Halal pasta pop-up Back-Door Pasta serves handmade pasta and great flavours

There’s a new pasta pop-up in the east — Back-Door Pasta — that quite literally takes you through the back door.

It runs behind Dutch Colony Coffee Co. at Frankel Avenue, every Thursday to Saturday in February, from 6pm to 9pm (last order at 8.30pm). There are only 24 seats a night, and it makes the experience feel intimate — and quite possibly hard to snag.

While some days are already fully booked, others are still available, so it’s worth checking ahead!

If you don’t want to risk walking in, reserve a spot by dropping chef Muhammad Imran, the man behind the concept, a DM on Instagram. Fridays and Saturdays tend to fill up fast, while Thursdays appear to be a little more relaxed.

Chef Imran, who is in his mid-40s, is the one-man-show behind it all — the concept, the menu, and the stove. 

He calls himself a culinary nerd and, more specifically, a pasta nerd. Handmade pasta has long been his thing; he runs pasta pop-ups frequently, always centred on dough made from scratch. 

Beyond this pop-up, he helms Cheese From the USA, aimed at introducing the sheer diversity and versatility of USA cheese across Southeast Asia. He also currently serves as president of the Singapore Halal Culinary Federation, having recently stepped up from being vice-president in 2025.

If there’s one thing for certain, it is that community and craft are important to him

Back-Door Pasta came about quite organically. Chef Imran was having coffee and catching up with the folks running Dutch Colony Coffee Co. at its Frankel Avenue outlet, when it came up that the back area of the cafe was heavily underutilised. 

A conversation in January quickly turned into a fully fledged pop-up, just weeks later. It feels casual — you’re essentially dining at the back of a coffee joint — but there’s definite thoughtfulness in every plate on the table.

Whenever there’s a pocket of time between services, chef Imran steps out to check in on diners. He reads the room, explains dishes, and makes sure everyone’s settled. It feels personal.

Everything here is handmade. The pastas are rolled, shaped and cut by chef Imran. He tells us that it takes an entire day to prepare a week’s worth of pasta. 

Even the butter is made from scratch, using two types of flour in the process.

A weekly rotating menu

Across the menu, there are 18 different pastas and dishes available. There are five mainstay pastas that’ll stay consistent each week, with three to four rotating specials.

The meal begins with complimentary focaccia and a dip of the day to set the tone.

From the main menu, we had the orecchiette salsiccia (S$22), and it was my favourite of the night. Handmade orecchiette pasta comes tossed with spicy beef sausage, salami, cherry tomatoes, kale and arugula.

At first bite, there’s a gentle heat and pepperiness that I assumed came from the sausage. Chef Imran later explained that the bite actually comes from the arugula — a particular variety he sources for its distinct sharpness.

It’s deeply savoury and layered, but never heavy. It has a punch of depth and a fresh, peppery lift in every spoonful.

The orecchiette pasta, with its little concave centres, catches bits of the sauce and meats, while the greens cut through the richness just enough. Everything is considered, with nothing thrown in for the sake of it.

We also had the trofie al pesto (S$18) from the main menu, with handmade trofie pasta, genovese sauce, basil-garlic crumbs and burrata. 

The trofie had a satisfying chew, with that bounce you only really get from freshly made pasta. The pesto clung beautifully to every twist and fold, coating without drowning.

It reads simple on paper, but chef Imran says it is one of the more challenging dishes to execute. The balance in the dish is precise, while the pasta shape has to be consistent for the sauce to catch properly. 

The burrata adds milky softness that rounds everything out. Compared to the other dishes, it’s restrained, but definitely reliable.

From the second week’s three specials, while they were all tempting, we chose the striped cappelletti (S$24), almost too pretty to disturb. 

The handmade cappelletti pasta is filled with mushrooms and ricotta, and served in a sweet truffle mushroom cream with even more mushrooms — this time, sauteed.

For something that sounds intensely mushroom-forward, it never tips into being cloying. The ricotta lightens the filling, keeping it from feeling “muak” (overly rich), while the truffle cream adds sweetness to the earthiness. 

The pasta itself holds its shape beautifully with pockets of ricotta inside — creamy and delicious on its own.

Happening till end-Feb

And there’s more to come before the pop-up wraps at the end of February. The upcoming weekly specials look like a lot more local flavours, too, and we’re quite tempted to visit Back-Door Pasta again for them.

There’s Chef Imran’s lasagna (S$24), an open-faced beef rendang lasagna — tender, pull-apart beef layered into sheets of pasta, with rendang gravy. It sounds indulgent in all the right ways.

The culurgiones (S$24) — traditionally Sardinian ravioli-like stuffed pasta, made of potatoes, pecorino cheese, and mint — are instead filled with begedil potatoes and served with scallop XO sauce and chive oil, in a clever nod to Malay flavours. I mean, who doesn’t love begedil — and reimagined inside stuffed pasta? Genius.

In the final week, there’s the pasticcio alla carlofortina (S$22), featuring three types of eggless pasta paired with sambal goreng pengantin (a spicy stir-fry dish with a sweet-spicy-savoury profile) — a bold creation that sounds too fun not to order.

Having tried chef Imran’s knack with balancing flavours, we have a feeling this one will be a standout, marrying with Italian forms and spicy sambal.

At its heart, chef Imran says he hopes to show, with Back-Door Pasta, to the Muslim community and beyond, that there’s a world of pasta to explore. The concept is handmade, thoughtful, and reveals both tradition and personal expression.

He adds that reception so far has been encouraging, and he hopes to bring pasta pop-ups to more spaces in time to come.

Our take? Try it before it ends.

This was a hosted tasting.

For more ideas on what to eat, read on our guide on what to say for lo hei this Lunar New Year and our take on the new Taishu Yakiniku Horumon Mokurin spot.