Overview of Armenia's restaurants and cafes

Armenia is famous for unique cuisine enriched with thousands year old traditions. On top of it Armenians are known for their generosity and perfection in cooking. The combination of these qualities takes Armenian cuisine to the next higher level. It is pure heaven for enjoyment and exploration of ethnic dishes and flavors of traditional food.

In Yerevan new restaurants open every week and every restaurant has its own style. Most are different from each other and some of them are quite eccentric. From the side, it looks like a contest for most bizarre and unusual restaurant of Yerevan. Fierce competition forced restaurant owners to come up with some intricate designs and different ways of attracting new customers.

There are three types of restaurants in Armenia, fancy restaurants, traditional restaurants and cafes that serve full course meals.

For Armenians, ethnic pork barbeque is the same as classic hamburger for Americans. Over the years, Armenians reached perfection in preparation of the best pork barbeque and kebob in the world. The traditional restaurants' main dish is barbeque, but they also serve other ethnic dishes, such us Chashlama, Kyfta or Chash. These restaurants usually located in outskirts of the city or in some scenic areas. The best examples are restaurants on Proshian Street, known as Barbeque Street. You can also find great dinners in Hrazdan River gorge and Myasnikian Avenue. In Armenia almost every restaurant falls into this category, however they all have local flavors. For example, restaurants around Lake Sevan known for their famous fish dishes and in Dilijan for the Oyster Mushroom dishes. Armenians call scenic restaurants Veteroks, meaning breeze in Russian. So, if you want to have the best Armenian barbeque then go to restaurants on the Proshian Street. The prices are moderate and affordable. They are also great for celebrations, and large groups of people.

Downtown restaurants, like Deauville or Bellagio usually do not serve the best barbeque, but they are good for other traditional dishes. You can find the best Armenian barbeque in restaurants outside of the Yerevan. Most of them are using fresh meats from the local farms, unlike the Yerevan's restaurants that sometimes use frozen or even imported meat.
Our advice is to try other local food when traveling outside of the Yerevan. For example, try Oyster Mushrooms in Dilijan, Rainbow Trout in Sevan, and do not forget to try marinated appetizers and fresh vegetables.

Yerevan downtown is known for fancy restaurants. Some of them called international restaurants, but they are not really international. In the end they all have some Armenian flavor. In fact, the blend of international cuisine with Armenian creates a great combination. To try ethnic home-style Armenian food visit restaurants like Caucasus Tavern or Dolmama. If you are looking for international food or a formal restaurant, then Hotel Yerevan's restaurant is the perfect place for you. You will notice in most restaurants a large variety of dishes with the exception of Dolmama. It takes long time to go over the menu and decide what to order. Even if you desire something that the restaurant does not have they probably will order your food from somewhere else, just to keep you happy. Service in most restaurants is excellent. Unlike in US, there is no set percentage for the tips. You can leave whatever you think is appropriate, however we recommend 15% tip for the exceptional service.

Cafes and nightclubs of Yerevan are best for drinks, deserts and coffee, but almost all of them serve full course meals. In summer some of the restaurants, like Deauville or Marco Polo open sidewalk cafes. In general cafes are the best for the brief lunch or light food, so we recommend going to the real restaurants for the dinner. Prices in cafes are very similar to the restaurants.
The nightclubs also provide full course menu and are good places to eat after 12am with the addition of the show. We have not tried food in the nightclubs, as for the drinks and deserts they were perfect. Prices in the nightclubs are slightly higher than in the restaurants. We recommend to stay away from large fruit salads. For example, Omega nightclub counted and priced each slice of the fruit separately, so that no one could understand the check. The fruit salad could cost you over $25, which is very expensive for Armenia and does not make any sense.

When you are in Armenia, you should try Armenian wine. Great complement to the steak or barbeque is Vedi Areni or Old Erivan red dry wines. From the semi-sweet wines Vernashen has unique and rich flavor, but does not go well with the meats. Armenia also produces excellent beer, some of them are made using the 400 BC recipes of ancient Urartu. If you prefer the hard liquors, every restaurant has the great variety of Armenian or Russian vodka. Evenings in the cafes are best enjoyed with the glass of Ararat Armenian cognac and coup of espresso.

We hope you will enjoy food in Armenia. Please send us your story, comments, reviews of Armenian restaurants, we will publish your restaurant review in our website.