3 new restaurants you should try at Found 158

Julu Lu underground drinking and dining spot Found 158 is on fire with new eateries. Here are three of them worth checking out.

Pera Turkish Restaurant and Bar

From the same team behind Pasha, this new Turkish restaurant and bar in a stylish, intimate space is ideal for date nights and evening drinks and offers some outdoor tables so you can enjoy your hummus al fresco-style.

The menu is huge. Find many of Pasha’s signature dishes, including pides, döners and kebab platters, plus lots more seafood. The mains are mostly nicely grilled meats paired with buttery rice pilaf, but save some space for the more exciting small plates. The Kalamar Dolma (68RMB), an entire grilled squid stuffed with mozzarella cheese and parsley, is a standout plate – melted cheese oozes out of the buttery, charcoal-grilled flesh, its richness lightened up by mild pomegranate glaze.

Kalamar Dolma

Go for the Turkish Mozaik Cake (38RMB) if you’re craving something sweet. Made of rich chocolate and biscuits in a mosaic pattern, it’s served with imported Turkish goat’s milk ice cream with ‘orchard flavour’ and its sticky, taffy-like consistency is a lively twist on your ordinary cake and ice cream.

Pera Turkish Restaurant and Bar is open 11am-midnight Mon-Thu; 11am-2am Fri; 10.30am-2am Sat; 10.30am-midnight Sun.

Cyclo

While you’ll still find most of your favourites from the original at this welcome second branch of the contemporary Vietnamese restaurant, the team has livened up the menu with an array of eats from Laos and Cambodia. Dishes are bright, abundant and always adorned with a heaping pile of leafy herbs.

The sophisticated space has gorgeous glass top tables filled with the same dry aromatics that go into Cyclo's fabulous pho broth. It’s a must-try classic: the slow-simmered broth bursts with flavours from pods of star anise, dried red chilli, cinnamon sticks and more – an excellent soup base for elastic rice noodles and slices of rare beef (60RMB small, 75RMB large).

Lao barbecue chicken

The Cambodian fish curry (70RMB), with pieces of flaky fish swimming in a custardy, fragrant pool of lemongrass, kaffir lime and coconut milk will have you dreaming of a Siem Reap retreat. Taste the char from the grill in the Lao barbecue chicken (70RMB), and with sticky rice being a staple of the cuisine, every Lao dish comes paired with a bamboo basket of the glossy, glutinous rice – to be eaten by hand if you’re in that Southeast Asian state- of-mind.

Cyclo is open 6-10.30pm Tue-Fri; 11.30am-10.30pm Sat-Sun.

Hooked

From the Camel group comes this smart casual seafood and fish and chips restaurant. With its beach-chic decor and sunshine flowing in through floor-to-ceiling, fold-in glass doors that open up to outdoor seating, Hooked is sure to be a fair-weather favourite amongst seafood snobs and laymen alike.

Battered fish and chips

There’s a bunch of stuff on the menu, but the fish and chips are where it’s at. Choose from three styles – battered, crumbed or grilled – and then pick your fish: haddock (98RMB), Icelandic cod (108RMB), halibut or salmon (both 128RMB). Pretty pricey, but you get a big ol’ slab of fish and actual thick-cut chips, plus a side of mushy peas, so worth the occasional splurge.

Hooked also calls itself a poke joint, but skip it – these bowls got nothing on Little Catch or Poke Poke. Stick with fish and chips, and you’ll be happy at Hooked.

Hooked is open 10am-2am daily.

Found 158 is at 158 Julu Lu, near Ruijin Yi Lu, Huangpu district.

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