The other day, I had the great opportunity to meet up with some friends at Sarkis Armenian Restaurant in Villa Crespo for lunch. I had been there before and even ordered take away once or twice in the last few years here. One of my friends asked me to suggest a restaurant for lunch which always seems to pose a great challenge to me and I get stuck. But fortunately, out it came, off of the top of my head - Sarkis.

The three major things I think about when going out to eat during lunchtime are food, price and ambiance -

in that order. So when I went with my friends, the service was great - they even overheard us speaking in English and offered their English language menu. We ordered our drinks and I began to order some tapas as none of us really wanted to eat heavy. We had the tabbouleh, babaganush (called pure de berenjena), hummus (called pure de garbanzo) and we ordered three arabic empanadas with lamb. To be honest, everything was - nice. Yeah. Nice. Everything that required Tahini sauce just had too much Tahini sauce so everything tasted a little too peanutty for me. My friends liked it though.

Tabbouleh is one of my favorite dishes and to be honest, I think I got spoiled in Chicago eating the best plate of tabbouleh in the world at my friend Mido’s house. I know that it’s just not fair that every bite of tabbouleh that I take gets compared to Mido’s tabbouleh - but it’s just the way it goes. So if Mido’s tabbouleh is a 10 - well, this one was a 6.5 - better than average, but lacking in that je ne sais quoi. Perhaps it was lemon and a bit more couscous.

But I’ve been there before and I’ll go there again. I have had excellent food there in the past so I may have walked in on “new chef training day” or just one of those moments when the food was not bad, but not the usual. One of their specialties is Keppe (raw or cooked ground meat wrapped in more meat) which goes great with their many vegetarian side dishes.

Although I’m sure to return, it probably won’t be for lunch, but rather during the busy evening hours.

Ratings:

Food: 6/10 - Normally it’s better. I hope they haven’t lowered their standards.
Price: $$ - Around 20 pesos per person.
Ambiance: - It’s got a very homey atmosphere and during lunchtime there were very few people. Ambiance is better with a crowd, during dinner hours.

Comments: As an extra super bonus, the service was good. The waiter was attentive and very good.

Sarkis
Thames 1101, Villa Crespo
Tel. 4772-4911

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