Babaji Pide

Babaji – Istanbul Pide Salonu

Babaji is excited to announce the launch of its new and enticing baklava offering.

Freshly baked to perfection and the perfect balance of sweet and salty with every bite, Babaji brings forth the traditions of Turkey in the form of the classic baklava recipes that have transpired through the ages.

http://www.babaji.com.tr

Babaji – Istanbul Pide Salonu

Babaji is excited to announce the launch of its new and enticing baklava offering.

Freshly baked to perfection and the perfect balance of sweet and salty with every bite, Babaji brings forth the traditions of Turkey in the form of the classic baklava recipes that have transpired through the ages.

Vegetarian London: Babaji Pide Review | Londonist

Babaji — the word means ‘father’ in Turkish and many other languages — is somewhat incongruously located on touristy Shaftesbury Avenue, but it’s really a Notting Hill restaurant at heart.

The food here is bright and cheery, but the vegetarian dishes don’t have many variations in terms of taste and texture; and certain ingredients like red peppers, beetroot and feta recur frequently.

We drink smooth, cloudy Yeni raki (a top brand in Turkey), in which the anise flavour doesn’t overwhelm, with the meze; and with the pide, a pleasantly spicy red from an all-Turkish wine list.

The ginger juice used in the linden tea, for instance, is freshly pressed in-house; and a curtain shields diners at a corner table with glass windows on either side, so they don't have to feel like they’re in a goldfish bowl.

Surrounded by gorgeous iznik-design pottery in which the food is served, the clink of sparkling cut-glass jugs and gilded tea glasses in which the drinks are poured, the smoky aroma and the curiously retro music, you can pretend to be an impossibly beautiful character in an Orhan Pamuk novel.

Babaji Pide review – Turkish pizzas hit Soho | The Picky Glutton

Taking its place on Shaftesbury Avenue is Babaji Pide, a Turkish restaurant with a menu focussed on pides – or Turkish pizzas if you’re into culinary reductionism.

A pide topped with minced lamb is a key staple, but Babaji’s version was merely okay.

The Topkapi chicken, named after the Ottoman palace, is basically Babaji’s version of tavuk dolma – chicken stuffed with rice.

An average meal at Babaji Pide will cost around twice as much as a comparable meal in a Turkish restaurant on Green Lanes or in Dalston which is unsurprising given the overheads of a Shaftesbury Avenue location.

The generally good service, along with its convenient location, is what sets Babaji apart from other Turkish restaurants.

Grace Dent reviews Babaji | London Evening Standard

2015 will involve much feigning of knowledge on the subject of Korean kimchi carnitas disco fries, paleo-friendly bone broth, the minute specifications of the perfect lobster roll and, of course, one’s innermost thoughts on authentic Istanbul pide (pronounced pee-day).

At Alan Yau’s Babaji — his stylish new ‘Istanbul pide salonu’ on Shaftesbury Avenue — there’s even a pide for my Northern English heart, festooned with corned beef and butter.

Here, servers in floor-skimming Turkish-style uniforms present a long single-sheet list of pide, mezze, grills, baklava and Turkish wines.

Seats on the ground floor, close to the pide oven, are literally in a Shaftesbury Avenue window.

Babaji 52 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1 (020 3327 3888; babaji.com.tr) 1 kiymali pide £8 1 karacasu £7.50 1 coban salad £6.70 1 fried calamari £7.20 1 halloumi £4.20 1 Diet Coke £2.50 1 half bottle Sevilen Kalecik Karasi       £17.50 1 rice pudding £4.50 1 baklava £5 10 per cent service £6.31 TOTAL   £69.41 Browse Grace Dent's latest restaurant reviews Browse Grace Dent's latest restaurant reviews 1/10 El Pastór 2/10 Radio Alice 3/10 Lingholm Kitchen 4/10 Luca 5/10 Anzu 6/10 Temper Paul Winch-Furness 7/10 Smokestak Daniel Hambury/Stella Pictures 8/10 Noble Rot 9/10 Laughing Heart Evening Standard / eyevine 10/10 Park Chinois

Babaji | Restaurants in Soho, London

The latest addition to Alan Yau's Soho empire offers fantastic Turkish food close to Chinatown Alan Yau has created some of London’s most influential restaurants of the last quarter-century – Wagamama, Busaba Eathai, Hakkasan, Yauatcha.

In a radical departure from noodle bars, dim sum, Thai and Italian (Princi), Yau has opened a Turkish pizza place near Piccadilly Circus.

Yau’s wife and oft-times business partner, Jale Eventok, happens to be Turkish, and the first non-UK branch of Hakkasan opened in Istanbul.

Babaji also covers many Turkish signature dishes.

Coban is the Turkish answer to ‘Greek’ salad, only better; the Sicilian tomatoes were skinned and ripe while mild green peppers added zip.