Toluca Lake’s Zankou Chicken Serves Up Tasty, Healthy Fast Food

, with locations throughout Los Angles, has been serving up tasty Mediterranean Armenian-style fare since 1962.

The first Zankou opened in Beirut in the early 1960s. After 20 years in Lebanon, the owners moved to L.A. and opened Zankou Chicken in 1984 in Hollywood and have been expanding all over Southern California.

A few years ago, a Zankou popped up on Riverside Drive in Toluca Lake. I had heard rave reviews for years about the chain’s signature juicy, roasted chicken and addictive garlic sauce.

One visit was enough to get hooked. I now dine, either sit-down or take-out, at my Zankou at least once a week. You just can’t beat their golden-brown, tender, moist rotisserie chicken in all its various forms.

Our neighborhood Zankou has plenty of tables and booths with big windows for eating inside. Rows of stainless steel chicken rotisseries are on display inside as well as large spits holding roasted meats reading to be sliced. There is also a nice patio for al fresco dining.

The menu selections are divided into sandwiches, rotisserie chicken, plates of kebabs, shawerma, falafel, sides and salads. The plates include shish kebabs of chicken or beef, falafels and shawermas and come with pita bread, rice, hummus, roasted tomatoes, onions and pickled turnips. The rotisserie chicken can be ordered whole or in half-sizes and is marinated in an assortment of herbs and spices.

Then there is the garlic sauce. A snow white paste resembling cream cheese that has a huge garlic flavor. It comes with anything you order and is delicious. I could easily eat a huge vat of their sauce.

Vegetarians can enjoy the falafels and mutabbi. The falafel is a combination of garbanzo and fava beans and split peas that is rolled into a ball and deep fried in peanut oil. The mutabbi is a side dish made of grilled eggplant and garlic topped with olive oil and paprika.  Zankou also has great tabbouleh, a Middle Eastern salad of bulghur wheat and parsley.

The next time you need a break from cooking head to our neighborhood Zankou. You can’t beat the price or the roasted chicken.  And the sauce. The heavenly addictive garlic sauce.