{"id":664803,"date":"2026-05-12T16:51:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T16:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/664803\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T16:51:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T16:51:23","slug":"hum-yans-restaurant-introduces-armenian-and-georgian-fare-to-ottawa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/664803\/","title":{"rendered":"Hum: Yan’s Restaurant introduces Armenian and Georgian fare to Ottawa"},"content":{"rendered":"

The people who know what they\u2019re doing put down their forks and knives.<\/p>\n

Savvy diners at Yan\u2019s Restaurant on Murray Street grab a massive, pleated dumpling<\/a> by what you might call its doughy tail. They flip them upside down, take small nibbles and then nimbly suck out the broth. Only then do they take larger bites of the dumplings and their beefy fillings.<\/p>\n

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Khinkali are Georgian dumplings filled with beef and pork and broth at Yan\u2019s Restaurant on Murray Street.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how these dumplings are eaten back home in Georgia \u2014 the Caucasus region country, not the southern U.S. state. There, the dumplings are known as khinkali, and to eat them with cutlery, squandering their juices, is frowned upon. It\u2019s simply not done.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of numerous pleasant discoveries that I recently made at Yan\u2019s, which opened in December. It\u2019s Ottawa\u2019s first restaurant to serve not only khinkali ($5 or $5.50, depending on the filling) but also a menu focused on the food of Georgia and Armenia, two neighbouring countries to the east of Turkey.<\/p>\n

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These Khinkali (Georgian dumplings) are stained black with squid ink and stuffed with cheese and dill at Yan\u2019s Restaurant.<\/p>\n

Yan\u2019s owners and chefs, the Armenian couple Armen Dalibaldyan and his wife Gohar Ghumashyan, immigrated to Toronto in 2019, where they worked in major financial institutions. They and their children eventually moved to Ottawa because homes here are more affordable. Then they changed careers, deciding to open a restaurant, in part because Armenian and Georgian food were not available in Ottawa before Yan\u2019s opened.<\/p>\n

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Co-owner and chef Goha Ghumashyan at her restaurant Yan\u2019s Restaurant, which serves Armenian and Georgian food.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a niche that is actually empty,\u201d says Dalibaldyan.<\/p>\n

Among Yan\u2019s customers are not only expat Armenians and Georgians who are well-versed in eating khinkali but also emigres from other post-Soviet states, including recently arrived Ukrainians<\/a>, he says.<\/p>\n

Initially, the couple\u2019s dream was to swap 9-to-5 work for running a small cafe. But then they came across their Murray Street location, long vacated by the pizza place Fiazza Fresh Fired.<\/p>\n

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Yan\u2019s Restaurant is on Murray Street in the ByWard Market.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw the big pizza oven\u2026 We can make anything in it,\u201d says Dalibaldyan. The oven\u2019s potential prompted the couple to think bigger, and they went ahead with opening Yan\u2019s, a much-renovated space that seats 70 and has a 36-seat patio to come.<\/p>\n

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The dining room of Yan\u2019s Restaurant on Murray Street in Ottawa.<\/p>\n

The restaurant\u2019s name reflects the fact that Armenian surnames end in \u201cyan.\u201d While Dalibaldyan and his wife are Armenian, they know how to make Georgian food and their menu is a 50-50 split between the two cuisines.<\/p>\n

From the former pizza oven emerges two signature Georgian breads. Khachapoori lazoori ($25) is a round, fluffy bread filled with melted cheese. The more interesting and indulgent pick is Khachapoori ajarooli ($30), a boat-shaped bread, laden with salty-sour sulguni cheese, butter and egg yolk, all of which is tossed table-side.<\/p>\n

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At Yan\u2019s Restaurant on Murray Street, Khachapuri is a boat-shaped bread with a cheese and egg filling.<\/p>\n

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At Yan\u2019s Restaurant on Murray Street, Khachapuri, a boat-shaped bread, has its filling of cheese and egg tossed table-side.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also started dinner more than satisfactorily at Yan\u2019s with tolma ($24), Armenia\u2019s version of grape leaves stuffed with minced meat, rice and herbs, as well as satsivi ($16), a Georgian dish of chicken in a sauce of ground walnuts, garlic and spices that was served cold. More substantial was the garden platter ($48) that whetted the appetites of four of us with an array of dips, grilled mushrooms, carrot salad, marinated zucchini, cabbage and cauliflower.<\/p>\n

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Tolma are grape leaves stuffed with rice and beef at Yan\u2019s Restaurant on Murray Street.<\/p>\n

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Satsivi (a dip of walnuts, garlic and lemon with chicken) at Yan\u2019s Restaurant in the ByWard Market.<\/p>\n

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Garden platter at Yan\u2019s Restaurant in the ByWard Market.<\/p>\n

The Caucasus mountains define the geography of Dalibaldyan\u2019s home region, and therefore, Armenian and Georgian cuisine is less about agricultural products and more about meat, he says.<\/p>\n

Platters of oven-grilled meats served with bulgur, rice, grilled vegetables and bread take up several pages of Yan\u2019s menu. Two lamb chops ($29) were grilled impeccably, and this platter introduced a compelling condiment called tkhemali ($29) made with sour plums and nicknamed \u201cGeorgian ketchup.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lamb chops at Yan\u2019s Restaurant in the ByWard Market. In the centre is a bowl of tkhemali, a Georgian sour plum-based dip.<\/p>\n

Although Ottawa\u2019s dining scene teems with kebabs<\/a>, Yan\u2019s makes one that\u2019s unique and easy to recommend. Here, chicken and pork kebabs ($19, or $26 with an additional skewer) are made with both meats and, as a result, are as juicy as they are tasty.<\/p>\n

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Chicken and pork kebabs at Yan\u2019s Restaurant in the ByWard Market.<\/p>\n

Although other kinds of meat platters were available, featuring salmon, chicken thighs or pork, I\u2019ve been more intrigued by Yan\u2019s assortment of claypot stews.<\/p>\n

Closer to a soup, and very appealing was the Georgian beef dish kharcho ($16), thanks to its heat and inclusion of tkhemali, the sour plum condiment. More mild was shkmeruli ($18), a Georgian dish of chicken thighs baked in garlic cream sauce. We would have liked this dish a bit more if some searing of the chicken skin had made it less flaccid.<\/p>\n

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Kharcho beef soup at Yan\u2019s Restaurant in the ByWard Market.<\/p>\n

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Shkmeruli (chicken thighs baked in a garlic cream sauce) at Yan\u2019s Restaurant in the ByWard Market.<\/p>\n

More substantial were khashlama ($28), an Armenian lamb and vegetable stew, and chakhokhibli ($38), a tomato-y Georgian stew starring rabbit.<\/p>\n

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Khashlama lamb stew at Yan\u2019s Restaurant in the ByWard Market.<\/p>\n

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Chakhokhibli at Yan\u2019s Restaurant in the ByWard Market.<\/p>\n

Dalibaldyan says that while he and his wife were not trained as chefs, they know their traditional recipes well and insist on authenticity.<\/p>\n

To that end, they source spices from Georgia and Armenia, as well as Armenian herbs and Armenian teas.<\/p>\n

For oenophiles, Yan\u2019s may be of special interest because it offers Georgian and Armenian wines. Georgia is in fact the birthplace of wine as long as 8,000 years ago, when neolithic vintners fermented South Caucasus grapes in large clay vessels buried underground. The bottle of Georgian wine that we shared certainly impressed and made us think we should get better acquainted with wines from this part of the world.<\/p>\n

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Armenian wine is available at Yan\u2019s Restaurant on Murray Street in the ByWard Market.<\/p>\n

The dessert offerings at Yan\u2019s are limited to pakhlava, Armenia\u2019s version of baklava, and a less interesting meringue dessert.<\/p>\n

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Pakhlava at Yan\u2019s Restaurant in the ByWard Market.<\/p>\n

Service here has been polished and hospitable, even if the restaurant is run by novices to the restaurant business. It helps that Georgian expat Dima Korotkov is a seasoned server and bartender with experience in Ukraine, the Netherlands and Canada.<\/p>\n

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The bar at Yan\u2019s Restaurant is on Murray Street in Ottawa, helmed by Dima Korotkov.<\/p>\n

I could end cheekily and say that Yan\u2019s is Ottawa\u2019s best Armenian\/Georgian restaurant, when of course it has no competition. The better point to make is that Yan\u2019s makes Ottawa\u2019s dining scene more diverse, which can only be a good thing. Even more meaningfully, this is a restaurant that brings something new to the ByWard Market and to Ottawa, and it has high standards, ambition and pride going for it.<\/p>\n

phum@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Yan\u2019s Restaurant<\/p>\n

86 Murray St., instagram.com\/yansrestaurant<\/a><\/p>\n

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Khashlama lamb stew at Yan\u2019s Restaurant in the ByWard Market.<\/p>\n

Open: Tuesday to Friday 5 to 11 p.m., Saturday, Sunday noon to 11 p.m., closed Monday<\/p>\n

Prices: platters and stews from $16 to $38<\/p>\n

Want to stay in the know about what\u2019s happening in Ottawa?\u00a0Sign up for the\u00a0Ottawa Citizen\u2019s arts and life newsletter \u2014 Ottawa, Out of Office<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 our weekly guide to eating, listening, reading, watching, playing, hanging, learning and living well in the capital.<\/p>\n

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