The 11 Best Places for Kebabs in Downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles

Table Of Content

• Vegetarian Plates
• The 11 Best Places for Kebabs in Downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles
• Lunch
• Vernatoun Restaurant

The Kirakosyan family has parked their vivid truck in front of NoHo’s Royal Fresh Super Market since 2019. Red, blue, and orange stripes match the Armenian flag. The meaty menu delivers a devastating one-two punch. Armenian Lunch Truck serves excellent shawarma, and the action extends to the sidewalk, where cooks tend to an adjacent charcoal grill.

Vegetarian Plates

Mini Kabob has built a national reputation in publications like The New York Times, which included them in “America’s Favorite Restaurants” in 2021. The family displays savvy with open-flame cooking on a workhorse gas grill behind their small counter. Highlights include juicy beef and chicken lule skewers and chicken thigh served atop fluffy rice with creamy red pepper dusted hummus, blistered tomato and jalapeño, onion, and parsley. Complimentary sides include silky eggplant caviar crafted with smoky roasted eggplant and bell peppers.

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The 11 Best Places for Kebabs in Downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles

These flavors and the charcoal smoke infuse wonderful flavor in koobideh (ground beef or chicken), salmon, chicken thighs, and Cornish game hen. Offal lovers will appreciate more intense lamb hearts and livers. Plates come with grilled vegetables, potent torshi (pickled vegetables), and either lavash or sangak, a pull-apart whole-wheat flatbread. Sam Dumanyan is from a small town called Jrvezh located east of Yerevan in Armenia.

Lunch

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We still do everything the old-fashioned way – it’s never frozen or canned. Everything is fresh and all food preparation is overseen by the owner himself. Come on in and enjoy our unique decor, which has a Mediterranean flair, and our friendly, professional staff. House of Kebab,  family owned and operated since 1982, serves a variety of fresh, healthy Mediterranean-style dishes with a unique blend of herbs and spices. Served with Pilaf, Fatoush, Angel Hair Pasta, Bread & Butter Choices are Chicken, Lula, Gyros or Turkey.

He had a restaurant there and after he moved to Los Angeles, opened his eponymous restaurant in Van Nuys in 2021. Sam’s Kebab touts waterfall and blue-sky photo murals and specializes in skewers that he plucks from an enticing display case by the register and grills over charcoal either out back or in front. Proshyan is a street in Yerevan with a historic reputation for barbecued meat. This nighttime stand in North Hollywood occupies a doublewide red pop-up tent on the sidewalk in front of El Super market and hangs a small Armenian flag by their spit. Proshyan serves some of LA’s best pork shawarma and grills kebabs over glowing mesquite charcoal embers.

In 2021, they shifted grilling operations to nearby Aria BBQ. This grab-and-go strip mall restaurant with a steer horn logo offers no seating, but they do grill a la carte kebabs over gas, all available for sale by the skewer. Beef lule, chicken lule, and boneless chicken thighs are satisfying, but flame-red hot wings, drummettes infused with spicy paste, are even more addictive. Scored pork baby back ribs with crispy topside fat also stand out.

Family Meals

Plates come with fire-roasted tomato and mild Anaheim chile, lavash, raw onions and parsley, fluffy basmati rice or sliced oven-baked potatoes and a choice of two sides. Spinach yogurt salad and Armenian salad both lend welcome brightness. He first showcased the family’s culinary traditions at Aria Meat Market in Burbank, which dates to 2013. This butcher shop used to grill kebabs, and not just sell raw proteins.

Vernatoun Restaurant

This inconspicuous restaurant resides on Plaza Ararat’s back end in Unit Z and serves great charcoal-grilled kebabs to customers who eat at tables that wrap around trees. Their pork kebabs are particularly great, especially khrchik, bone-in rib tip chunks that still have cartilage attached. This cut provides a wonderful chew that sheyka (boneless baby pork) can’t match. Sarkisyan limits seasoning to salt, pepper, paprika, and onion so the meat still shines. Beef lule and chicken lule (a blend of thigh and breast meat) resemble juicy accordions. Bigger ticket items include succulent lamb chops and big rectangular sturgeon chunks with fatty skin.

They mold beef and chicken lule (made with ground thigh) around stainless steel and also cook marinated pork shoulder chunks that are notably juicy for such lean meat. Other options include iki bir (marinated pork belly), iki bir skewered with skin-on potatoes, and chicken breast. Skewers come in lavash wraps or on plates with parsley, chopped white onions, sliced tomato, and enough lavash to form a pillow. Vernatoun is a restaurant and banquet hall that’s excelled at cooking Armenian comfort food in the back corner of a Glendale strip mall since 2021. Lump mesquite charcoal bags are piled up behind a kitchen window, giving customers a small taste of their process.

Emin Davoudi-Chigani runs Foothill Market & Deli in a Sunland strip mall and spun off the butcher shop as Meat Guys in early 2021. A printed menu lists proteins they can cook in an open-mouthed, stainless steel gas grill, but it’s just as easy to pull from display cases. The left case touts raw cuts like whole chicken, beef ribeye, and lamb leg. The right case holds marinated meats like pork baby back ribs, spicy chicken thighs, and lamb lule.

Less common delicacies include Cervena venison ribs, Kurobuta pork, and marinated branzino chunks. Aluminum containers come with grilled tomatoes and peppers. Supplement from a grab-and-go refrigerated case by the entrance, which showcases salads and dips like kidney beans, yogurt cucumber, and several eggplant preparations. This Iranian market has expanded in size and scope since Mory Pourvasei opened the business in 1987. Stepson Salimit Soheil became the managing partner 10 years ago and greatly expanded prepared food offerings, including charcoal-grilled kebabs on weekends in the back parking lot. He marinates skewers in a proprietary marinade that includes olive oil, fresh and powdered garlic, onions, bell peppers, and saffron.

Cornish hen is also notable, marinated in yogurt, saffron, onion, particularly good with zereshk polo (barberry rice). Trout might not technically qualify as a kebab, but this flaky butterflied white fish is marinated with garlic, yogurt, and saffron and sports crispy, savory skin, and is worth ordering. Anna Ivanyan debuted this Armenian market in 2017, naming her business for an ancient city that Armenian king Tigranes the Great established which is now part of Turkey. Everything from the market’s large butcher case is available to grill by the pound over charcoal across the parking lot in Tigranakert’s production kitchen. Start with luscious beef lule, marinated iki bir (pork belly), and beautifully charred marinated sweetbreads, which are a fairly uncommon find. Plates come with rice and plenty of salads and dips to fill the two other compartments in a Styrofoam container.

Rolled in Lavash Bread & Grilled to a Crisp, Served with Pilaf & Salad. Served with pilaf, salad and bread (soup or bulgur substituted upon request when available) $3.00 charge for sharing splitting or extra plate.