Pasha has been serving up Turkish fare over on Nanchang Lu for a while now. With a younger sibling (Garlic) from the same owners now just down the street, we came back for another visit.
As a leafy mid-town haven, Nanchang Lu’s lane houses seem a curious fit for a modern Turkish restaurant. Immediately inside the ground floor doorway we are greeted by a chef poised awkwardly behind a sunken grill. It almost feels intrusive. Skipping past this and up the stairs, the dining room is tiny collection of well-dressed tables, tastefully surrounded by ceramic and Turkish motifs.
From a comprehensive menu a few items pop out, including a plate of smooth hummus (RMB58) and refined cucumber and mint yoghurt Cacik (RMB43). Both, when soaked up by slices of Turkish bread, are moreish to a tee. The ispanakli pide (RMB52), a strip-sliced Turkish pizza of spinach and cheese, is complex but light and worthy of re-order. Again similar to Garlic though, the star of the show reveals itself to be a safin beyti (RMB135). A masterstroke of lamb kebab that’s wrapped in flatbread and smothered in a cream and tomato sauce, it’s thoroughly delicious. Garlic’s is slightly more polished though.
Elsewhere on the menu you pay more for slightly smaller portions. Accordingly, we preferred the dishes above to the chicken shish (RMB85) and the lamb kofte (RMB95) that followed.
Pasha tries hard, with a lahmacun amuse bouche to start, free-flow chunks of bread throughout and the obligatory Turkish coffee to finish. However, we still prefer its more complete and only slightly more expensive sister restaurant.