What to Eat in Yerevan
Yerevan (Armenian Երևան) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, and at the same time the best place to get to know Armenian cuisine in all its breadth. You'll find both of the famous Armenian brandy distilleries here, the largest market in the country, and restaurants that cook traditional dishes to the highest standard and happily throw in live duduk music on top. I ate my way around Yerevan for several days and still never had enough of the city - if anything, the list of dishes I want to try next time grew longer by the day.
What to Eat in Yerevan
- Ararat brandy. The most famous Armenian spirit is made right in Yerevan - the Yerevan Brandy Company distillery has stood here since 1887 and its building is a landmark you can't miss at the eastern gateway to the city. A tour of the museum with a tasting is one of the highlights of any visit to Yerevan.
- Noy brandy. The rival Yerevan brandy ages in cellars on the site of the former Erivan Fortress, just a few hundred meters from Ararat across the Hrazdan River. Both distilleries grew out of the same late-19th-century business.
- Kilikia beer. It's brewed by the Yerevan Brewery, founded in 1952 and the largest in the country. In restaurants you'll most often get Armenian beer in a bottle - even so it's worth trying.
- Nraneh. A rare lamb soup with pomegranate juice that you'll struggle to find anywhere outside Yerevan's restaurants - Lavash and Sherep both serve it. One of the most interesting dishes I ate in Armenia.
- … and a few dozen more Armenian dishes from the list, if you like: What to Eat in Armenia.
Where to Eat in Yerevan
- Lavash Restaurant. My favorite place in Yerevan - Armenian classics with a modern twist, and they bake their own bread downstairs. I tried khorovats pork ribs, harissa, dolma made with beef tenderloin, ghapama and nraneh soup here, and every one of them was perfect. At breakfast they brought me a glass of milk straight from the cow, on the house. Outside of breakfast you'll need a reservation, though booking a day ahead is enough.
- Tavern Yerevan Riverside. The largest branch of the Tavern Yerevan chain, right by the river, and my second favorite place in the city. Perfect tjvjik, a salad of aveluk, and in the evening a live show that builds up to a fire show - the best one I've ever seen. The cover charge for the show is per table and depends on how good your view of the stage is - and it's definitely worth it.
- Tavern Yerevan Khorenatsi. Another branch, this one with classic Armenian folk songs and a duduk in the band. I had putuk soup, veal khashlama and Baklava Gavar here. I couldn't get into the third branch, Amiryan in the center, without a reservation - it tends to be full and is probably the most touristy of the three.
- Anteb Restaurant. Some of the best manti you can get in Yerevan - baked to a golden brown, in a rich broth with matsun yogurt. The lahmajun with its perfectly crisp base is excellent too, and so is the lamb gouvaj.
- Artashi Mot. Excellent grilled meat, and they serve the spas yogurt soup in enormous portions.
- GUM Market. The largest covered market in Yerevan, with dried fruit, walnut sujukh, braids of aveluk and horats panir, a cheese that ages for six months buried in the ground. Come in the morning, when the choice is at its best, and bring cash - they don't take cards here.
- Ararat Brandy Museum. A modern museum with tours and tastings - which one you pick depends on how old a brandy you want to try. You can book online or on the spot.
- Noy Factory. An old-school tour of the Noy brandy cellars, with a tasting of fortified wines from the collector vintages of 1913 and 1924. You can easily do it on the same day as the Ararat museum.
Every restaurant listed here takes cards, and a 10% tip is added to the bill automatically. The exception is the GUM market, which takes cash only.
Yerevan is a city where you can spend several days doing nothing but eating and drinking and still have plenty left to discover. I'm sure you'll fall in love with the restaurants of Yerevan just as I did.
Enjoy eating your way around Yerevan!
Khorovats: Armenian Grilled Meat
Khorovats is the Armenian way of grilling meat over charcoal: chunks of beef, lamb, pork or chicken mixed with onion, threaded onto skewers and served on lavash bread with fresh herbs. The word simply means "grilled", so there's a vegetable khorovats too, and no celebration in Armenia happens without something off the mangal.
Tjvjik: Armenian Fried Liver with Onions
Tjvjik is Armenian liver fried with onions, these days usually stewed in tomato as well, and it takes its name from the noise it makes in the pan; Armenians use the same word for a fidgety child. In 1961 it got its own comedy film, with a plot that turns on one piece of beef liver. Where else liver is fried like this, how tjvjik is eaten and what it cost me in Yerevan.
Tolma: Armenian Stuffed Grape Leaves
Grape leaves wrapped around minced meat and rice, braised and served with garlic matsun yogurt - tolma is one of the main dishes on the Armenian table and a dish the whole region lays claim to. I'll explain why the tolma festival is named after a word linguists reject, how the Armenian version differs from the Turkish one, and I'll describe the tolma made with beef tenderloin at Lavash in Yerevan.
Mantapur: Baked Manti Dumplings in Armenian Broth
Mantapur is an Armenian soup made from manti - small dumplings filled with beef and onion, known across half of Asia, but only Armenian cuisine bakes to a golden brown and tops with chicken broth and yogurt. I traced the baked version from a 1914 cookbook in Merzifon all the way to the menu of Anteb Restaurant in Yerevan.
Voloran: Stuffed Eggplant Rolls
Khashlama: Armenian One-Pot Braised Meat
Armenian khashlama comes together in a single pot with almost no water: over three hours on a low flame the bone-in meat gives up its own juices, and tomatoes and onions supply the rest. The name means "boiled" - a leftover from the days of the cauldron. Georgia and Azerbaijan serve quite different dishes under the very same name.
Ghapama: Stuffed Pumpkin
Gouvaj: Lamb Baked Under a Bread Lid
Gouvaj is lamb and vegetables baked in a ceramic dish that is sealed with a round of bread dough instead of a lid. It takes its name from the Turkish pot güveç, and Western Armenian cooking from around Gaziantep brought it to Yerevan. I ate gouvaj at Anteb Restaurant in Yerevan, where you break the charred lid with a spoon and eat it instead of bread, while the meat underneath falls into soft threads.
Lahmajun: Armenian Pizza
Nraneh: Lamb Soup with Pomegranate Juice
Nraneh is a lamb soup soured with pomegranate juice, with rice, peas, leafy greens and cilantro, served in Yerevan at two restaurants, Lavash and Sherep. Armenian dictionaries and cookbooks have never heard of it, yet meaty pomegranate soups turn up all across the Caucasus and in Iran.