This is a fabulous place, situated in Abbeyhill is a gem of a place  to have a slightly different dining experience in Edinburgh. When I first heard of this eatery, run single handedly by an Armenian monk, I had to try & book a table for a group of friends & myself to see what it was like.

Initially, I called to enquire about costs & how many were needed to make the evening worth wile for him. I called and left a message & got a reply about 3 weeks later. He was calling from a telephone box & said he only had 20p. I said to hang up & I would call back & he seemed very surprised at the technology of me being able to call back to a phone box!!!

He was delightful to talk to & we arranged an evening for me to take 9 quests. I think it was £20 a head & he would not disclose what would be served.

When we got there, ( on time, as we were warned that late commers were normally refused entry ) we were led through a dark & cluttered hallway, full of old bicycle parts, carpets & fishing nets, to the dining room with the most dusty, ecclectic collection of Armenian posters, more carpets, fishing nets & parts of bicycles.

Were served dish after dish after dish, each one fairly rustic, & very delicious.

Unfortunately I cannot find the photographs that I took that night, but that does give me more reason to book there again. For great food & unusal & brilliant service I give this quirky eatery 10/10. It was just like I had imagined  except for the fact that the said monk was a total sweet gentleman & not the grumpy individual that we were expecting after seeing other reviews prior to our fantastic dinner date. I hope to add photos to this blog post later in the hopes that I can find them sometime.

Below is a review by one of our friends who was dining with us that night.

The Armenian Aghtmar Lake Van Monastry in Exile is a place, once eaten at, never forgotten.

: We were greeted by the proprietor and led through a candle-lit passageway to a cavernous room decorated with enormous flags, rusty bicycles, traffic cones, church pewes and a moose head staring down on our table. The room itself was quite cold but thankfully a candle was provided for us to sit round- when it got really cold, we lit it. The walls were festooned with various images/photos/ of Armenian culture ( sheet music, stern looking soviet faces, “Visit aRMENIA tURISTIC ADVERTS ETC). The toilets were very atmospheric, retaining a kind of ‘never been painted in 30yrs feel’, a tin of ‘VIM’ which had sort of morphed itself to the window sill, beneath the most cobwebbed net curtain this side of the iron curtain itself, completed the scene. Once seated our host appeared & disappeared over and over again, each time arriving with a different course of fayre ranging from traditional Armenian bread to stewd brussel sprouts, an amazing mixed sald, stuffed peppers, chicken risotto, and others before climaxing with a fresh summer fruit ( Armenian style) sorbet followed by (non) turkish coffee. Halfway through the meal our host asked if we would “like to listen to some music”? we agreed and were treated to a medley of traditional Armenian marching music from his impressive selection of old 78’s. Later one of our party asked our host if he would like to listen to some of our music? replying ‘yes’, my friend granted his wish by playing a medley of classic KISS songs on his “flying V” Ukelele! - I’m sure you will agree, a truly unforgettable experience! The possibly 10 course ( I lost count) banquet was washed down with a couple of bottles of Spanish laughing juice, making the whole affair most agreeable indeed. Recommended. PS be patient, it took us half a dozen phone calls to pin him down/agree a date & time, well worth the wait tho!