RESTAURANTS • First Person
Fans of Mini Kabob know Armen Martirosyan as the affable host and adept grill cook behind the exceptional Armenian takeaway spot in Glendale. Alongside his parents, he’s won over the hearts and taste buds of many Angelenos, myself included. Nowadays, you’ll more likely find him in Silver Lake, manning the flames at MidEast Tacos, the Mexican fusion spinoff he opened late last month.
MidEast Tacos has been heralded as an only-in-LA spot, two cuisines melded to novel effect. This is true. The menu is essentially Mini Kabob(s) wrapped into burritos, folded into tacos, and pressed as quesadillas. Moist and crispy falafel (the best in town) come on a corn tortilla with avocado salsa, Thai basil, and toum árbol. The chicken burrito, consisting of kebab and seasoned long-grain rice, tastes like a kabob plate at Mini Kabob. And the cottage fries, sprinkled with Aleppo pepper and paired with Mexican-Armenian aioli, are dangerously good.
Situated on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Maltman Ave (the former home of cool-kid Israeli restaurant Mh Zh), MidEast Tacos is a counter-service shop with a bare-bones interior. Takeout is welcome, even advised, although some sidewalk seating means you can eat your burrito while it’s still hot.
All in all, the food, the homespun Martirosyan-helmed counter service, the building, the gestalt: it works, all the time, if not as something particularly well-suited to late-night (especially post-drinks) eating. Fittingly, it’s open daily from 11a through 10p, a generous operating schedule for today’s Los Angeles, of which MidEast is otherwise unmistakably of, and primed to thrive in. –Emily Wilson
→ MidEast Tacos (Silver Lake) • 1356 Allison Ave. • Daily, 11a-10p.