Tas Pide on Bankside

Tas restaurants are a feature of SE1. The first opened in The Cut in 1999 and a second followed in Borough High Street last year. At first Tas described itself as “mediterranean” but really it is Turkish without the kebabs which are rarely eaten at home by Turks.

Now a third and even more exciting Tas has quietly opened.
It can be found in New Globe Walk but Tas Pide is different. It is completely Turkish with comfortable low chairs, woodwork and lamps brought from Turkey. Tas means ‘cooking pot' and pide, pronounced ‘pee-day', is an ancient Anatolian dough dish baked in the shape of a boat.

The baking is done in a wood fire brick oven which has only been lit once. It never dies and customers are welcome to look through the door and see their own pide pulled out on a wooden oar.

Kiymali (£6.25) is a traditional pide with a filling of minced lamb, onions, fresh tomatoes, parsley and red pepper. But there are ten new pide recipes exclusive to the restaurant which have been created to appeal to European tastes using organic vegetables with cheeses, meat and fish. Sardalyali (£5.95) includes fresh sardines, vine leaves and lemon rind.

The original Tas won the Time Out Award for the best vegetarian meal in London and here a third of the pide menu is vegetarian.

Nearly all the cold starters are vegetarian with Elmali Kereviz (£3.75), refreshing yoghurt with fruit and celery, probably destined to be the most popular.

The beautifully presented puddings, or tatlilars, are both exotic and healthy. Sutlu Incir (£3.45) is figs mixed with creamy milk and honey. Baklava (£2.95) is filo pastry with walnuts, pistachio and honey syrup.

Tas is the creation of Onder Sahan who is fulfilling his desire to bring Anatolian cooking to SE1. He has insisted on the staff having a 25% stake in the new business which may account for the unusual care, knowledge evident pride of those at front of house. Among the visible chefs is Onder Sahan himself.

The menu makes sharing easy and enjoyable as a pide comes cut into strips and is anyway, according to Onder Sahan, “best eaten by hand as in ancient times”.

This is a unique restaurant with reasonable prices which SE1 can be proud of. But by next summer it will be booked out.

• Tas Pide, New Globe Walk 020 7928 3300
• See Tas Pide in our restaurant guide.