Smoking Chef — Restaurant in Yerevan

Visited in April 2025. Armenia. Yerevan.

We stumbled upon this restaurant by chance, lured by good reviews, and were not disappointed. Bathed in light tones and flooded with sunshine through expansive windows, the space radiates a welcoming, airy vibe.

FOOD: This is a really place for meat lovers, with the menu revolving around grilled cuts and steaks, though other grilled delights feature too. We skipped the steaks this time, opting instead for a variety of starters to sample a broader spectrum of flavors. The tuna tartare with avocado was a highlight—both ingredients impeccably fresh and vibrant, though the passionfruit sauce felt like an unnecessary flourish. Crispy eggplants with tomatoes were delicious: a golden, crunchy exterior gave way to a tender core, paired beautifully with a sweet chili sauce—a classic done right. The shrimp tacos were tasty, with well-cooked prawns, but their diminutive tortillas made them tricky to eat without spillage—finesse required! The beef tacos, meanwhile, were excellent: tender, well-seasoned meat, but with a faint boiled undertone, yet harmoniously balanced by sauces and crisp cabbage. Juicy and expertly spiced, they hit the mark.

SERVICE: With the restaurant nearly empty, service was attentive, though dishes arrived a touch slower than expected for such a quiet setting. Still, the staff’s warmth left us with nothing but fond impressions.

VERDICT: I wholeheartedly recommend Smoking Chef—everything we tasted was delicious! Next time, the steaks are calling our name. A worthy stop for any...

They advertise themselves as one of the best steak restaurant in Yerevan. So we decided to visit them. The table was near the entrance door and the wind was blowing directly to me, which was the first inconvenience that I experiences. We ordered 2 medium stakes but we received 1 medium stake and 1 rare stake. When we asked them "is this a medium stakes?" to which the manager did not responded immediately (impression that she wanted to convince us that it is) but proposed to take away, cook a bit more and bring back. The second time we received the stake it was almost the same (max medium rare, attached image) but we were clear that we ordered medium stake. The second time we did not say anything and ate the stake. But when manager approached at the end I still let her know that we were not satisfied to which she started to blame me saying that I should have told her again that we are not satisfied with the stake. To me this was not a professional behavior at all. I think in the professional stake restaurant it is a shame to take away stake 2 times just to get the medium stake. Apart from that incident everything else was good, the food was very tasty. And I should also mention that the manager proposed a nice desert for free because of the incident (that is a nice move). And at the very end there was an additional water to the bill that we did not ordered. So overall our experience with Smoking Chef was not so good. I used to get the 10/10 service from Yeremyan Projects restaurants, which was not the case in...

I’ve read disappointing options so was a bit hesitant to order but decided to get the crispy eggplant for the starter and grilled chicken for the mains. SURPRISINGLY, the foods were very tasty. I’ve never tasted chicken grilled so savory like here around Yerevan. It feels like they marinated it to keep the inside of the meat tasty and the outside so smoky. And the crispy eggplant is really crispy. They used something like the sweet chili Asian sauce with it and the cherry tomato was perfect. I also loved that they welcomed us with a complimentary vegetable sticks especially we didn’t start with any drinks and the waiting time is a bit long but totally worth the wait. In other restaurants, vegetables are sold separately. Now, cost wise, expect here to be pricey and the environment to be more formal and fine dining. We like that it’s not as crowded as other restaurants and so we felt more privacy during the dining experience. I grabbed a pomegranate juice in the end but it wasn’t as good as outside mainly because it wasn’t really sifted well (not sure if it’s intentional but it was not convenient to drink). Not much variety of foods to choose from which gives a sign that they really specialize in grills and smokes. WE LOVE...