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Ha-arba'a Street, bordering on the Cinematheque and Kaplan Street, had become a popular dining area in Tel Aviv several years ago. More and more different restaurants appeared – Japanese restaurants, one proud Brazilian bistro, Spanish tapas bar and even an Urfa (a city in South-East Turkey) restaurant called Pasha. I, together with my friend (who normally prefers being in San Francisco) decided to see what the Turks had to offer.
Pasha has a large space with a clean design, big table area, impressive bar and a variety of oriental ingredients, like small arched niches. It's hard to miss the open kitchen with the big oven, which allows a viewing of the process your food goes through until it actually reaches your plate.
We started with a glass of keg Tuborg beer (18 NIS) and a myriad of salads (18 NIS), which included Tahini, fresh tabbouleh and Turkish salad. These came with hot Turkish pitas, which made my friend forget his manners and devour everything. As always I tried the kibbe, this time two kinds out of the three: Urfa kibbe (26 NIS) and Hamusta kibbe (26 NIS) with tart lemon, mangold and celery sauce. One of the house specials was the grilled eggplant with Tahini, and it didn't disappoint. This, together with the Tatvilla (24 NIS), which was an unusual and original dish, built our appetites for the entrées.
We ordered a chicken steak with pistachio and cashew (74 NIS), which was also very original, and the Urfa kebab (62 NIS). To ease the weight of the meats, we had baked vegetables (36 NIS). We were impressed with the selection of business meals, served on Fridays as well as weekdays, ranging from 50-70 NIS and including salads, appetizer and main course.
The desserts were as generous as the rest of the meal – vanilla ice cream in the form of a snowy mountain with date honey and halva (34 NIS), a dessert fit for everyone with a sweet tooth. The kosher restrictions weren't noticed there, but they were visible in the hot Kadayif (26 NIS), which was also baked and resembled Kanafeh without the sweet cheese.
Stuffed and content, we left the restaurant and headed for the Templar houses built when the Turks ruled the land, which made us think of the Ottoman heritage rolling around in our bellies.
*The writer dined at the restaurant. |