Where To Eat Armenian Food In Glendale, CA, According To A Local

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Los Angeles County contains multitudes. Koreatown, Thai Town, Sawtelle Japantown, the San Gabriel Valley, and Boyle Heights are all well-known destinations for food that reflect the communities that built them. Glendale, however, is consistently overlooked, despite having some of the best Armenian food in the country. Some of my favorites include Zhengyalov Hatz, Mini Kabob, and Khinkali House.

Los Angeles County is home to the largest Armenian population outside Armenia itself. At the center is the city of Glendale with a population that's around 35% Armenian (via ZipAtlas). Bordered by Georgia, Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan, Armenia shares culinary influences with all of them — including Georgia's khachapuri. Some of its other signature dishes include a variety of meat skewers grilled over charcoal, a pizza-like flatbread with seasoned ground meat called lahmajun, and an open dumpling called manti.

I live right on the border of Glendale and frequently head into the city to explore its restaurants. I'm not Armenian myself — I just love trying new food. Below are three spots I enjoy that have introduced me to this delicious cuisine. Make sure you follow up your meal with a stop at Glendale Tap, one of my favorite places to get a beer in the Los Angeles area.

The first time I came to Zhengyalov Hatz, the only item on the menu was its namesake wrap, plus juice, tea, coffee, and baklava. The coffee is traditional — boiled in a jazve (an Armenian coffee pot with a handle) in hot sand. The menu now also features khachapuri, pide, and lahmajun, but it's still all about the hatz.

A zhengyalov hatz sounds simple: It's a flatbread stuffed with greens. What brings the complexity is the variety of finely diced ingredients, often upward of 20 different herbs and leafy greens. Neutral greens like spinach or beet greens provide a base that allows the flavorful herbs such as chervil, green onions, parsley, and tarragon to shine. Salt, pepper, paprika, chili flakes, oil, and lemon juice are also included to highlight the many different flavors. The stuffed bread is then cooked on a griddle. Any leftover dough can be used to make lavash, a unique bread found in Armenia. Paired with a pot of thyme-and-mint or cinnamon-and-nuts tea, a stop here is the perfect midday snack.

If you read the New York Times, Mini Kabob should already be on your list of places to try. The newspaper highlighted this restaurant in 2021, making this family-run shop more popular than ever. Ovakim and Alvard Martirosyan purchased the restaurant in 1997, and their son Armen joined the team in 2015. Armen's work on the menu's recipes brought the business fresh attention. The space may be tiny at just 290 square feet, but plenty of good food comes out of its kitchen.

The highlight here is the lule kabob, ground meat combined with garlic, onion, salt, and white pepper that's then molded around a skewer and grilled. I love the falafel platter, with crispy, olive oil-fried falafel balls, creamy hummus, salad, lavash, and powerful garlic sauce. Sometimes I'll just pick up a pint of this garlic sauce (also known as toum) and some hummus just to have on hand at home. Try the nutty, aromatic walnut soda to wash it all down.

Khinkali House is a restaurant serving a mix of Georgian, Armenian, and Russian foods. Khinkalis are soup dumplings originally from Georgia, but you can also find them throughout Armenia. Served boiled or fried, they're stuffed with herbs as well as beef, lamb, cheese, or mushrooms. But don't eat them with a knife and fork! According to custom, use your hands instead. When they arrive at your table, sprinkle some black pepper on top, give them a moment or two to cool down, and dive right in while they're still warm. Take a bite, slurp out the broth, then eat the rest, leaving the top knob (which acts as a handle) on your plate.

The rest of the menu demonstrates the restaurant's Russian and Armenian influences. Dishes like zhengyalov hatz and Armenian red bean paste with walnuts and garlic sit alongside Russian pelmenis and blinchiks. I love the dessert scene in Los Angeles, and one of my favorite treats is a honey cake, which Khinkali House does very well.