Dolmana

10 Pushkin Street, Yerevan
+374 10 561354

Bourdain ate: braised lamb shank with rice pilaf (“This is what my soul needed”), vegetable manti.

Lunch date: Serj Tankian, lead singer of the hard-rock band System of a Down.

Mariam Movsisyan’s grandmother’s family home

Bourdain ate: ghapama (traditional dish consisting of a baked pumpkin or squash stuffed with rice, nuts, raisins, and apricots), Armenian cheese and lavash, hummus.

Dinner dates: Miriam, her husband Nazareth Seferian, her grandmother, and Serj Tankian.

At Gayane’s

35b Tumanyan Street, Yerevan
+374 10 530320

Bourdain had: apricot vodka, trout wrapped and baked in lavash (“this is not light cooking”).

Lunch dates: Serj Tankian,  Marie Lou and Pegor Papazian, educators and founders of the progressive TUMO Center for Creative Technologies.

Dargett Craft Beer

72 Aram Street, Yerevan
+374 96 870870

Bourdain had: a couple pints of beer.

Beer dates: Tech journalist Artur Papayan, developer Harut Martirosyan, and cybersecurity consultant Ruben Muradyan.

Somewhere in the wilderness of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), near Jdrduz Canyon in Shushi

Bourdain ate: jingalov hats (“lavash bread stuffed with greens and onions before being toasted atop a cast-iron sheet”), Armenian barbecue covered in fennel and fresh herbs (“meat on a stick, which, let’s face it, is always good”).

Lunch dates: Tigran Grigoryan, a war veteran and aspiring politician; Tatul Hakobyan, a journalist; Saro Saryan, an Armenian born in Azerbaijan who fled during the war.

Poloz Mukuch

Jivani Street, 75 building, Gyumri
+374 31 234511

Bourdain had: beer; oxtail soup; stewed liver and heart with tomato, onions, and fresh herbs; sheep’s head.

Lunch dates: Gyumri natives Anush Ghazaryan, Gayane Araqelyan, and Amalya Yeghoyan.

Milena’s home restaurant

Dilijan, Armenia 

Bourdain ate: khash (stock flavored by roasted-beef bones) with lavash.

Lunch dates: Serj Tankian’s longtime manager and friend George Tonikian, Milena, restauranteur Sam Hovhannisyan, journalistArman Suleymanyan, and their friends Inna Mkrtchyan, Samvel Hovhannisyan, Samvel Machanyan, Razmik Arzooian, Narek Aghababyan, and Anahit Chitchyan.