Varouj is an incredible Armenian restaurant located in a tight backstreet of Bourj Hammoud in Lebanon. The place is tiny on the inside with only 4 tables and the restaurant is run by a father and son, the son cooks while the father takes care of the guests. Anyone who’s watched the Seinfeld episode with the soup Nazi will feel right at home in Varouj because the father is Lebanon’s version of the soup Nazi.
What makes Varouj unique other than the really good food is the character of the father. We were five people having lunch and we were ordering the cold appetizers when the father decided we had enough appetizers and walked away. He wouldn’t let us order any more. Then when he felt it was time he came to us and asked us what hot dishes we wanted and while we were ordering he again told us that he thought we had enough and walked off. We wanted frogs for example but he refused telling us we already had enough dishes. Then later he even decided to cancel one of our other dishes. So we ordered frogs again and again but he kept telling us we didn’t need it. The table behind us called the father and told him they wanted some soujouk and makanek (kinds of sausages) and he told them not now later. Its crazy. He also wouldn’t remove a dish from the table unless it was wiped clean.
The food was delicious, we ordered: hommos, moutabal, fattoush, loubyeh, batata harra, labneh, tongue, spleen, kibeh neyeh, sheep balls, little birds, chicken liver, chicken wings, basterma, soujouk and makanek. All the dishes were the best I have ever tasted.
The way everything is priced is also interesting. Basically nothing is priced and there is no menu. You go in, you order what you want and in the end he will tell you how much you need to pay and you don’t even get a receipt. Our bill came out exactly 100$ but according to my friend if we had ordered less or more the bill would have still come out the same. If you are planning a trip to Lebanon this is a place you need to try if you want a taste of local cuisine. The best way to find the place is to ask a taxi driver in Bourj Hammoud to take you or give the father a call on 03-882933
30 replies on “Lebanon: Varouj Restaurant”
Anywhere else in the world, this would be strange…But not in Lebanon 😀
Sheep balls…. *shrug*
That’s hilarious. I like this guy. He’s better than the soup nazi.
But…spleen, sheep balls?
I’ve lost all interest in lunch for the day.
Sheep penis tastes even better
sheep balls = fatayil ‘3anam .. rounded pieces of lamb and its not testicles !
actually, sheep balls = bayd ghanam and they are lamb testicles
So erm… How did it taste like? Doesn’t really seem like something I can bring myself to eat @_@
Sheep balls and little birds…
Can’t stop laughing.
Mark, stop making things up.
if this was in kuwait:
the restaurant would get half a star, for the good food
by now you would have emailed a couple ppl about the awful experience that you got.
but…lebanon, ghair 😛
The armenian community in lebanon is very interesting, i went to 3anjar, 4 years ago, the shops and most of the shop banners where in armenian, and a big chunk of them speak arabic poorly, they don’t have “he” and “she” in there language (it causes a lot of confusing for new comers), so don’t be surprised (or feel less of a man 😛 ) if someone called you “inty” in lebanon.
“hommos, moutabal, loubyeh, tongue, kibeh neyeh, little birds, chicken liver, chicken wings, basterma, soujouk and makanek”
…. your making my mouth water :-|*
some people will eat anything……
love how Rollen left out the sheep balls from the list 😛
So basically this guy is trying to get away with giving you less amount of food while still charging you $100…
and thats good how???
didn’t u notice that there was no reception in the rest. The father thinks its rude to talk when ur eating ..
sheep balls thats bloody disgusting!
what makes people keep going back to the soup nazi?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Yeganeh
Ok food with horrible service and ripoff prices. Sounds like most places here.
No receipt.. isn’t ther a consumer law against that?? for obvious reasons
And is it true that most restaurants there have two menus with different prices, the cheaper one for the lebanese, and the expensive one for the rest.
2 menus? no never heard of that, probably just an urban legend.
“Armenian food” sounds awfully like Lebanese food.
And you shouldn’t have paid more than $25 for what you ate. $100 for what is basically a bunch of appetizers is just WRONG.
Talal $25 is like two appetizers at al mayas or bourj hamam.
Sounds more interesting than the over-rated Mayyass… although I usually go to Meyrig in Gemmayzeh for good Armenian cuisine
What if he said that I need to pay $100 and I thought what we had was not worth $100 and refused to pay $100 but paid something else? Would he take whatever I pay without arguing ?
I just don’t get the point of having no menu and no receipt ..
Try to visit Appo its in burj hammod as well and order special kafta its a must..
Armenian food is the best, ask a half armenian 😀 nothing beats sojouk!
hehehe my parents went to varouj 5 days ago!! they described it in the exact same way!!
Armenian food is the best, & Varouj even it is a very humble rest, & like somebody said a half star rest, there is a lot of rich people & politicals comes to visit them, just to taste the delicious frogs, it is shame that he din’t serve you that, but not to forget the soujouk & basterma is so famous in Armenian cuisine & so tasty yummi.
The father, I know him very well he is so funny because he keeps on drinking :s he is drunk all the time.
And the no receipt thing is so common in Lebanon they don’t give it so they don’t declare it, but in Bourj-Hammoud specially, they don’t have to declare anything anyways.
Omg, that’s (the father) a character we seldomly see nowadays. At least, the food is nice