Khinkali XXL: 6,400 drams
George’s Dom, from Georgi Harutyunyan, is known first of all for its interior. A vertical garden grows under a glass roof, and a stone fountain trickles beside a green wall. The food is Armenian, Georgian and European, homey in spirit but carefully plated. In a place like this, the menu is bound to be a little unconventional, and the XXL khinkali fits right in: one huge khinkali with 10 small ones hidden inside. The filling is classic, so the surprise is the scale. You cut open the giant and find a whole flock of tiny khinkali inside.
Mini khinkali with beef: 3,700, with shrimp in tom yum sauce: 3,900
Mini khinkali with crab: 8,500, with salmon: 4,700, with mushrooms: 3,900, with lamb: 3,900
Their story started in 2004 in a tiny, cozy corner of central Yerevan. Today Tumanyan Khinkali has three locations around the country. Twenty-plus years later it’s still in demand, thanks to steady quality and taste. The kitchen is Armenian and Georgian, but khinkali in all their forms are the star. Over time, cheese khinkali joined the classics, along with fried ones with egg and tarragon, a truly unexpected pairing. Guests of every generation sit at the tables, and everyone finds something to order.
Puri is from the Lali team, but the format is different: a neo-bistro on busy Saryan Street. The allocated small space is perfect for casual meetups, and in the evening it turns a bit more romantic, so go ahead and bring a date. The menu mixes Georgian hits and twists. For the conservatives there are kharcho, lobio and pkhali. For the adventurous there’s an Adjarian boat with roast beef for breakfast, shrimp in chkmeruli sauce, and a durum wrap with beef and Gurian cabbage. With khinkali, it’s all about the minis, but the real intrigue is in the sauces: creamy pepper sauce with beef, tom yum with shrimp.
The very elegant Lali sits right in the center of Yerevan, and calling it just a Georgian restaurant isn’t quite fair. Familiar dishes are rebuilt in their own way, yet they stay recognizable. You walk in to a spacious hall with high ceilings and white tablecloths. Naturally, khinkali are on the menu, but here they’re experimenting in several directions at once: mini versions with crab and bisque, with salmon in a creamy caviar sauce, with mushrooms and Dor Blue, and with lamb in a pepper sauce.
Tati on Tumanyan Street serves Caucasian food, and its name means «grandmother» in Armenian. It’s not just a nice word for the sign, because the menu is built on grandma’s recipes. Everything is very homey, the khinkali included. You want to order it all at once (and when a grandmother tells you to eat, saying no is nearly impossible). There are khinkali with veal, and there are the unusual ones with spinach and cheese. Get both to not regret it.
Khinkali with meat, cheese, chicken, or mushrooms: 500, fried: 520
Small, family-run Deda Bistro is another spot on Tumanyan where khinkali are taken seriously. The cuisine is mostly Georgian, with some Armenian dishes, and the line between the two isn’t always sharp. The Adjarian khachapuri, for example, comes with a tomato omelet, so the Armenian breakfast classic meets the Georgian one. Another nice way to start the day is the special morning khinkali with egg, ordered with your first coffee. And for a special evening, look out for the truffle ones.
Khinkali with meat: 490, with cheese: 490, fried khinkali with cheese: 490, with mushrooms and truffle: 590, with egg: 2,300
P. S. Khinkali are everywhere here. Even the bottle of house wine is shaped like one.
Khinkali with spinach and cheese: 550
