The Best Lahmacun in London, and Where to Find Great Pide
The best lahmacun in London comes straight from a very hot oven: a thin, crisp round of dough with a layer of spiced minced meat, eaten rolled up with salad and a squeeze of lemon. Pide, its bigger, boat-shaped cousin, is just as good and a lot more filling, and the two are usually baked side by side in the same oven.
Below we explain the difference between lahmacun and pide, how to eat them and where to order them, from tiny cash-only salons to sit-down restaurants with wood-fired ovens. Every place here is listed on Turkish Dish, and all of them are places people rate highly. For more Turkish classics, see our guide to popular Turkish dishes.
Lahmacun vs pide: what’s the difference?
Lahmacun (say ‘lah-ma-joon’) takes its name from the Arabic for ‘meat with dough’. It’s a large, very thin round of dough spread edge to edge with minced meat, onion, tomato, peppers and spices, then baked for a few minutes in a fierce oven. The edges should be crisp and the middle soft enough to fold. It’s a snack or a light meal, and plenty of people order two.
Pide (say ‘pee-deh’) is often called Turkish pizza. The dough is thicker and shaped into a long boat, with the sides folded up around the filling. Common toppings include cheese, spiced minced meat, kuşbaşılı (small cubes of lamb), sucuk (spicy beef sausage) and spinach. It’s cut into strips to share, and one pide makes a meal.
- Lahmacun: thin and round, a light layer of minced meat, rolled and eaten by hand.
- Pide: thicker and boat-shaped, lots of fillings, sliced into strips, very filling.
How to eat lahmacun
Squeeze lemon over the top, scatter over the salad it comes with (usually parsley, onion and tomato), then roll it up tightly and eat it with your hands. Some places, such as Üstün, will roll it into a dürüm (wrap) for you. The classic drink is ayran, a chilled, salted yoghurt drink, or şalgam, a sharp fermented black-carrot juice. Pide is eaten by hand too, a strip at a time. If you’d like to try either at home, our Turkish recipes are a good place to start.
Where to find the best lahmacun in London
Üstün Lahmacun & Pide Salonu, Newington Green
Üstün Lahmacun & Pide Salonu is a tiny shop at 107 Green Lanes that does exactly what its name says. The dough is rolled very thin and baked to order in a wood-burning oven, and the minced lamb topping leans hard on onion and isot, the smoky dark chilli of south-eastern Turkey. Have it whole, sliced or as a lahmacun dürüm with salad. There’s a vegetarian lahmacun, a range of pide fillings, mercimek çorbası (lentil soup) when it’s on, and turşu (pickles) on the side if you eat in.
Seating is a corner of the shop, so most people take away, and you can watch the dough being rolled and baked. It’s cash only, there’s no booking, and it opens from 11am Tuesday to Sunday; it’s closed on Mondays.
Mangal Turkish Pizza, Dalston
On Stoke Newington Road, Mangal Turkish Pizza is a pide and lahmacun bakery rather than a grill house. The lahmacun is thin and crisp, spread with minced meat, tomato, peppers and spices, and the pide comes from the same oven with a choice of toppings. Order a cold ayran with it.
There are only a few tables, so it’s mostly takeaway. It’s listed as fully halal and serves no alcohol, and it opens from 8am until midnight daily, or 2am on Fridays and Saturdays, which makes it a good late stop after a night out in Dalston. Delivery is available through the main apps.
Kozan Grill, Newington Green
Kozan Grill on Newington Green Road is a charcoal grill first, but lahmacun sits on the menu next to the Adana, çöp şiş (small lamb cubes on skewers) and mixed döner, so it’s an easy place to pair a lahmacun with a kebab. It’s tagged halal on Uber Eats and delivers through the main apps. It opens from 10am (10.30am on Sundays) until 11pm most nights, staying open later from Thursday to Saturday.
Taş Fırın, Shoreditch
The name means ‘stone oven’, and the wood-fired stone oven at Taş Fırın, a corner restaurant on Bethnal Green Road near the top of Brick Lane, turns out fresh bread and thin, crisp lahmacun. Order a lahmacun and some taş fırın ekmeği (stone-oven bread) with a mixed cold meze, then something from the open charcoal grill, such as Adana or kuzu şiş (lamb shish).
Listings note halal, gluten-free and vegan options, and there’s a kids’ menu and outdoor seating. Walk-ins are welcome; phone ahead for a big group on Friday or Saturday, when it’s open until midnight. Alcohol isn’t clearly confirmed, so check before you go. More nearby on our Shoreditch & Hoxton page.
FIRIN, King’s Cross
Fırın means ‘oven’, and almost everything at FIRIN on York Way passes through its wood-fired one. Order a pide with cheese or with spiced minced meat in the Develi style (after the town in central Turkey), and a lahmacun served rolled with salad and lemon. The tandır kebab, slow-cooked lamb that falls apart under a fork, is the other reason to come.
It’s a bright room with an open kitchen and a bar, handy for lunch or a pre-train dinner near King’s Cross St Pancras. It’s open Monday to Saturday from noon to 10.30pm and on Sunday until 10pm, and booking is recommended for dinner.
TANDIR, Palmers Green
On Green Lanes in Palmers Green, TANDIR is named after its signature tandır lamb, slow-cooked for hours, but it also bakes pide in a wood-fired oven and serves lahmacun with fresh salad. It’s known for its Turkish breakfast too, served from 9am on most days. Families are welcome and there are high chairs. It’s open until 10pm daily, from 9am except on Tuesdays, when it opens at noon.
Diyarbakır Kitchen, Harringay
Lahmacun is what many people come back to Diyarbakır Kitchen for: thin, crisp at the edges and topped with smoky minced lamb. This family-run grill on Grand Parade, Green Lanes, also has pide, plus home-style mantı (minced lamb dumplings with yoghurt, chilli flakes and butter) and içli köfte (bulgur shells stuffed with spiced lamb). The website shows a halal logo, and the menu lists wine, beer and rakı. It’s open until 1am, or 2am on Fridays and Saturdays. More in our Green Lanes food guide.
Sun Kitchen, Hackney
On Mare Street near Hackney Central, Sun Kitchen bakes pide and lahmacun in a stone oven. Try the kuşbaşılı pide topped with diced lamb, and the lahmacun, which also comes in chicken and veggie versions. It serves beer, wine and cocktails, takes online bookings and is open until midnight most nights (1am on Fridays and Saturdays).
Kilis Kitchen, Islington
Just off Upper Street near Angel, Kilis Kitchen draws on the cooking of its founder’s home city in Turkey’s far south-east and bakes pide and lahmacun in a wood-fired oven. Pair a lahmacun with the house Kilis kebab or Ali Nazik (grilled lamb on smoky aubergine with garlic yoghurt). Tables can be booked online, and a 12.5% service charge is added for all parties.
More places for lahmacun and pide
- Adana Ocakbaşı, Dalston: Antep lahmacun, in the style of Gaziantep, and kuşbaşılı pide alongside its Adana kebab.
- Aziziye Restaurant, Stoke Newington: halal, with lahmacun and pide next to the grill and clay-pot dishes.
- Şelale Restaurant, Harringay: a full pide section and lahmacun with minced lamb, tomato and pepper.
- Fig & Walnut Kitchen, Bloomsbury: lahmacun topped with zahtar (a thyme, sumac and sesame blend) from a Turkish family producer.
Tips for ordering
- Share a lahmacun as a starter, then order a pide as your main.
- Eat it hot. Lahmacun is at its best straight from the oven, so eat in if you can.
- Bring cash to Üstün, and remember it’s closed on Mondays.
- For a late-night lahmacun, Mangal Turkish Pizza and Diyarbakır Kitchen stay open until 2am at weekends.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between lahmacun and pide?
Lahmacun is a large, very thin, round flatbread with a light layer of spiced minced meat, rolled up with salad and lemon and eaten by hand. Pide is thicker and boat-shaped, with the edges folded around fillings such as cheese, minced meat, diced lamb or sucuk. Lahmacun is a snack; pide is a full meal.
Is lahmacun the same as Turkish pizza?
Not quite. ‘Turkish pizza’ is used for both, but it fits pide better, as pide has a thicker base and toppings such as cheese. Lahmacun is much thinner, has no cheese and is meant to be rolled up with salad. You’ll see the name on shop signs too: Mangal Turkish Pizza in Dalston bakes both.
Where can I find the best lahmacun in London?
For lahmacun baked to order in a wood-burning oven, try Üstün near Newington Green or Mangal Turkish Pizza in Dalston. Taş Fırın in Shoreditch and FIRIN in King’s Cross bake theirs in wood-fired ovens too, and Diyarbakır Kitchen on Green Lanes is known for it.
Lahmacun and pide are only the start. Find more great places in our round-up of the best Turkish restaurants in London, or browse the full Turkish Dish directory, from Dalston to Bloomsbury.
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