Sino-sensible pizza makes it impossible to pass up the Pass By Bar

The unique kung-pao chicken and lamb-kebab pizzas have become the calling cards of Pass By Bar. [Photo by Yang Feiyue/China Daily]

The lamb-kebab pizza uses relatively simple ingredients to retain the original mutton taste. The kung-pao chicken pizza, meanwhile, has a more diversified taste of sweetness and delightful sourness.

Both pizzas have tender crusts, made with flour and milk but no addition of water, says Liu Jianwei, a 32-year-old cook who's been working at the bar for 10 years.

The lamb-kebab pizza is topped with fresh and tender lamb loin marinated with cumin, chili, salt, white pepper and chicken (boullion) powder for five hours before being roasted to medium rare, according to Liu. Then, the mutton meat is sprinkled across the pizza base and covered with cheese imported from Italy for the final bake.

The kung-pao chicken pizza's topping follows the traditional Chinese recipe, cooked medium-well before the pizza is sent to the oven, says Liu.

The shop offers mix-and-match service, so pizza lovers can order two kinds of pizzas and have half of each pieced together as one.

In fact, Wang Haiyan is a little resigned to the fact that the popularity of the two Chinese-styled pizzas has distracted guests from trying out other items on the thick menu that has been evolving for the past several years.

Wang recommended the vegetarian pizza with sweet corn, green and red peppers, mushrooms, kale, broccoli and toasted walnuts, as well as the beef kebabs featuring exotic but mild Turkish spice. The hot-drink series features cereals, matcha and roses, with ingredients imported from abroad and no input of additives.

One can hardly fail to notice the shelf filled with exotic beers on one side of the wall. The distinctive bottles scream their foreign identity. There are roughly 150 kinds of beers available at the bar, all imported from countries such as Germany, Belgium, Japan, the US, Spain and the UK, Wang says.

"We want to introduce guests to more varieties of beers in the future, and ask our service staff to learn about beer culture," says Wang.

If you go:

Pass By Bar

9:30 am－1 am daily; 108 Nanluoguxiang, Dongcheng district; 010-8403-8004