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TENÛR
کوردیReserve

Erbil · 2014

Tenûr — Clay, fire, bread. In that order.

Clay, fire, bread. In that order.

A tandoor kitchen in Erbil. The oven is lit at nine in the morning and everything that reaches your table has been near it.

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Clay ovenCharcoal, not gasErbilForty-two seatsSince 2014Bread at nine minutes
Bread baking against the inside wall of a clay tandoor

Since 2014

The oven came first. Everything else was arranged around it.

Tenûr opened in 2014 with sixteen seats and a clay oven that took four men and most of a morning to get through the door.

It is built from clay, straw and goat hair, the way they have been built here for a very long time. It takes three hours to come up to heat and it cannot be hurried, so the whole day is arranged backwards from the moment it is ready.

We buy in the Qaysari bazaar most mornings and write the menu after, not before. If something you liked in March is gone, that is the arrangement.

Seats
42Seats
Hours to heat the oven
3hHours to heat the oven
First service
2014First service
Oven, still
1Oven, still

How it works

Four things repeat, every single day.

01

The clay

The oven was built on site by a man from Koya who would not let anyone watch the last part of it.

02

The heat

Lit at nine, ready at twelve, and it holds until close. Nobody touches the fire after service starts.

03

The bazaar

Qaysari, most mornings, for whatever is actually good rather than whatever is on the list.

04

The table

Everything arrives in the middle and nobody gets their own plate. That part is not negotiable.

The room

Kebab skewers over a long charcoal grill
Second service
Flatbread baking against the inside wall of a clay tandoor
Bread, nine minutes
Charcoal glowing under an iron grate
The grate at eight
A tray of rolled vine leaf dolma before cooking
Tuesday, before service
Cooks working in the restaurant kitchen
The pass, 20:10
Saffron rice served in a copper pot
Parda pilaw, opened
A traditional Kurdish room with decorated walls
The back room
Cut firewood stacked end on
Delivery, Sunday
Cooks working in the restaurant kitchen
“My mother never measured anything. I have spent nine years trying to write down what her hands already knew.”

Nazdar Baban

Head chef and co-owner

Nazdar cooked in Sulaymaniyah and Istanbul before opening Tenûr with her brother. She writes the menu by hand after the bazaar, most mornings.

Said about us

  • “The best argument in Erbil for doing one thing and doing it properly.”
    Hewlêr Review · 2024
  • “A menu you can read in a minute and think about for a year.”
    Zagros Table · 2024
  • “Forty-two seats, one clay oven, and no obvious interest in what anyone else is doing.”
    Bazaar Quarterly · 2023

Questions

Do you take walk-ins?

Yes, for the ten seats along the oven wall. They are kept back from booking and given out from the moment we open.

How far ahead can we book?

Two weeks. Thursday and Friday evenings usually go within the day.

Can you cook for vegetarians?

Most of the mezze, the dolma, the bread and the tepsî can all be done without meat. Tell us when you book. The kitchen is small, so we will say honestly if we cannot make an allergy safe rather than guess.

Is there parking?

There is a yard behind the building with room for about a dozen cars, and street parking along the 100 Metre Road after seven.

Is the room accessible?

The dining room and the accessible toilet are at street level with no step at the entrance. Tell us when you book and we will keep a standard table rather than a stool.

Visit

The 100 Metre Road, Erbil.

Opening hours

Saturday to ThursdayLunch and dinner
–
FridayOpens after prayers
–

Find us

Bakhtiyari Quarter, 100 Metre Road, Building 12
Erbil, Kurdistan Region
Iraq
+964 750 000 0000Map

The sifra

The whole table eats the same thing: bread, the mezze, one thing from the fire, rice, and something sweet. We need a day of notice and the whole table has to agree.

15,000IQD · per person

Reserve a table

We hold tables by phone. Fill this in, then call us with the details.