Lalime's is located in the Westbrae neighborhood of Berkeley on Gilman Street and is open for dinner seven days a week. We are offering selections from our a la carte menu as well as special dinners during September and October. Please note that the a la carte menu is subject to change.

  • Fonda Solana, 1501 Solano Ave., Albany (510) 559-9006.
    Fonda is open for lunch at 11:30 am everyday
  • Jimmy Bean's, 1290 Sixth Street @ Gilman, Berkeley.
    Jimmy Bean’s now serves dinner! Open nightly
  • Sea Salt, 2512 San Pablo Avenue (at Dwight Way), (510) 883-1720.
    Sea Salt has been serving a Saturday and Sunday Brunch
    From 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
    Join us in our backyard garden, it’s beautiful
  • T-Rex BBQ, 10th and Gilman, Berkeley (510) 527- 0099
    At T-Rex we have been serving Brunch for quite sometime now
    Saturdays and Sundays
    From 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Expanded private dining facilities

We are now proud to offer a wide range of private dining areas and banquet facilities for parties ranging in size from 10 to 100 people. From T-Rex and Fonda's casual styles to the more elegant settings of Sea Salt and Lalime's, we can work with you to create the perfect atmosphere for your event while providing the food and service you already know and love. Let us make your event a success!

For further inquiries or to book an event please contact
Beirut Beik at 510-559-7023 x12 (office)
510-813-1060 (mobile)

Dinner at Home

It’s fun to have dinner at home once in a while. We do eat out a lot, mostly in our restaurants, but sometimes we stay home and cook.

It’s not always Armenian food, but when it is, it’s a lot of fun to make. It brings back memories of my childhood in the Middle East with my mom and my aunt, Shoghig, and, of course, my father grilling (we didn’t call it a barbecue).

I recently felt like cooking an Armenian dinner at home. What is an Armenian meal? Well, there are things that you may have had (e.g. hummous, babaghanouj, tabouli etc.) but here are some other dishes.

My daughter has been working on perfecting her dolma cooking techniques. Now, in our culture, dolma means stuffed. What you know as ‘dolma’, as in stuffed grape leaves, we call ‘sarma’, because sarma means rolled. Anyway, this particular evening we had dolma with zucchini, eggplant, Anaheim pepper, onions and potatoes. The stuffing has basmati rice, ground beef, lots of garlic, tomatoes, onions, etc. The aroma in the house is wonderful once you put that in the oven to cook. In the mean time, you throw two or three large eggplants on the grill (or in the oven) to cook for babaghanouj. While the eggplant is cooking you can make the hummous. Back home, there was no such thing as opening a can of garbanzo. You soak the dry garbanzos overnight and cook them the next day, let them cool down and then make the hummous. We still make it that way, but the canned version works if you are in a pinch.

What else… The dolma is in the oven, the hummous is made and in our house we always put out some cheese. Haloum is a good one, labne with some olives would be fun, cucumbers to munch on and you can even have some pistachios for those willing to shell them.

If you have a sister that lives across the street like I do, she’ll bring the beureks (this you know as Spanakopita). These are great appetizers; you pop them in the oven just as everyone is milling around (in our case the mingling area is the kitchen). You do need my brother and my friend Mark, because they’ll bring over some great wines. So while everything is in progress, you can open a bottle of Zind Humbrecht or Chateau Musar.

Now if you’re lucky enough to have your mom living with you, there will always be kibbeh in the freezer, which is so good as an appetizer (you do need to bring it down from the freezer the night before), fry a few as people arrive and offer it with the hummous.

Now you have the kibbeh frying, the beureks baking, there’s hummous, labne and haloum to nibble on, you are enjoying the wine, then Mom says, "You want me to peel the eggplant?" It took me a while to say yes, "Sure Mom, go ahead."

So you are saying, but what goes on the grill? Well, this used to be my dad’s specialty. Mom would marinate the chicken the night before, in lemon juice, lots and lots of garlic, salt and pepper and olive oil. My dad was the grill man. To date that was the best chicken ever, I’m serious, ever. You can’t ever replicate those moments, the taste is in the memory. My dad is no longer with us and Mom doesn’t marinate the chicken any more, but you bet your life, there’s chicken ready to go on the grill and my brother-in-law Barry has the grill ready. He’s the new grill man. There’s a few last touches as the chicken hits the grill. Throw some butter in a pan, let it sizzle, add the vermicelli (crumbled of course), let it get to golden brown, add the rice, let it sizzle as well, add some salt, top with water, cover to cook, then you dress the salad: romaine lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions, lemon and olive oil dressing.

So it’s time to bring everyone to the table. The dolma is out of the oven steaming hot, the chicken comes right off the grill and goes on top of the rice, the salad is sitting to the side and bring whatever hummous, kibbeh and beureks that are left. Did mom peel the eggplant? She did. So, while they’re putting the food on the table, quickly make eggplant salad, thin red onion slices, some parsley leaves, garlic, lemon and olive oil.

O.K. we’re eating so I’ll have to tell you about the desserts another time.

Anoush Ella!

-Haig Krikorian

Short movies about Lalimes (Quicktime Windows Media) , Fonda (Quicktime Windows Media) and Jimmy Bean's (Quicktime Windows Media)

San Francisco Chronicle review of Lalime's by Michael Bauer

"Restaurants in the Berkeley Area" review of Lalime's Restaurant by Lucille Poskanzer

Citysearch.com reviews