Pide Ve Lahmacun's Turkish Pizza In Ravenswood

This city has no shortage of superb pizza. But when craving a break from Neapolitan or deep dish, go Turkish.

The namesakes of Ravenswood's new Pide ve Lahmacun are two traditional Turkish dishes, both built on a foundation of dough.

Squeeze lemon on the lahmacun (pronounced lah-mah-joon), a thin, round flatbread topped with ground beef and lamb, onions, and green and red peppers ($3.50). For the ideal bite, it should be layered with fresh parsley and slices of raw white onion, and folded like an oversize slice.

We added the occasional scoop of garlicky, dill-flecked hydari (thick Middle Eastern yogurt dip; $4.50) to ours with excellent results. The hydari is from the menu of the adjoining I-Café Sukur's Place, which Pide's husband-and-wife owners have run for the past five years.

For the pide, dough is wrapped around fillings like mozzarella cheese and Turkish sausage ($12), or roasted eggplant, zucchini, onion and bell peppers ($13), and baked to order. Fifteen minutes later, it emerges airy, chewy, toasted, saucy and cheesy, hitting all of pizza's main points.

Finish with the Turkish answer to flan: kazandibi ($3), an eggless milk pudding with caramelized sugar on top and dense, silky custard below.