Pide in the UK: what it is, how to order it, where to find it
Quick answer
Pide is a boat-shaped flatbread with a soft, chewy base, filled with cheese, spiced minced meat, sucuk, spinach or egg and baked in a stone oven. It is often called Turkish pizza in the UK, but it is closer to a filled bread: thicker than lahmacun, longer than a pizza, and eaten sliced into strips with a squeeze of lemon. A pide salonu, a restaurant built around the pide oven, is one of the most reliable places to eat cheaply and well.
Calories and nutrition
- Calories
- 780
- Protein
- 36 g
- Carbs
- 90 g
- Fat
- 30 g
- Salt
- 2.8 g
650–950 kcal
Portion: One kıymalı (minced lamb) pide, about 350 g.
Kaşarlı (cheese) pide is similar; adding an egg adds about 80 kcal.
Estimates for a typical portion, based on standard UK and USDA food composition data. Actual values depend on the recipe and the restaurant.
What pide is
The dough is a simple yeasted bread dough rolled into a long oval, the edges folded in to make a raised rim, and the middle filled before it goes into a stone oven for eight to twelve minutes. The classic fillings are kaşarlı, with Turkish yellow cheese; kıymalı, with spiced minced lamb; sucuklu, with spiced beef sausage and often egg; kuşbaşılı, with small cubes of lamb; and ıspanaklı, with spinach and cheese. Karışık, mixed, gives you meat and cheese together. An egg cracked on top in the last minute of baking, yumurtalı, is a Black Sea addition that most UK pide houses offer. It is cut across into strips and eaten with the hands, with lemon and pickles on the side.
Pide versus lahmacun versus pizza
Lahmacun is thinner, rounder, cheaper and topped only with a meat paste; pide is thicker, boat-shaped and filled with anything. Both are bread, not pizza: there is no tomato sauce base, the cheese is Turkish kaşar rather than mozzarella, and the dough is chewier and less charred. A pide for one is a meal; two pide and a lahmacun feeds three. The restaurants that do it best are pide salonu, which usually also make lahmacun and little else, and whose oven you can see from the counter.
How to judge it
The base should be golden underneath with a soft crumb, not cracker-thin and not doughy in the middle. The rim should be crisp. Kıymalı filling should be moist and taste of lamb and pepper, not dry mince; kaşar should be melted and stretchy, not oily. It should arrive within fifteen minutes of ordering, cut into strips, on a wooden board, with lemon. Pide reheated from earlier is obvious: the base goes hard and the cheese sets.
Where in the UK it is done well
Pide houses cluster wherever the Turkish and Kurdish communities are: Hackney, Haringey and Enfield in London, and increasingly Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester. The ranking below counts Turkish restaurants in our directory whose name signals pide.
How to order it
Order one pide per person as a main; kıymalı or sucuklu yumurtalı are the classic choices, kaşarlı for vegetarians. Ask for it with egg on top. Add a lahmacun to share as a starter and a bowl of lentil soup if it is cold. Ayran or çay, not wine.
Where it's done well
UK councils with the most pide specialists, by restaurant name, in our directory.
Restaurants near you
Search by postcode or use your location to find restaurants likely to serve pide near you.
Make it at home
Serves 2 · 90 min
Ingredients
- 300 g strong white flour
- 1 tsp instant yeast
- half a tsp salt, half a tsp sugar
- 190 ml warm water
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 250 g minced lamb
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 1 tomato, grated
- 1 tbsp red pepper paste
- half a tsp cumin, half a tsp pepper flakes, salt
- 100 g grated kaşar or mature cheddar
- 2 eggs, optional
- 1 egg yolk and 1 tbsp milk to glaze
Method
- Mix the flour, yeast, salt and sugar, add the water and oil, knead for eight minutes, cover and rest for an hour until doubled.
- Fry the onion in a little oil until soft, add the lamb and cook until browned, then add the tomato, pepper paste, spices and salt and cook until dry. Cool.
- Heat the oven to its maximum with a tray inside. Divide the dough in two and roll each into an oval about 35 cm long.
- Spread the meat down the middle, scatter the cheese, fold the long edges in over the filling by two centimetres and pinch the ends into points. Brush the rim with the yolk and milk.
- Slide onto the hot tray and bake for ten to twelve minutes. If using eggs, crack one into the middle of each pide after six minutes.
- Cut into strips and serve with lemon and pickles.
The folded rim is what makes it pide rather than a flatbread; press it firmly so it holds. A preheated tray or stone is essential for the base.