Packed pitas and healthy bites at newly opened café Pita

If you’re in the market for a new guilt-free lunch spot, here it is. Fast-casual café and eatery Pita, from the folks behind Spanish tapas bar La Bota, has just opened up just a few doors down from La Bota’s Cool Docks branch on the South Bund. The focus is on a few things: fresh, healthy foods made completely from scratch; organic veggies sourced from local farms; hormone- and antibiotic-free chicken and the like.

As can be guessed from the name, Pita’s main thing is pita sandwiches, but there’s also a big menu full of prepared salads in two sizes; some Asian-inspired hot mains (all 42RMB); a small assortment of all day breakfast items, and smoothie bowls (like the gorgeous fuchsia-coloured Purple Passion for 42RMB). For drinks, there are power juice blends (32-35RMB), smoothies (38RMB) and the full range of coffees and teas. Right now, it’s eat-in or take away only, but the team will be rolling out delivery soon.

Classic ham and cheese pita

The kitchen is making and baking their pita bread in-house. The pockets are super-sized, herb-sprinkled rounds of soft bread that crisp up right nicely when the sandwiches get their hot press. We love the combination of flavours in the chicken tahini pita (48RMB): juicy, slightly curried chicken breast, sweet and tangy balsamic peppers, a nice crunch from tomato cucumber salad and just the right amount of creamy but light yoghurt tahini sauce.

The dilly confi tuna salad (48RMB) is a simple but enjoyable blend that gets its flavour from herbs and well-paired toppings (olives, pickles, veggies and honey mustard), rather than loads of mayo. Though admittedly not very healthy, the classic ham and cheese (48RMB) – loaded up with house-baked honey glazed ham, smoked paprika cheddar, super crispy bacon and lashings of lemon herb aioli – is not what we’d call your classic ham and cheese, but only because it’s far more delicious.

Trio of salads

Our feelings are mixed when it comes to the salads. The organic sprouts with berries, walnuts, figs and goats cheese (25/45RMB) is a simple delight, while the roasted sweet potato salad (24/48RMB) sounded tempting, but lacks flavour. The mango quinoa salad (25/48RMB), which we expect to be primarily quinoa with some nice add-ins, is just greens with a sprinkle of quinoa. We’re hoping these will be tweaked for the future.

Pita's big breakfast

With star pita sandwiches and in spite of the slight salad let-downs, Pita definitely gets our vote for a healthy and satisfying lunch. We’re eager to go back and sample the house-baked bagels and lemon cream cheese (18RMB) from the all-day breakfast menu as well as some of the hot mains like sesame soy pork meatballs and quinoa lentil falafel. But when it comes down to it, it’s the giant, scrumptious sandwich pockets that’ll have us making trips to the Cool Docks.

Pita The Cool Docks, 28 Maojiayuan Lu, near Zhongshan Nan Lu, Huangpu district. 7.30am-3pm daily.

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