Pasha describes itself as a ‘Moroccan oasis in the heart of Kensington’, which you would do well to remember, as who hasn’t, at some time or other, found themselves in the heart of Kensington thinking, ‘I do so wish there was a Moroccan oasis around here’? It is just round the corner from the Albert Hall, on Gloucester Road, at the end of a small parade of chi-chi boutiques and bakeries so artisan that the price of a loaf of bread is pretty much up there with the cost of the average car. It’s the kind of place where you don’t so much buy a cake as take a mortgage out on one.
Still, I do like Pasha, from the off. It’s just so OTT. It has a grand, ochre-coloured marble entrance and inside it is stunningly opulent in what I guess you would call the casbah-style: enormous glass lanterns absolutely dripping with beads; sumptuous, scarlet-pillowed banquettes; rich handmade fabrics; wonderful carved wood. The restaurant was taken over recently by Tony Kitous (owner of the successful London restaurants Levant and Levant-ine, also serving North African cuisine) and he has, apparently, ‘stopped at nothing to create the sexy, glamorous interior of his dreams’. Good for Mr Kitous. I mean, if you don’t create the sexy, glamorous interior of your dreams, no one else is going to do it for you. I speak from experience. No one has ever offered to create the sexy, glamorous interior of my dreams. My partner did once hang a blind for me, but it had dropped off by morning, so I don’t think that counts.
Pasha is an extravagantly heady kind of place. Incense is heavily on the go, as are rose petals.
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