Image: Pasha restaurant
No beer and sandwiches for Red Ken – no quails’ eggs and caviar for silver-spooned Boris – the two rivals took a break after their mayoral campaigns last year to sit down and break political pita-bread at Islington’s Pasha, a North London Turkish favourite.
Five months later, I have entirely forgotten the famous meeting and I am on the hunt for a birthday lunch venue.
As we wander up Upper Street, Pasha instantly fits the bill with a £9.95 menu with three choices for each course.
Our co-diners constitute a couple proudly flaunting their baby dressed in a panda suit, a family lunch that has lasted an hour too long with children furiously tapping away at their gaming devices and an off-duty businessmen’s lunch.
The staff are a little pushy, returning incessantly to ask for our order. Yet considering the restaurant is only a third full, the concern seems more like a desire to provide meticulous service rather than a ploy to get lunchers out as quickly as possible.
We order juices which arrive in large glasses sporting slices of fruit, a tipple you’d expect in a resort rather than on a frosty London lunchtime.
The adventurous flavours of cucumber, kiwi and ginger tell the restaurant’s tale; this is very much a firm family favourite with an early noughties hint of creativity, not a new-age warehouse.
When it comes to ordering, my fellow diners opt for the set menu but as a vegetarian, the option of vegetarian moussaka is uninspiring and so I make a mezze selection which only adds up to £12.00.
One friend goes for the mixed mezze including hummus, tzatziki, courgette fritters and tabbouleh which is a good size and provides a taster of what’s on offer.
The other has hummus with minced lamb which she describes as “delicious”. I order falafel which is some of the best I’ve had, moist rather than dried out and whole sesame seeds on the outside which give a crunchy first bite. The tzatziki is also a must, the perfect combination of garlic and chunky cucumber topped off with a basket of warm pita which is regularly replenished- a welcome touch for £9.95.
Main course options are more sophisticated than your average Turkish joint. One friend chooses the salmon on a bed of Mediterranean vegetables which, if beautifully presented, is a little simple on the ingredients front. The other has lamb rested on olive-oil infused mash, unusual for a Turkish restaurant, but a welcome diversion from rice.
The salad of marinated feta, pomegranates, walnuts and spinach was faultless apart from a lack of dressing. I would have welcomed a dressing including exciting Turkish ingredients.
It’s hard to fault Pasha’s delicious food and I would visit again. If you’re looking for ambience however, this may not be the place. It’s ideal to while away a Saturday afternoon but for a first date or a boozy lunch, you could find better.
By day, it felt slightly like a middle-class dining room where parents were ensuring you were polishing off your greens before dessert.
301 Upper Street, Islington.
020 7226 1454.
http://www.pashaislington.co.uk
