Mayrig is an authentic Armenian restaurant located at Downtown Dubai. I remember visiting Mayrig almost a year ago with my family. We had a wonderful experience. This time I was invited here for an exclusive cooking and dining experience with Aline Kamakian, founder and owner of Mayrig.
It was a special evening with fellow bloggers as we explored the authentic Armenian cuisine. We got an opportunity to cook a special Armenian dish with Aline, followed by a delicious Armenian dinner. Let me begin my culinary journey through Mayrig to Armenia.
We were welcomed by the friendly and vivacious Aline herself. She gave us an insight into Armenian cuisine and told us that Armenian cuisine is heavily influenced by the Lebanese cuisine and served in the same Mezze style.
As it was a cook and dine event. We were handed few receipe cards and we got to select the dishes we wanted to learn. After that we were taken to Mayrig’s kitchen in small batches, where Aline held her cooking demonstration.
Being a vegetarian, I opted to learn the Zeitoun Salad(olives salad). Our cooking session was followed by dinner with Aline.
Mayrig offers indoor and outdoor seating. As the weather was beautiful, our table was set outside. We tried a variety of dishes. What I really liked about the Armenian cuisine was the variety offered to vegetarians. They have good options for both vegetarians and non vegetarians. Here is the list of vegetarian dishes that I tried.
Itch or Armenian Tabbouleh was quite similar to the Lebanese one. The Armenian tabbouleh had more bulgar wheat and less parsley.
Zeitoun Salad was amazing. It had a mix of olives combined with red pepper paste, chopped tomatoes and onions, crushed walnuts, lemon juice and parsley.
Hummus is a simple dish and easy to make, you can’t go wrong with that.
After the cold appetizers, it was time for Mayrig selection of Kebbe. There were 3 varieties- Lentils, Potatoes and Raw Meat. I tried both the vegetarian Kebbe. They were too bland for my taste buds.
Lahme Beajine are the mini bread patties. They have both vegetarian and non vegetarian ones. The veggie topped bread was fantastic.
Printzov Keufteh was the crispy rice Kebbe.
Sidzou Patates were the spicy fried potatoes. They were spicy and tasty.
Sou Beureg was delicious, but quite heavy as it is a layered pastry made with three different kinds of cheese.
Mante is another Armenian dish that I liked. My blogger friends had the minced meat dumplings. I had the spinach dumpling. Mante comes with tomato sauce and yogurt that has to be poured over the dumplings. This dish is very unique and delicious.
For desserts, we were offered Banirov Maamoul(cheese Maamoul), Sare Bourms(Armenian style pakhlava), Moussa Ler(Ashta ice cream sprinkled with Lebanese cotton candy and pistachios) and a selection of ice cream like Rose, Lookoum, Megla and Halawa.
If you ask me which dessert was my favorite? I won’t be able to answer it. Each one of them was delicious and excellent in their own way. I suggest you to try them all.
Overall, I had an amazing experience, exploring the wonderful Armenian cuisine. The food, the service, the location and the ambience is good. I’ll definitely be going back soon.
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