Find a Place to Eat

Eating Options

Eating out is a pleasure in Armenia; ingredients are fresh and wholesome (much of it organic by nature), and the choice of menus, especially in Yerevan, is impressive.  Whether your tastes run to traditional Armenian, sizzling buts of grilled BBQ, nouveau cuisine, or something a little more international, Armenia has an eatery to satisfy your taste buds.

Eating establishments are as varied as their menus; from simple bistros, cafes and fast food joints through formal dining halls, elaborately decorated restaurants and high-concept “food complexes”.  Many pride themselves on offering unique décor, service and menus.  A trip to Armenia would not be complete without trying at least one of each type.

Restaurants
Restaurants are a more formal affair (table cloths, printed menus, serving staff) and generally more lavish affairs than other eateries, with theme restaurants set in exotic locations being more popular of late.  The menus can be pricy, with typical multi-course meals starting from around $20 per person in Yerevan; $10-15 in the regions.  Menus run the gamut of cuisines from traditional Armenian, Russian and European through Asian, Mexican and nouveau cuisine.  They often have dance floors and live bands that play a variety of music from light “musak” to Armenian traditional songs and dance styles, and customers often erupt into traditional dance as the evening continues.

The Restaurant/Hotel is a rather prominent feature on the eating landscape in Armenia, and it continues to gain popularity with locals and tourists alike.  These are mainly dining facilities featuring traditional Armenian food and Khorovats, but served in private dining rooms that include sleeping quarters and a bath.  Still in the main used for local tête-à-têtes and trysts, they often rival traditional restaurants on food, and regular hotels on rooms.  Tourists have taken note of late, and use them for budget-to-mid-range lodgings with private dining facilities built in.

Bistros
Bistros have become another term for indoor cafes or fast food eateries, but enough of the tradition continues to warrant their own term.  Bistros are small restaurants that serve limited menus often displayed at a front counter.  Some have print menus and wait staff, and often the difference between a bistro and a restaurant is negligible except bistros are much more reasonably priced ($5-10 for a meal).  A bistro will tend to have specialty dishes and more homemade food; a number feature Georgian and Russian specialties, as well as grilled food and the ever present khorovats (barbecued pork).

Cafes
There are two types of cafes, each serving food.  Indoor cafes can be liked to bistros, their menu limited by the size of their kitchen.  Most treat the indoor café as a place to have a snack or dessert with their coffee or tea, but they do provide solid food at budget prices.  Some cafes are quite elaborate with full blown menus and serving staff; while most are simple affairs focusing on sandwiches, some hot dishes and desserts.  The indoor café is kind on your wallet; basic meals (soup, sandwich, fried potatoes) with soft drink start around $3-5. 

Outdoor cafes are open in warm weather (April-October), and can be quite elaborately decorated, with flower gardens, fountains and live entertainment.  Some have indoor facilities allowing them to remain open year-round. Depending on the kitchen, outdoor café menus run the gamut of simple snacks, desserts and sandwiches to multi-course meals.  The larger will have menus commensurate to any restaurant menu, 20-50% cheaper.  Outdoor cafes are generally good places to eat for budget travelers; meals starting around $5; snacks and sandwiches around $1.50.

Fast Food/Snack Bars & Cafeterias
Fast Food/Snack bars have taken off in Yerevan, with Pizza, Burger and Fried Chicken spots being the most popular.  Also called Bistros by locals, Snack Bars/Fast Food are generally stand-up-and-eat or eat-and-run affairs, with fixed sandwich or specialty menus.  Snack bars usually offer fried food, pizza or salad bars and soft drinks on the menu.  Snack bars and Bistros are the best option for travelers on a budget; typical meals are $3-6.  The most popular menus are burgers, fried chicken, and pizza.  Pizza joints have elaborate salad bars, which can be the best value for the money, since the salads include cold meat, cheese and vegetables, and can be a meal in itself.

There are a few cafeterias in Yerevan.  The food is rather good for cafeterias, and the prices commensurate with bistros and restaurants.  Food Stands are scattered throughout City parks and near shukas (food markets).  They specialize in very limited menus (lahmajo, shaurma, sandwiches, fried food), which are filling and can be bought for as little as 100 AMD ($0.35) a portion.

Bars
Bars are not the obvious choice for food to a traveler, but they offer at least snacks and sandwiches, with some having as large a menu as a restaurant.  Meals vary with each establishment and the size of its kitchen, and the focus is on drinking and having a good time, so snacks are the main focus.  Still, sandwiches and basic hot meals can be had for around $5-10; higher in the fancier establishments.

Tea Houses
Part of a long tradition in Armenia are its tea houses; establishments serving organic herbal teas picked on the country’s mountainsides, along with a wide range of organic and foreign green and black teas.  Tea houses can be found in Yerevan, Giumri, Vanadzor, and in resort areas of the country.  There is even a Tea Guest House in Lori region that organizes hiking or horseback “tea safaris” in the nearby forests and meadows.  Most tea houses serve desserts and light snacks with their teas, but some do offer more substantial food, at around $3-7 per dish.

Sweets
T'khvatsks (pastry shop, patisseries) are situated throughout the country, many inside a mterk (produce shop) or supermarket.  They offer fresh backed breads and pastries.  If you've never eaten fresh bread out of the oven, these are the places to go to experience the delectable aromas and mouth-watering tastes—you may never go back to packaged bread again! 

Pastry shops often include the once stand-alone Entrikner (bakeries), which sell cakes (traditional and western style cream cakes), cookies, chocolates, sweets and soft drinks.  Armenians pride themselves on their desserts, and their rich recipes using fresh ingredients.  They also pride themselves on presentations; the incredible concoctions are confectionary fantasies; huge multi-layer cakes topped with incredibly elaborate icings and sugar-spun decorations.  A favorite hot-weather treat is the zheleh, a cake made from infusing jelled filling with slices of fresh fruit in floral designs.  Traditional baked desserts revolve around walnut and honey treats and the national dessert called gata; all of it delicious.

Quality
With the exception of Fast Food and Snack bars (which serve fare that you can expect to find at any fast food joint in the world; fried, not very healthy, but easy to grab-and-go, and cheap), food preparation in Armenia is generally prepared to high local standards, using fresh fruits and vegetables grown locally.  Much of it is organic by nature, grown in small farm plots by families using age-old organic principles.

The variety of produce in Armenia is impressive for such a small country, beginning with apricots and peaches, both of which originated in Armenia, through cherries, apples, grapes, figs, pomegranates, pears, quince, plums, oranges, and lemons, to an incredible variety of melons, squash, eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, cabbage, onions, potatoes, carrots, peas, beans, walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts---the list is almost endless, and each region has it's own special variety and type which are mouthwatering just to look at.  Herbs and spices include cinnamon, cardamom, clove, cumin, nutmeg, garlic, thyme, rosemary, parsley, sage, as well as wild salad herbs (called greens), that include water cress, lettuce and spinach.  Wild rice and wheat still grow much as they did 15,000 years ago, when mankind first began to cultivate them.

Preparations It takes some knowledge of Armenian food to enjoy the full variety, so spend as much time exploring the culinary landscape with a native eater to guide your taste buds.  Since recipes are prepared seasonally, using the freshest meats, vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices available, certain dishes locals rave about are only available at set times of the year;  early morning khash in the winter, vitamin rich spanakh  in the early summer, amarayin dolma in the summer, and the incredibly delicious ghabama in the autumn, to name a few.  Ask for seasonal specialties wherever you go; even the smallest establishment on the wayside may have locally grown seasonal dishes to tempt you.  

Cuisines
Armenian cuisine The most popular food in Armenia is khorovats, or Armenian BBQ.  Grilled bits of pork and beef meat are grilled over an open fire that traditionally is fueled by grape branches, infusing the meat with a rich flavor while searing the top layer with a reddish-dark patina.  Pork is the preferred meat in preparing khorovats, followed by fresh trout.  The meat and fish are grilled using skewers, along with vegetable sides of Armenian b’derjan (eggplant, aubergine), tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, and onions.  The vegetables are scrambled by diners to create a delicious complement to the sizzling morsels of meat or fish.  All of this traditional BBQ is ideally downed by liberal doses of home-made vodka (tuz or fig, t’tu or mulberry) or wine.  In restaurants, the alcohol will normally be limited to brand varieties. 

After khorovats, dolma is probably the most recognizably Armenian dish in the country; spiced meat rolled in grape leaves, or stuffed into tomatoes, peppers and cabbage leaves.  Universally eaten at tables throughout the Near East, 

Another staple of Armenian cuisine is lamb, served in soups, stews and as a main course.  Others are kufta (specially prepared whipped meat boiled in a broth), harissa; tatar buraki (pasta with garlic and fresh yogurt), steamed fish (the best reputed to be the Ishkhan, or spotted trout); among others.  Side dishes include bean and eggplant pâté, pickled vegetables, a large variety of cheeses (including Armenian gouda, camembert and Roquefort bleu) and yogurt based dishes, fresh greens (parsley, green onions, red basil and cilantro) and lavash (paper thin sheets of bread prepared in a special kiln called a tonir).  Soups include soups based on meat and fish stocks,

For more about Armenian dishes, see Culture & Society: Cuisine.

Other cuisines
Outside of Yerevan, the choice of cuisines is generally based around khorovats and traditional Armenian recipes with a few Georgian and Russian dishes.  The freshest ingredients are used in preparing foods in the regions, harvested from local gardens and farms, resulting in some of the tastiest dishes in the country.  

The greatest variety of fare is in Yerevan, which has acquired a cosmopolitan taste for international cuisine.

Georgian food is very popular in Armenia, with snack bars and food stalls serving khachapuri (pastry with cheese) and Georgian bistros and restaurants serving satsevi and Adjarian khachapuri (khachapuri with egg) and Khinkali (a kind of spicy meat dumpling), a budget eaters delight at 100 AMD per dumpling (4 is a full meal). 

Russian food is also popular and many Armenian restaurants serve Russian dishes as a matter of course.  Dishes include pelmeni (meat dumplings); borsch (meat and vegetable soup); and caviar.

Asian cuisines include several Sushi, Chinese and Thai venues, along with Uzbek & Indian food. 

Middle Eastern includes Persian, Lebanese, Syrian and Turkish cuisines.

European includes Italian, German, French, Spanish and British (pub grub) cuisines.

Others are American, Mexican and Nouveau Cuisine, which blends international and Armenian flavors into new dishes.

Accreditation

You may see mention of one or more organizations on an eatery’s window.  How meaningful are these?

The answer is not simple.  They do have some meaning, but there are restaurants who are members of organizations but which are just about average and others who are members of none but are excellent.  While local restaurants are required to be licensed by the government, this does not insure that each one will provide outstanding service.  Smaller eateries generally do not belong to any association.

Armenian Restaurant Association
ARA is established by top Armenian restaurants including The Club, Square One, Bravo, Jazzve, Café Central, and Alpha Food Service and restaurants of branded Hotels, Marriott Armenia and Tufenkian Heritage.  This Association is in registration process.

Armenian Bartenders’ Association
http://www.arba.am/
ABA has been created in 2002.  Its main goals are establishing educational and training opportunities for Armenian bartenders, and helping them to find employment opportunities.  ABA also provides professional advice to Restaurants and Bars to design bars, prepare menus, and train waitresses.