This place is just fantastic. My husband and I walked in Friday around 9pm and it's lucky I called a half hour before coming as it was jammed. I advise reservations for everyone else. The waitress seemed very frazzled when she took our order, as another few customers came in soon after us. Her eyes kept on darting to them and back to us. It was a bit odd... But soon all was forgiven. I got the cabbage roulette with carrots and spicy walnut paste, and the beetroot purée with walnuts, garlic and spices for a starter. Let me say, the portions are quite hearty for a starter. Both were delicious. I was particularly pleased with the beetroot as it was diced finely. I got the lobio- red kidney beans with walnuts and seasonings with "salad" and bread as well. It's served like a chili in a piping hot clay bowl-like item. The salad is just pickles and pickled veg but I loved it! The bread is just sadly white bread. My husband ordered the stellar Georgian cheese bread- khachapuri- which is just so damn good. It reminds me of stuffed crust Pizza Hut bread I had when I was a kid but SO MUCH BETTER. My husband got the Besides the food, this place gets top marks for giving both a brandy,a glass of white wine AND a Diet Coke on the house. Also we got a jug of water which I was eternally grateful as 90% of restaurants I've been to in London won't. (I drink water like a fish). The house wines- both the white and red- are fantastic. The white is a great dry wine and the red has a full-bodied flavour. Overall we loved it and can't wait to return. read more

Tbilisi - Georgian cheese bread, cabbage roulette on the left and beetroot purée with garlic, walnuts and spices on the right. - Wine Bars Near Me - London, XGL

Having recently visited Georgia my friend and I are now obsessed with Georgian food. Tbilisi had everything we wanted: Badrijani - aubergines with walnut paste. I actually preferred this version to the many versions we tried in Georgia, not so bitter Ajabsabdali: ratatouille, excellent Khinkali - spicy meat dumplings. Highly recommended although texture not quite as good as in Georgia itself, the filling was great though Lobiani: red bean filled flat bread. Very good although could have been toasted a bit more for my taste (I took some home and toasted it more though, so it all worked out). If this is your first Georgian food experience though, you should go for hachapuri We also got a chicken dish with walnut sauce which I think was called satsivee. To be honest at this point I was too full to cope with it so cannot remember what it was like - pretty good but overall I would focus on the above mentioned starters/khinkali/bread on future visits. That's what I like! And for drinks, plenty of Georgian wine but I went to town the Georgian lemonade. Georgian lemonade actually comes in multiple flavours - my personal favourite is pear but grape and cream (like cream soda) were also delicious. They also have the tarragon flavour I was too chicken to try on our trip...one day....maybe. Highly highly recommended for good quality, authentic Georgian food, drink and polyphonic singing! read more

Our second very enjoyable Georgian restaurant on the trip. Both were crowded and we felt lucky to get a table without reservations. Departing the underground we encountered a massive police presence...for the Arsenal match...the crowd parading down the street to the stadium provided quite a show during dinner. Sitting at the front of the restaurant provided great people watching. The menu was not really vegetarian friendly, with no vegetarian mains, and you needed to study the ingredients to figure out what was safe to order. That said, there were multiple starters that we combined to create a family style small plate dining event. All were good, service was excellent, and if we are ever back with Arsenal tickets we will certainly make time for dinner here. read more

Went there on a weekday night with a reservation. No reservation was needed during our whole stay there. Service was good and quick, though that may have been due to small number of people inside. One tip. Don't sit anywhere near the entrance, area behind the bar and closer to the toilets is nicer and more homely. With old-fashioned dressers and cupboards nicely arranged. There was even some kind of a living room in the back, behind toilets with some kids. All creates this interesting atmosphere that I personally associate with Ural areas (never been there so take it with a grain of salt). And nope the kids in the back weren't too loud, they added to the experience though. Food was great. I had to start with the cheese starter which was great, I continued with spicy chicken in red sauce. I really liked it. It wasn't very spicy but the taste was to me quite unique without being alien. It was served with some sort of bread rather than rice etc. I quite appreciated that though I'm personally a big fan of any kind of bread with a meal. I also thought that it would have been nicer if they gave more of that bread. I'm big bread eater so maybe that's why I thought there was slightly too little bread at the end. Overall great place. Will go again and recommend it. Good place and atmosphere. Wasn't revolutionary for me so I'm not rating 5 stars. No other reason. read more

Tbilisi - Wine Bars Near Me - London, XGL

Prices were nice but food was just okay. After I have been telling my partner for weeks now that we are going to Georgia for the summer adventure, we stumbled upon this place. Clean, and well decorated, quiet wait person (just one for the entire place - hence the wait) We ordered: - hachapuri - cheese bread - eggplant with hazelnuts - pork kebab - slow roasted lamb with coriander Seriously, throughout the dinner I was telling him that food in Georgia is SO much better! Also why the heck they gave us butter knifes for our lamb and pork kebab?? read more

What a delightful surprise on the otherwise mundane and busy Holloway Road. I'd always been curious about Tbilisi and was so happy to have finally gone in to have my first taste of Georgian food. From the beginning, the generous pours of local Georgian wine and the melt-in-your-mouth cheesy bread starter had me hooked. Add the friendly and helpful service and the enormous portion sizes and you've got a meal that's not only flavorful and delicious but also reasonable on the wallet. A great option that is a far cry from the typical Upper Street chain restaurants and much more personal, Tbilisi is definitely worth a try and I can't wait to go back there myself! read more

Tbilisi - Wine Bars Near Me - London, XGL

Tbilisi is in a convenient location near Highbury and Islington station, it doesn't look like much from the outside but there are a lot of tables inside and the food is great. This is the only time I've had Georgian cuisine and it was quite a surprise. They even have some vegan friendly options! I don't remember all the names but the bread stuffed with mashed beans is really nice and there's a veggie stuffed aubergine dish that comes with potatoes (basically fancy chips) that was tasty. For the non veggies the dumplings seem to be the restaurant's specialty as well as the bread stuffed with cheese that you break open and mix an egg into. We had a couple bottles of Georgian wine, one red and one white. The red was better than the white, quite good actually. But I thought the prices were a bit high for wine from someplace that's not especially known for making great wine. read more

As a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer that served in Georgia, I was incredibly excited to know that going to London meant the opportunity to have legitimate Georgian food since I ended my service six months ago. So with my fellow Georgia RPCV, we trekked alllll the way out to Balham, to a little restaurant called "The Georgian". Our excitement waned as we opened the door and a cute, blonde, extremely English waitress greeted us. Upon viewing the menu it became obvious that the food at the restaurant was English with the occasional twist of "Georgian" thrown in there. We immediately left and came to "Tbilisi", across town in Holloway. We couldn't have made a better decision. While the decor isn't Georgian in the slightest, the hostess Tako was clearly Georgian, and we were all giddy to speak Georgian together. The food is, also, blessedly extremely Georgian. The khachapuri, khinkali, ispanakhi, ajapsandali, chikhirtma - everything we ordered was absolutely phenomenal, and all washed down with Borjomi mineral water and Zedazeni pear soda. If you want authentic Georgian food and can't make it to the REAL Tbilisi, Georgia, try here. read more

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The restaurant looks nice and the staff could be a bit nicer but otherwise it is an ok restaurant. It was nice to try Georgian food but it was not memorable enough that I would like to come back. I had pelmini for starter and then some handmade sausages. Both plates were ok but a bit bland. Some of my friends also complain that the food was not warm when it arrived read more

Summary: Solid, inexpensive Georgian food. Came here on a weekday night, and the restaurant had only a few tables filled. Service was a bit slow but nice. As far as the food, I have to give a general caveat that I don't know anything about Georgian food and have never tried it before, so take the below with a grain of salt. Tried a starter sampler of which they were kind enough to provide a half-portion, with cheese bread (meruli khachapuri), minced cooked spinach salad (ispanakhi), and aubergine/eggplant salad (ajapsandali). They were all good and savory, especially the cheese bread. For the main course I tried the dumplings (khinkali), which the waitress recommended when I asked for something very typical and local. They were similar to Chinese steamed buns w/ thick moist dense skin, and ground beef in the middle. Served w/ pepper on top. Was decent, but assuming what I tried was typical, was just ok. Would come back again to try the other dishes. read more

This is my first time to try Georgian food, I have never heard of it before due to I used to live in China. And this is awesome, I had the vegetarian dish and it's brilliant, it's good combination of west and east. The dish is quite big, good value of money. Highly recommend. read more

I have never had Georgian cuisine before and decided to check this place out after seeing it on many cheap eat lists. We started off with a beet appetizer and cheese bread wow very tasty. We had the eggplant with walnuts and stuffed peppers- very vegetarian friendly and delicious. Wish I lived in london so I could go back! read more

Food was good. We had two soups, very tasty. On the other hand the service was quite slow. It's a Monday evening and the only waitress seems overwhelmed. Recommended if you're not in a rush read more

Not having any experience with Georgian food, we thought we would give this a try. A quiet unassuming restaurant that does home cooking that is reasonably priced. We tried the mixed entree (choice of 3) that had the mince bread, pork liver with pomegranate (excellent if you feeling adventurous) and potato salad. For the mains, lamb with tarragon (which is more of a broth with lamb, it was good though), and beef stew/goulash. They have Georgian wines, a menu which is understated but interesting, and reasonably priced. 3 starter mix was about £15, and mains were from £9 - £12. Dessert available too, but we were too full to try. Wholesome, good food with flavours that you know, but done differently enough to keep you interested. read more

People don't usually know, but Georgian food is the best in the world. OK, one of the best three anyway. I am a huge fan and I think people should be educated about it. And in London we are lucky enough to have a few decent restaurants that serve delicacies from that little known country in the Caucasus. The Tbilisi in Holloway Road was a late discovery for me: it is a bit far from my usual haunts. But I'm glad I found it. On hindsight, I should have starved myself before going there: unfortunately I had a few nibbles during the day so I was not able to try too many things. But there were 3 of us so the evening was all about caring and sharing. As starters, besides the mandatory khachapuri (the tasty cheese bred which is a national symbol), we decided to go for soko (mushrooms) which was exceedingly tasty, and badrijani (aubergines stuffed with walnuts and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds), which is probably the best I have tried outside Georgia. As main course, I was quite keen to sample at least one of their meat dishes (their ojakhuri looked tempting), but as we were all running out of stomach space, we limited ourselves to the main reason of our visit there: the khinkali. For those who are not familiar, they are big dumplings filled with mildly spiced meat. Make sure you order them as soon as you arrive, as it takes 45 minutes to prepare them. Also, because the meat is actually cooked inside the dumplings, as part of the filling you get also some lovely juice. There is a useful technique you should learn of biting and sucking to avoid wasting it. We accompanied the meal with some Saperavi red wine (as a side note, Georgia is known to be the cradle of wine) and Borjomi water. To wrap up we toasted to the successful evening with a shot of chacha, the Georgian strong spirit made of grape. And the wallet didn't cry too much: it is cheaper than other Georgian restaurants I've checked out in London. I'm pretty sure they will see my face there again. read more