Cotmeh

October, or “cotmeh” in Kurdish, is Bülent Öztürk’s favorite month. It’s also the month when the movie director (Blue Silence, 2017) opened this restaurant in the Wilrijk neighborhood back in 2022. This dramatic career change was inspired by the Urfa-native’s family recipes. A brick-walled dining room is filled with plants, shared with the Pain Pidou bakery, and brought to life by a Turkish playlist, in which we recognized Disko-Kebap by Urfali Babi. Alone in the kitchen, he passionately serves up all of the following: fried bulgur wheat croquettes stuffed with lamb; zikvekirî (stuffed and marinated eggplant cooked in the oven and served with sliced lamb and eastern herbs); and a series of lahmacun, the main attraction, aka those extremely thin-crust pizzas that are never burnt, like the Siyele version, topped with spinach, halloumi, egg and almonds, or the Traditionnelle version with a melee of marinated lamb, ginger, spicy vegetables and arugula – all delightfully fragrant and herbaceous. For dessert, there’s crispy baklava made with pistachios from Urfa, or tender pistachio and date balls. // Alain Belon

FEELING THIRSTY? Raki (€13.50), Turkish and natural French, Italian or Austrian wines: Myrina, an Anatolian red from Kavaklidere (€7 a glass), É Bianco, a Piedmont white produced by Poderi Cellario (€34/liter), Zu Tisch, an Austrian orange wine by Andreas Gsellmann (€43 a bottle), or L’Idiot, a Languedoc red from La Maison Ventenac (€35).

PRICE: Appetizers €12 to €16, mains €18 to €25, lahmacun €18.50 to €22.50, desserts €10.50 to €11.50.