Armenian restaurants and cafes across greater Los Angeles, from the kabob houses of Little Armenia to the Valley. Jump to a city below for a closer look.
Los Angeles County holds the largest Armenian community outside Armenia, and its restaurants are spread across a dozen neighbourhoods rather than concentrated in one. This page covers greater Los Angeles. If you are looking in one specific city, the city pages below are more focused.
Armenian restaurants in Glendale is the largest single concentration in the country, with dozens of kitchens within about a mile of each other. Armenian restaurants in Burbank is smaller and skews toward breakfast and coffee. Travelling instead? See where to eat in Yerevan.
The officially designated Little Armenia sits in East Hollywood around Sunset and Santa Monica boulevards, and it is the oldest Armenian commercial district in the city. Sahag's Basturma on Sunset cures its own basturma and soujouk and sells them in sandwiches. Marouch has served Lebanese-Armenian food in the neighbourhood for decades. Zankou Chicken, now a Southland chain, started from this part of the city and its garlic sauce is the single most recognisable Armenian export in LA food.
Armenian restaurants run across the Valley floor from North Hollywood through Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Encino and up into Tujunga and Sunland. Mantee Cafe in Studio City is the best-known Armenian table on that side of the hill, Yerevan Steakhouse on Lankershim runs charcoal lula kebabs, and the Valley is also where much of the newer shawarma competition has opened.
Because the community arrived in waves from Armenia, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and Iraq, no single menu represents it. A Glendale kitchen run by a family from Aleppo cooks differently from one run by a family from Yerevan or Tehran, and that variety is the point. Khorovats, lahmajune, manti, dolma, basturma and soujouk show up almost everywhere, but the seasoning, the bread and the side plates change.
Related: Armenian kabob and BBQ in LA, Armenian breakfast spots, Armenian grocery markets and Armenian restaurants with live music.