Turkish bakeries in London: börek, simit, stone-oven pide and fresh bread
What comes out of a Turkish oven, from layered börek to boat-shaped pide, and ten London places where it is baked in front of you, including two supermarkets with ovens at the back.
Last updated November 2026
A Turkish bakery in London can mean three different shops. There is the börek café, where trays of layered pastry are cut into squares and sold with tea from early morning. There is the taş fırın, the stone-oven shop that bakes lahmacun and pide to order and is really a restaurant. And there is the fırın proper, the bread bakery, which in London most often lives at the back of a Turkish supermarket.
This guide covers all three, with a short glossary first because the words overlap. If what you want is a long list of the best lahmacun, our lahmacun and pide guide has it; this one is about the ovens and the baking. See also the bakery and börek category.
Quick picks
- Best börek: Levent Börek Fitzrovia, Fitzrovia
- Best stone oven: Ateş Taş Fırın, Chingford
- Best wood-fired bread with dinner: Taş Fırın Shoreditch, Shoreditch
- Best gözleme: Diyarbakır Taş Fırın, Turnpike Lane
- Best supermarket bakery: Nokta, Edmonton
A short glossary of Turkish baking
- Börek: thin pastry layered or rolled around cheese, spinach, potato or spiced meat. Su böreği is boiled-then-baked and almost lasagne-like; sigara böreği are fried cigars; paçanga böreği is filled with pastırma (cured beef).
- Simit: the sesame-crusted bread ring sold on every Istanbul street corner, dipped in grape molasses before baking.
- Pide: a boat-shaped flatbread with the filling baked in, from minced lamb (kıymalı) to diced lamb (kuşbaşılı), cheese or sucuk. Ramazan pidesi is the plain, puffy round loaf.
- Lahmacun: a very thin round of dough with a spiced minced lamb topping, baked in two or three minutes and eaten rolled up with salad and lemon.
- Gözleme: hand-rolled dough folded over a filling and cooked on a griddle, not in the oven.
- Bazlama and lavaş: soft griddled flatbread and thin wrap bread respectively.
- Taş fırın: literally “stone oven”, and the name many pide shops take.
Börek cafés
Levent Börek Fitzrovia, Fitzrovia
One of three London branches of a brand whose recipes go back to a family kitchen in 1968. Adana-style börek is baked in small batches through the day and sold in squares with three-cheese, spinach, potato or pastırma fillings, and there is paçanga böreği in puff pastry. Open 8am to 7pm daily, two minutes from Goodge Street; börek is sold by the piece to take away.
Pitted Olive, Bloomsbury
A homely café on Leigh Street, five minutes from King’s Cross, best known for gözleme and filled börek, with menemen and a serpme breakfast in the morning and home-style lunch mains later. Open 9am to 5pm Monday to Saturday, closed Sundays, no bookings.
Mazlum London 1924, Knightsbridge
A sweet shop first, but the savoury breakfast counter includes su böreği, the layered white-cheese pastry that is hardest to find in London, and simit. Sit with Turkish coffee or take a box of baklava from a name that dates back to 1924.
Stone-oven and wood-fired shops
Ateş Taş Fırın, Chingford
The name means “fire stone oven”, and that oven sits in the middle of a small, friendly room at Chingford Mount. Lahmacun and pide are baked to order, with lamb soup on cold days and künefe after. Open 9.30am to midnight every day; phone ahead for a group because it is small.
Diyarbakır Taş Fırın, Turnpike Lane
Next door to Turnpike Lane station, a short menu built around a stone oven you can watch: gözleme folded and baked in front of you, lahmacun, kuşbaşılı pide, and tantuni wraps from the griddle at some of the lowest prices in the area. Open 10am to 11pm daily. It is a separate business from Diyarbakır Kitchen on Green Lanes.
Taş Fırın Shoreditch, Shoreditch
A corner restaurant on Bethnal Green Road where the wood-fired stone oven turns out taş fırın ekmeği, fresh bread to eat with the charcoal grill, as well as thin, crisp lahmacun. Child-friendly, with high chairs, and open until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
FIRIN, King’s Cross
Almost everything on the York Way menu passes through the wood-fired oven: Develi-style minced-meat pide, lahmacun, oven-baked sea bass and clay-pot stews. A bright room with an open kitchen, ten minutes from King’s Cross St Pancras. Book for dinner.
Üstün Lahmacun & Pide Salonu, Newington Green
A tiny shop at the southern end of Green Lanes doing two things from a wood-burning oven: lahmacun, with a topping leaning on onion and isot pepper, and pide. The dough is stretched very thin so the edges crisp. Cash only, closed Mondays, mostly takeaway.
Mangal Turkish Pizza, Dalston
Known locally as Mangal Pide Salonu, this is a pide and lahmacun bakery rather than a grill, open from 8am until midnight (2am on Fridays and Saturdays). Fully halal with no alcohol, a handful of tables and a busy takeaway counter. A stack of lahmacun and a cold ayran is the order.
Supermarkets that bake in store
Nokta, Edmonton
A family-run supermarket on Fore Street with a halal butcher and a bakery section under one roof. The freshly baked Turkish bread is what regulars talk about. Open 7am to 10pm daily, with Turkish-speaking staff who can point you to the right loaf.
Elif Food Centre Manor Park, Manor Park
Part of the east London Elif group, this Romford Road branch has a bakery at the back producing fresh bread through the day, a meat counter and open olives by weight. It is open 24 hours, which makes it the place for bread at an hour when nowhere else is. For more shops, read our Turkish grocers guide.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between pide and lahmacun?
Pide is a thick-edged, boat-shaped flatbread with the filling baked into it, substantial enough to be a meal for one. Lahmacun is paper-thin, topped with a scraping of spiced minced lamb, and eaten rolled around salad; two or three make a lunch. Both come from the same oven.
Where can I buy fresh Turkish bread in London?
Turkish supermarkets with in-store ovens are the best bet. Nokta in Edmonton bakes through the day, and Elif Food Centre in Manor Park has a bakery at the back and never closes. Many grills, including Taş Fırın in Shoreditch, bake their own bread to serve with the meal.
What is börek made of?
Thin sheets of dough, usually yufka or filo, layered or rolled with a filling and brushed with butter or oil. Cheese and spinach are the common fillings, with potato, minced meat and pastırma also popular. Su böreği uses boiled sheets of pasta-like dough and is softer than the crisp varieties.
Which Turkish bakeries in London open early?
Levent Börek in Fitzrovia and Mangal Turkish Pizza in Dalston open at 8am, Nokta in Edmonton at 7am, and Elif Food Centre in Manor Park is open around the clock. Pitted Olive in Bloomsbury opens at 9am.
