Pasha Hotel and Restaurant
158 Camberwell Road SE5 0EE Tel: 0207 277 2228
www.hotelpasha.com
Allegedly London’s only Kazakhstan/Kyrgyzstan restatuarant, online reviews have been impressive… but seemed rather improbable. The probability of there being a busy, popular, excellent, non-alarming Kazakhstan/Kyrgyzstan restaurant hiding somewhere behind the shiny front of Pasha Hotel seemed more than unlikely. The restaurant was indeed hiding; indeed there was no evidence of it upon entering the hotel. We followed the red carpet through a long corridor past bedrooms and a hammam, and just when we feared the worst, we turned a corner and there it was. In the bowels of this seemingly little hotel hides seemingly one of Camberwell’s most popular restaurants! Like a tardis, the corridor opens out into a massive room, walls clad in thick tapestry and carpet. At the front are low tables, people sitting upon thick carpet, cross-legged, tucking into large and tasty plates of food, chatting, and greeting others. The atmosphere is buzzing and homely and there is very much the feeling of a secret club in Pasha.
Further into the room is a little bridge over a fish pond, complete with waterfall. On the other side of the bridge are more traditional chairs and tables, also bustling and more than half full, so there is an option of where to sit. We chose a low table and wine from a limited but sufficient list, and perused the varied and tempting menu of Kazakhstan/Kyrgyzstan (similar to Turkish/Greek in style). We had delicious mezze and Kazakh/Kyrgyz bread starters, then enthusiastically moved onto the main course. The aubergine/yoghurt dish was delicate and satisfying. Disaster struck when one of us, a committed vegetarian, was accidentally served the meat mousakka rather than the vegetarian version. The staff could not have been more apologetic, offering another free main course, then (appetite having gone, and thus declined), a free bottle of wine, and free tea and coffee for all of us. Quite impressive, if rather unfortunate, particularly as they have a good selection of vegetarian dishes (though in fact three of them were not available when we tried to order them). Otherwise, Pasha was a surprise hit with Gay Camberwell.
Food: 4
Service: 4 (apart from the unfortunate vegetarian incident)
Ambience: 4
Gay friendliness: 3