“It has been one thing after another since Covid,” says Mandy Yin as she looks over the accounts for her small north London independent restaurant.
It’s just before lunchtime on a Friday and Sambal Shiok’s chef is busy chopping ingredients for chicken and prawn laksa, the signature dish at the eatery on Holloway Road, a busy thoroughfare not far from Arsenal’s Emirates stadium.
Fuluke Barca, the head chef at Sambal Shiok, prepares the kitchen and the ingredients for the day’s business; the prawns and chicken for the laksa; the rice noodles are cooked for the vegan laksa.
The 36-seat eatery specialising in laksa, a spicy noodle dish, has benefited from diners heading on to matches at the Premier League football club, as well as locals returning to office work and popping out for lunch again. Sales are back to pre-Covid levels, but that comes after price rises and an extra day of opening as the cost of living crisis and roadworks that block part of the pavement outside have an impact.
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