Shashlik stalls and casual restaurants line the road near the monastery and the beach areas. Pork, chicken, and vegetable skewers are grilled over charcoal and served on metal skewers with flatbread and raw onion. It is cheap, it smells good from a distance, and on summer weekends the whole stretch is busy with Yerevan families who have made a day of it.
If you arrive on a weekday in June or September the crowds are thin and the pace is slow. On a Saturday in July it is a different scene entirely.