Where to Eat in Yerevan & Armenia: Best Restaurants (2026)

Armenian cuisine reveals the country’s geography and history. It is rich in vegetables, meat and fish, built around aubergine, lamb and lavash flatbread, with cracked wheat (bulgur) often standing in for rice. Below are the dishes you have to try, followed by exactly where to eat them, our pick of the best restaurants in Yerevan and across the country, with addresses, phone numbers, hours and a map link for each. (Details change, so it’s worth booking ahead for the popular tables.)

The dishes to try

• Dolma: minced meat mixed with rice, herbs and spices, wrapped in fresh vine leaves (a summer version, pasuts dolma, uses beans and lentils for fasting days).
• Khorovats: Armenia’s beloved barbecue, pieces of meat on the bone (lamb or pork), grilled over embers on skewers, often with grilled aubergine and pepper.
• Lahmajoun: the “Armenian pizza”, thin, crisp bread topped with spiced minced meat, rolled up with a squeeze of lemon.
• Lavash: the thin, soft flatbread at the centre of every table, baked on the wall of a clay tonir (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage).
• Ghapama: a festive pumpkin stuffed with rice, dried apricots, plums, raisins and nuts, then slow-baked until soft; a Christmas favourite.
• Khash: a hearty winter broth of slow-boiled trotters and tripe, eaten early morning with garlic, dried lavash and a shot of oghi.
• Manti: small boat-shaped baked dumplings of beef or lamb, served with garlic yoghurt and tomato sauce.
• Harissa: a thick, comforting porridge of roasted wheat slow-cooked with lamb or chicken; the long, patient cooking is the secret.
• Basturma & sujuk: air-dried cured beef coated in a paste of cumin, garlic, paprika and pepper, and its spicy cousin, the sujuk sausage.
• Eetch: a bulgur “salad” of puréed tomato, onion, parsley, pepper and lemon, a little like tabbouleh; eaten hot or cold.
• Byorek (boereg): filo parcels stuffed with cheese, spinach or meat, usually served as a starter.
• Ghata (gata): the classic Armenian sweet bread-pastry, its size, shape and decoration different in every town.
• Baklava: layered filo pastry packed with walnuts, pistachios or hazelnuts and soaked in syrup.

What to drink

Armenian brandy (from Ararat-valley grapes) is world-famous, legend has it Churchill had it shipped to him by the case. Beyond it, look for: the reds of Areni (one of the world’s oldest wine regions); pomegranate wine, a sweet local speciality drunk in small glasses; oghi, a fruit eau-de-vie made from apricot, mulberry, cherry, pear, fig or grape and offered as a welcome drink; tutovka, a strong mulberry vodka; and full-bodied sherry-style wines from very ripe grapes. Local beers to try include Kotayk, Kilikia, Gyumri, Erebuni and Aleksandrapol.

The best restaurants in Yerevan

Lavash

Yerevan’s most celebrated modern-Armenian table, a farm-to-table restaurant where you watch lavash baked in the tonir and finish on the record-breaking gata. Colourful, warm and consistently excellent; book ahead.

📍 21 Tumanyan Street · ☎ +374 10 608800 · Daily ~08:30–00:00 · 🗺️ Map · 🌐 Website

Sherep

A sleek, buzzing showcase of Armenian cuisine right by Republic Square, in a pink Tamanyan-designed building. Open kitchen, a working tonir and dishes from every region, one of the city’s most popular restaurants (same team as Lavash).

📍 1 Amiryan Street (by Republic Square) · ☎ +374 10 600880 · Daily ~09:30–00:00 · 🗺️ Map · 🌐 Website

Dolmama

The grande dame of Yerevan dining, serving refined Eastern-Armenian cooking since 1998 in an intimate townhouse. Famous for its dolma and its khash in wine and crème fraîche; a favourite of visiting heads of state. Reserve several days ahead for weekends.

📍 10 Pushkin Street · ☎ +374 10 561354 · Daily 11:00–23:30 · 🗺️ Map · 🌐 Website

Tavern Yerevan

The dependable, affordable introduction to Armenian home cooking, generous plates of dolma, khorovats and khinkali in a cheerful folk setting. A small local chain, so there’s usually a branch near you.

📍 5 Amiryan Street (also 91 Teryan St & 7 Paronyan St) · ☎ +374 10 545545 · 🗺️ Map

Mayrig

Western-Armenian home cooking, manti, su-boreg and mante, in a warm, nostalgic dining room just off Republic Square.

📍 4/6 Amiryan Street · Daily ~09:30–00:00 · 🗺️ Map

Malkhas Jazz Club

The best place in Yerevan to dine to live jazz, a fixture of the city’s nightlife scene. Steaks, pasta and Armenian plates while owner and pianist Levon Malkhasyan plays after midnight. Reservation recommended.

📍 52/1 Pushkin Street · ☎ +374 98 535369 · Nightly from ~20:00 · 🗺️ Map

ArtBridge Bookstore Café

A relaxed café-restaurant and bookstore in one, on the main pedestrian avenue, good all day for breakfast, coffee, salads and light Armenian plates among books, exhibitions and English-language magazines.

📍 20 Abovyan Street · Daily ~08:30–00:00 · 🗺️ Map · 🌐 Website

Anoush & Mer Gyugh

For old-recipe, home-style cooking, Anoush (vintage setting, famous manti and dolma) and Mer Gyugh (“Our Village,” for rustic dishes you rarely see on menus, like chanakh and garni yarakh) are long-standing local favourites.

📍 🗺️ Anoush on the map · 🗺️ Mer Gyugh on the map

Wine on Saryan Street

For dinner paired with Armenian wine, head to Saryan Street, the city’s wine district, start at In Vino (6 Martiros Saryan St; 1,000+ labels) or Tapastan next door for wine and tapas. More in our guide to Yerevan nightlife.

Restaurants beyond the capital

Gndevank, Jermuk

An octagonal khorovats restaurant with medieval-style decor, chandeliers and heavy chairs, one of the spa town’s most popular tables, with excellent grills and brandy.

📍 Jermuk · 🗺️ Map

Tatevatun, Tatev

Right by the “Wings of Tatev” cable car in southern Armenia, this spot serves traditional Armenian cuisine with a spectacular gorge view, a modern bar and a warm atmosphere.

📍 Tatev (by the cable car) · 🗺️ Map

Cherkezi Dzor, Gyumri

A fish restaurant so good that some fly in from abroad just to eat here: tables sit under open pavilions around the trout and sturgeon ponds, and dinner is caught fresh to order, with bread baked on site.

📍 Gyumri · 🗺️ Map

Madera, Vanadzor

Affordable Armenian and Russian home cooking with friendly service, the borscht and the dumplings are the ones to order.

📍 Vanadzor · 🗺️ Map

Losh & Tava, Dilijan

Two floors, two moods: Losh downstairs for lavash, salads and starters; Tava upstairs (Armenian for “pan”) for more refined classics served in the pan. Both have funky decor and excellent traditional dishes.

📍 Dilijan · 🗺️ Map

Plan your visit

Hungry to work your way through this menu? Build your own itinerary or book an all-inclusive tour that puts you at the country’s best tables, and read more about the culinary specialities of Armenia before you arrive.