Out of Africa and into N1
This review was published in March 2002
According to the menu blurb, the Meroites came from an ancient kingdom sandwiched between Egypt and the Sudan. For 50 years Meroe ruled Egypt from its vantage point high up the Nile valley just to the north of Khartoum - to all intents and purposes we are talking Ethiopia.
Policing the Nile valley and invading Egypt must seem like child's play compared with setting up a restaurant in King's Cross. This Meroe bills itself as an 'African' restaurant, and while everything works to African time (this is a pretty laid-back place), the dishes on the menu are mainly confined to East African favourites.
But the whole Sudanese/Ethiopian thing only fits where it touches: you get offered French bread or rice with your bamiya (£6.75) - a sound enough lamb, okra and tomato stew - but today they're out of injeera, the famous East African thin, damp, sour-dough bread. Starters also arrive with a basket baguette (crusty, warm, pretty decent): choose from hummus (£1.95); salata aswad (£2.75) - the star turn, a chunky aubergine/tahini dip; salata zabadi (£1.95), cucumber/carrot/yoghurt; and samosas (£2.25) - small and crisp, made from lamb or chicken.
The most ambitious starter is samak sire (£2.75), which is a grilled, stuffed sardine. There are also soups: shorbat addas (£2.45) - red lentils and spinach; or shorbat shae'er (£3.45) - lamb, oats and vegetables.
For main course there are plenty of vegetarian options and a selection of grilled meats: chicken shish kebab (£6.45), lamb shish kebab (£6.75) - decent portions of well-spiced, well-cooked meat, rice and salad. The best dish on offer is the kulwa (£5.75), a dryish, savoury, spiced lamb stew, although fish lovers may prefer the samak muhamar (£7.95), which is described as a traditional East African fishcake made of coley - which must make it a much-travelled fish. To follow, you can have coffee, but there are no desserts.
Meroe has a gentle, engaging and somewhat ramshackle air to it. Drinking is obviously an important facet of the restaurant's soul. There is a wine list and an endless supply of agreeably cold bottled beers, although they sometimes run out of the desperately dangerous and pleasingly overstrong export Guinness.
How such a relative newcomer to the London restaurant scene (it opened in 2001 with the assistance of a worthwhile charitable organisation called RETAS - the Refugee Education Training and Advisory Service) can manage to seem so well-established and careworn is a mystery. Don't visit if you have a train to catch, or if you yearn for a gastronomic revelation.
Top Fives: African Restaurants
Meroe
42 Caledonian Road, N1
