Georgian cuisine lovers rejoice - I have just found another restaurant of Georgian food, this time in Estonian Capital city Tallinn. Discovered by accident during wanderings around Tallinn's Old Town, tried once back in Summer 2015.
Shortly I left St Michael's Swedish Church I noticed my darling was sitting on the stairs and finger pointed above her head - I smiled - something so familiar, something close.
Georgia Tavern Tbilisi in Tallinn (Ruutli street)
I entered this place and spoke out loudly: GAMARJOBA! All I was get in return was some cold faced Estonian skinhead waiter, replying me - what? I repeated - GAMARJOBA! and added SAKARTVELOS! The waiter looked at me as some nut guy, and told me that he cannot understand me. So, I asked, how can you name a place Georgian Tavern and not know what "Gamarjoba" means? Cold faced skinhead Estonian waiter mourned something. I continued - do you have a Georgian chef at least? Estonian dude pretended he doesn't understand English anymore and started to speak with me in Estonian. I was a bit pissed - and told him in Russian - позови шефа! (Ask for a chef).
While we we waiting for a chef, we decided to sit at the table in the restaurants yard
at Georgian Tavern in Tallinn
So after couple of minutes Georgian chef come to our table, seemed very encaustic, because of probably thought some fellow Georgians have arrived to Tallinn, so chef started a conversation with me in Georgian. Unfortunately I was not able to catch up all the conversation, so I briefly ordered kalakuri, ara kindza, ori turkuli kava (khinkali without kindza, and two Turkish coffees). He gave me very confused look - like why are you yelling - give me a Georgian chef, if you cant have longer conversations than ori turkuli kava... ?
Tbilisi signboard
Turkish coffee in Estonian manner
Well, such a big cup of Turkish coffee made me smile. Estonian interpretation.
Khinkali at Georgian Tavern in Tallinn
Now, those were the most expensive khinkali I have ever tried, a piece comes for EUR 2 in Georgian Tavern in Tallinn, also strangely it was served with sour cream accompanied with adjika. Did they tasted like khinkali? Nope, not at all, more some meatballs wrapped in 2 cm thick dough with adjika dressing. Basically which probably means not every Georgian is a chef or as I like to think, they were not made by Georgian chef this time.
The Bottom Line
If you are looking for real Georgian cuisine, come to Georgia and enjoy your meal at any (I mean any) local restaurant, The Georgian Tavern in Tallinn is a weak reflection of Georgian cuisine, but for touristic reasons, yeah, why not, give it a try! See Tbilisi restaurants