I don’t think I’ve ever given the Google app on my phone a bigger workout than trying to negotiate the menu at Tun Lahmajo — a casual Armenian café in Burbank with food so good, you’ll spend a big chunk of your meal texting photos to friends of dishes you can’t stop eating.
I asked Google to define drinks with names like “tan” and “akroshka.” To explain “ghavurma,” “maravilla,” “xash,” “imeritakan” and “megrelakan.” To give me some notion of what sort of soup “spas with ishli” is. To offer me previews of “qrchick,” “tjvjik” and “ker u sus.”
And that’s just from the English half of the menu. The other half is in Armenian script. My Translate app doesn’t offer Armenian, so ordering here is an adventure. An adventure the affable servers are glad to take you on, with lots of suggestions, explaining that the lahmajo with cheese and ground meat is like a pizza … but better. Indeed, everything I tasted was like something else — but better. This is a restaurant to go to with a band of heavy forks, happy to order everything.
Like most cuisines, Armenian is a reflection not just of its homeland in Western Asia, but also of the Armenian diaspora, with communities spread across the world — though mostly in Los Angeles. And within Los Angeles, largely in and around Glendale and Burbank.
Tun Lahmajo has been in its current location on North Glenoaks Boulevard since 2008 where it’s become a fixture of the local community. Show up on a Saturday evening, and the oven just inside the entry is ablaze with slabs of lavash and loshik, and the namesake flat rounds that are the Armenian pizza without pepperoni or anchovies.
But let us begin with a nice refreshing glass of tan. Tan is a beverage of homemade yogurt, diluted with water and a bit of cucumber, and lightly salted. If you’re a fan of Greek yogurt (and aren’t we all?), tan sits at the other end of yogurtdom. Where Greek is thick and needs a spoon, tan is a beverage — pleasantly tart, with an unexpected salt snap, easy to drink down in a gulp. It’s served by the glass and by the pitcher. It goes fast.
Its cousin beverage, akroshka, is thicker and more herbaceous, less salty. It’s also served by the glass and the pitcher. They make their own tomato juice at Tun Lahmajo. Also their own lemonade. They squeeze their own orange juice and pomegranate juice. Mexican Coke seems dull by comparison, Armenian coffee does not.
More Merrill: 4 of the best vegan, vegetarian restaurants in the San Fernando Valley
This makes Starbucks’ strongest brew seem like brown water by comparison. This coffee is the way coffee was meant to be. And do pass on the Sweet’N Low.
For those who show up early, there’s a brief selection of breakfast dishes: Omelettes with asparagus, with peas, with tomatoes and with the spiced, air-dried beef called basturma, which is akin to pastrami … but very Armenian. Much like the Armenian take on taboule — which is familiar, but also very different. And very good.
The grains are far smaller than most Middle Eastern versions. There’s more olive oil … and a lot more spice. This isn’t just a carb on the side of the plate. This is a salad worth eating all on its own. Indeed, a meal of taboule, lahmajo with cheese and meat, and a glass of tan is as satisfying a lunch as I can imagine.
Perhaps toss in a bowl of the Armenian take on borsch, which isn’t so much a soup as it is a vegetable stew of beets, cabbage, potatoes and so much more. I grew up eating borscht (with a “T”), too often out of the jar, where it was really just beet juice. I had no idea what I was missing in the real thing.
And if you want to put Google through its paces: maravilla is a variant on lahmajo, but rectangular and perhaps even crisper. Dolma is, of course, grape leaves stuffed with meat and spices. Harissa is a porridge of ground wheat with meat and butter. Tjvjik is fried chunks of liver with onions and tomatoes.
Spa is a yogurt soup, made with egg, sour cream and herbs. Khash (spelled “xash” on the menu) is a legendary soup-stew of beef bones and beef parts. Khashlama is a barbecue of lamb and vegetables. Aveluk is a salad of sorrel leaves, pomegranate seeds and walnuts. And pasuc tolma is a vegetarian version of meat-filled dolma. “Pasuc” means “fasting.” It’s a dish to eat during Lent.
For dessert, there’s Armenian sweet bread called “gata.” And, of course, paklava, which sounds like baklava because it is. This is cooking that has traveled very well.
Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Email mreats@aol.com.
Tun Lahmajo
- Rating: 3 stars
- Address: 2202 N. Glenoaks Blvd., Burbank
- Information: 626-553-8717
- Cuisine: Amazingly tasty Armenian café, a foodie’s dream with a menu half-written in Armenian, and a wood-burning oven at the entrance perfuming the room with the smell of baking bread.
- When: Breakfast, lunch and dinner, every day
- Details: Tea, coffee and exotic soft drinks; reservations helpful for groups
- Prices: About $25 per person
- On the menu: 5 Breakfast Dishes ($10-$19), 5 Appetizers ($8-$28), 6 Salads ($9-$15), 8 Soups ($11-$18), 29 Entrées ($6.80-$28), 8 Additives ($2-$4), 3 Breads ($1.50-$5), 4 Desserts ($7-$18), 7 Homemade Drinks ($3-$12)
- Credit cards: MC, V
- What the stars mean: 4 (World class! Worth a trip from anywhere!), 3 (Most excellent, even exceptional. Worth a trip from anywhere in Southern California.), 2 (A good place to go for a meal. Worth a trip from anywhere in the neighborhood.) 1 (If you’re hungry, and it’s nearby, but don’t get stuck in traffic going.) 0 (Honestly, not worth writing about.)