loads of guides online to the 10 best places to eat there, “the 11 Peckham restaurants that make it a neighbourhood dining dream” and so forth.

Dazed by two small babies, Henry and Georgie entered Queens Road into their satnav and faithfully followed its directions all the way to Queens Road, Croydon, a boulevard celebrated less for its restaurants than its 25-acre Victorian cemetery.

The menu is unpretentiously arranged as snacks (£6-£7), small plates (£7.50-£9) and medium plates (£9.50-£16) — and although the name (it’s an antelope) suggests fully South African cooking, that element’s actually not much more than a pleasing inflection to a Modern British style, full of totally on trend ingredients, some of them foraged, also incorporating Japanese flavours and charred, smokey and ashy tastes.

From the snacks, Kudu Bread is a delicately spiced brioche loaf, baked in a pot, served to dip into either a generous panful of good bacon lardons in melted butter with parsley or, even better, a panful of seafood butter, full of shrimps, some almond flakes and a bit of a romesco-ish seasoning, as well as some seaweed, briny and marine, so delicious it alone is worth a detour to Peckham.

A big dish of onglet, pleasantly tender skirt steak cooked pink and neatly sliced, had such emphatic support — bitter puntarelle leaves dressed with miso and truffle oil, big slices of stringy enoki mushroom, and an almost preposterously airy beige-coloured potato purée, again truffle-flavoured but also dusted with dried cèpe powder, sourced, Amy told us, from her grandfather’s place in France.

Kudu: South African flavours run wild in Peckham | London Evening ...

South African vibes run wild through the menu at this Queen’s Road site from Amy Corbin and Patrick Williams, a young couple with eye-catching credentials.

Amy has restaurants in her blood: her father is none other than Chris Corbin, one half of Corbin & King who are behind restaurants including The Wolseley, The Delaunay and Brasserie Zedel.

A succession of small plates which pack big flavours kick off with traditional pan-cooked South African bread and a pot of melted seafood butter for mopping up with it - an indulgent kick off and a sign of things to come.

Cocktails including the Smokey Kudu, made with South African whiskey and wormwood bitters, keep up the high octane energy while service not only keeps up with a considerable number of small plates flying out the kitchen but does so with style and a smile.

Then again, hospitality is in the Corbin lineage, so that shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Restaurant Review: Kudu | Venueseeker

Learn all about Kudu, a charming neighbourhood restaurant that opened in south London and has already built an enviable reputation for its incredible global cuisine.

In the heart of lively Peckham, Kudu serves delicious seasonal cuisine with imagination and a playful twist on tradition.

The owners, couple Amy Corbin & Patrick Williams, get their culinary inspiration from their South African roots, and are passionate about sharing their love of cooking with family, friends and neighbours.

Before opening Kudu, the couple always dreamt of owning their own restaurant and creating a special place for sharing their favourite dishes.

For dinner, Kudu is serving an eclectic mix of South African-inspired and global recipes, from Mussel potjie pot with seaweed gnocchi for starters, to Braai lamb neck with smoked yogurt, lettuce and sprouting broccoli for mains.