Pascor, London: ‘Food that demands you have a good time’ – restaurant review

Local hero: head chef Meirelane Silva Passos loading up the grill at Pascor, High Street Kensington. Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer

Pascor, 221 Kensington High Street, London W8 6SG (020 7937 3003, pascor.co.uk). All dishes £5.30-£18, desserts £5.80-£9.30, wines from £23 a bottle

Some dishes are as distinct as the cook’s fingerprints. At Pascor on London’s Kensington High Street, that dish is a mini loaf of challah, platted and plump, golden-glazed and sesame-sprinkled. It is served warm from the oven, alongside a dish of smoked tahini the colour of iron filings, and a scoop of whipped za’atar butter. When you tear into it, you are greeted by an ineffably light, white crumb, puffing sweet, steamy gusts of baked joy at you.