Yerevan has a booming restaurant scene, with cuisine available from every corner of the globe. Along Paronyan Poghots (Barbeque Street) you'll find a number of places that serve the famed Armenian dish,
khoravats (grilled meats). Crawling between cafes is a popular local activity; many are located in parks and along sidewalks.
Much Armenian cooking is based on lamb, either grilled and served as
shashlik with flat bread, or prepared as soup (the most popular being
bozbash, a dish which exists in infinite variations) or stew, often in combination with fruit or nuts.
A meal usually starts with a large spread of hors d'oeuvres, which may include peppers and vine leaves stuffed with rice and meat, pickled and fresh vegetables and various kinds of cured meat (
basturma).
National specialties:
• Shampours (skewers packed with all kinds of marinated meat and vegetables).
• Ghapama (pumpkin stew with rice, raisins, apples and cinnamon).
• Khash is a national institution rather than just a dish, with poems and songs throughout the centuries being composed in homage to it. It's a broth made from hamhocks and herbs, served with lots of garlic and bread.
National drinks:• Brandies are exceptional (
Dvin).
• Kotayk and
Kihikia are Armenian beers.
• Areni red wine is particularly lauded. Many Armenian wines are world-renowned semi-sweet or dessert wines.
Legal drinking age: There is no minimum.
Tipping: Expected by waiters and doormen in restaurants - sometimes in advance to ensure service.
NightlifeYerevan has no shortage of
nightclubs and restaurants that host local bands playing everything from soft jazz to hard rock. Some of the biggest clubs play techno and trance until dawn, sometimes with DJs from Europe or Russia. The capital also has a forlorn strip of casinos on the road to the airport.
Opera,
theater and
ballet performances are of a high standard, and tickets are cheap. Folk music, featuring the ubiquitous duduk (a double reed wood instrument) is often organized at traditional Armenian restaurants and other tourist venues. There are often
concerts at the Philharmonic, Chamber Music Hall and Opera & Ballet House in Yerevan.
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