Most restaurants have a patio. Raffi's Place is a patio that happens to have a restaurant attached to it. The place at 211 East Broadway in Glendale has been open since 1993, and the layout tells you where the priorities sit: a large outdoor courtyard laid out like a Mediterranean garden, and a comparatively small indoor dining room behind it. On any evening when the weather cooperates — which in Glendale is most of them — the inside room is for overflow and the courtyard is the actual restaurant.
The patio is the restaurant here, which makes the time you show up and the weather two halves of the same decision. Ask Karpo when the courtyard is comfortable tonight and how long the wait is running.
Persian and Armenian, and why both words are accurate
The kitchen is usually described as Persian and Middle Eastern, and Armenian at the same time, which is not marketing hedging. Glendale has one of the largest Armenian communities outside Armenia, and a substantial share of it came by way of Iran. The cooking that arrived with those families is genuinely both: the skewers and the rice are Persian in technique, the ownership and the dining room culture are Armenian, and nobody who grew up eating this food finds the combination confusing.
What that means at the table is that the menu will look familiar to anyone who has eaten in Tehran and equally familiar to anyone who has eaten in Yerevan, and the differences are in the details rather than the headline dishes.
What to order, and the part people get wrong
The house is famous for its kababs, and the anchor order is koobideh — seasoned ground meat pressed onto flat skewers and grilled fast over high heat — or chelo kebab, served with basmati rice and grilled vegetables. That is the correct first order and there is no need to be clever about it.
The mistake first-timers make is treating the rice as a side dish. In this cooking the rice is a construction: long-grain basmati, cooked so the grains stay separate, and the interaction between the rice, the juices from the meat and a grilled tomato squashed over the top is the actual dish. Order for the plate rather than for the protein, and do not ask for the rice to be swapped out.
Portions here have a reputation for abundance, which is worth calibrating for. A table of four ordering one skewer platter each will have food left over. A more useful approach is to order fewer mains than there are people and add a couple of appetisers to share.
Bread is the other thing to get right. Warm flatbread arrives at the start and it is very easy to eat most of it before the skewers appear, which is a mistake with portions this size. Treat it as a tool for the last third of the meal rather than as a starter, and use it the way the table next to you does — to pick up the grilled tomato and the last of the rice.
The courtyard is the reason to come, and the reason to time it
The outdoor space is the difference between this and the many other kebab houses within a mile. It is set up as a courtyard rather than as a row of sidewalk tables, which changes the volume, the light and how long people stay. Dinner on the patio in October is one of the genuinely pleasant ways to eat outdoors in Los Angeles County.
The corollary is that it is exposed. Glendale gets hot in the afternoon and the courtyard reflects it; in the coldest weeks of winter the evening turns cool faster than the indoor room suggests. Neither is a problem if you plan around it. Aim for the back half of the evening in summer and the front half in winter.
It is also a loud room in the best sense. This is a family restaurant in a neighbourhood full of large families, and on a Saturday evening the courtyard is full of multi-generation tables that have clearly been coming for years. If you want a quiet dinner for two, come on a weeknight; if you are bringing six people and do not want to apologise for the noise, the weekend is exactly right.
Downtown Glendale around it
East Broadway sits in the middle of downtown Glendale, a few minutes' walk from Brand Boulevard and the shopping and cinema blocks around it, which makes the restaurant unusually easy to combine with something else. Parking in downtown Glendale is genuinely easier than almost anywhere comparable in Los Angeles, with several large structures within a short walk.
It is also worth walking a block or two either side after dinner. This part of Glendale has a concentration of Armenian bakeries and pastry shops, and finishing with coffee and something sweet from one of them is a better ending than ordering dessert at the table.
Practical notes
Raffi's Place is at 211 East Broadway, Glendale, CA 91205, phone (818) 240-7411, and has been open since 1993. Hours are Monday to Thursday 11:30am to 9pm, Friday and Saturday 11:30am to 10pm, and Sunday 11:30am to 9pm. The restaurant is built around a large outdoor courtyard with a smaller indoor dining room behind it — the patio is the main room, so time your visit to the weather. The kitchen is Persian and Armenian, and the anchor orders are koobideh and chelo kebab, both served with basmati rice and grilled vegetables. Portions are generous; order fewer mains than people and add shared appetisers. Downtown Glendale parking structures are a short walk away, and Armenian bakeries within a couple of blocks are the right place to finish.
Tags: #MediterraneanFood #GlendaleEats #RaffisPlace #PersianFood #ArmenianFood #Koobideh #Kebab #LosAngelesRestaurants #PatioDining #EastBroadway #ThingsToDoInLA #MediterraneanNearMe #LADining #CharcoalGrill
Sources consulted: raffisplace.com · downtownglendale.com · foodgps.com
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Ask Karpo first
Want to know whether the courtyard is comfortable tonight, how long the wait runs at peak, and where to get pastry afterwards? Ask Karpo for current Raffi's Place hours, a realistic arrival time for a patio table, and a short walk around downtown Glendale to finish the evening.
