Sam why are you not walking in the safety of this tunnel? An open space here. Come on. Come on. So it is lunchtime
here in Kiev (Kyiv - Київ - Киев) we've been here in the city for about a week and today we've decided
to take you for Georgian food because we've noticed Georgian cuisine (ქართული სამზარეულო) is super
popular in the city there's actually this one street where there's like a
whole bunch of Georgian restaurants right next to each other so we figured
if the food is this popular we need to make a food video so yeah we're on our way for
lunch. And this is how you cross busy streets in Kiev (Kyiv - Київ - Киев) through underpasses so
there is lots of climbing and descending stairs. Sam is a man on a mission
marching towards the Georgian restaurant. No one is going to get between him and
his food. Stomp, stomp, stomp.
So what do we know about Georgian food? Well we've never actually traveled to
Georgia at least not yet so we're not that familiar with this food although we
did visit this restaurant a few days ago and it was so good that was like we have
to come back over. But what we do know is that Georgian cuisine is a mix of
European and Middle Eastern influences so that should be very exciting. Alright
so the first thing has arrived and that is my Georgian red wine it is a
Saperavi which is a dry red wine which comes from Saperavi grapes and I had this
last time and it's so good and when they asked me like do you want to small glass or a big
glass I'm like make it big and these are black grapes. Saperavi. Alright so at this
restaurant you get some free appetizers so we've got a nice little mix of breads
cucumbers this little bowl with like coarse salt and spices and you also get
four little dipping sauces so we've had these before these two are really hot
especially the green peppers yes and then we've got some beetroot and I
believe this one is cheese yeah it's like kind of similar to like a cream cheese
consistency let's go for the spicy one though.
Oh man, this could be trouble. It's firey. And then ooh oh man then you've got the cucumbers
which are nice and refreshing So you can dip this right into the Salt
and the spice. And yeah big bite. It's good. Isn't that good?
Okay time for the first dish. Yes, so ordered a Georgian salad here
and it has basic ingredients it's just tomatoes, cucumbers and onions and you
can see all those quite clearly and it comes with a kind of a nutty based dressing. Yeah, a walnut dressing.
yeah so let's try that so I read it has been compared to a Greek
salad minus the feta. Mmm. Yeah, I can see that. I can see the comparison yeah the dressing is actually
not strong it has a bit of a nutty taste. It is light. Yeah, all the ingredients
are nice and fresh. It looks good. I really like the tomatoes. That is good stuff. Good to get some
veggies in before the heavier dishes come along. Yes, indeed. Time for the next course and I'm actually gonna have to read the name
for this one because it's a little complicated. it's called Badrijani Nigvzit (ბადრიჯანი). And
this is eggplant rolls with a walnut paste and it just looks beautiful. Basically they
cook the walnut until it's soft and then they roll it up with a walnut
paste that also has spices and vinegar. They also put a little dollop on top with some
pomegranate seeds and yeah it's just so beautiful it's beautiful it's art it's
arts on my plate and it's so good I already tried this one
last time came to this restaurant and it was so good we were like yeah we're ordering this
again what say you? I just love the walnut paste. It is so good. And there's more food. Wow. It just keeps coming guys. It just keeps coming faster than we can eat it. Haha.
so yeah the walnut piece it almost has like a like a hummus texture but with like
a really strong nutty flavor so it's really really good I would really
recommend trying this dish it's one of my favorites. Next dish is here yes the
next dish is here it is the Khachapuri (ხაჭაპური) and it comes with Sulguni cheese (სულგუნი)
which is similar to mozzarella basically if you take a look over here this kind
of looks like a like a Georgian pizza it's even been sliced like one it's sliced like little triangles and my gosh is that ever cheesy we had this last
time too. It was so so good. Yeah.
it's kind of like a salty cheese and this one comes with double cheese so it is
especially thick. Double the layers. It's very filling it's very dense so yeah if
you're looking to get filled up eating Georgian food (ქართული სამზარეულო) you'll definitely want to
order this with one of your dishes. It will it will make you feel stuff for
sure yeah and I think we're going to be taking some of it home. yes definitely we made
the mistake of eating the whole thing last time by the time dessert rolled
around we like kind of already done so next up we are trying dolma (tolma: ტოლმა) which if you
have a look over here it's basically like a grape leaf that has been
stuffed with minced beef rice some spices and it comes with this white
sauce it almost looks like I don't know some yogurt or sour cream based sauce
I have a feeling it might be sour cream. Yeah and this I'm actually trying to the first time so. Mmm. Is it nice?
That is good. Does the grape leaf give it a bit of a sour taste er no you know
the leaves are quite soft I was expecting them to be a little tougher
but they're really good. I like that. So I'm really curious to try this one as well I haven't had
it before so yeah they just look through like just the way the food is
presented at this restaurant is beautiful. Like a really like
a thing of art. Taking it for a swim.
I also like that these are bite-size yeah
mm-hmm oh my gosh that's so good so juicy that's the first thing that comes to
mind and you really do taste the meat inside as well
but you're right though the leaf is very soft yeah it's much softer than I
thought I thought it might have more of almost kind of a like a leathery texture
but not at all. That's very soft you just need to bite
right into it and for dessert like I don't even have room for dessert
but we're still going strong apparently we ordered a sampler plate that has four
different Georgian desserts so I don't know the names of these individually so
I'm just gonna read them right off the menu. So we are having Bagrationi (Napoleon). No, bagriationi. Yes. Pastilla
Gozinaki (გოზინაყი) and baked cookies with pelamushi (ფელამუში) and custard so I think I can
probably identify the cookies. The other three are
a bit of a mystery alright but I'm gonna start with this one because I've
had this before and it's good and where's my fork my fork has vanished
I'll just use my dirty Fork. Don't tell anyone. no here's a clean one there you go so
let's go like this so this is really nice in some
restaurants I've actually seen this called
like a Napoleon (Наполеонний торт - ნაპოლეონის ნამცხვარი) or Napolitan or something like that and it's basically
all these layers like pancake layers with cream in between. And it is so good. Isn't that good? It is so so good.
that's probably your favorite dessert. My favorite dessert that we've had here. so much
so I'm going in for bite number two It is just that cream. You're ensuring that I don't eat too much. that a custard is so nice and smooth and sweet.
And there's icing sugar on top. Man. Mmm.
and try another? Why don't you do one more? And then I'll have the other two. Okay this one.
This one is a bit of a mystery to me I don't know what the exterior is I keep thinking it's like a
fig paste of sorts maybe but I'm not entirely sure and then inside it's just
more custard more cream the same kind that I had in the previous cake. So yeah. Everything is just delicious.
I know. This is just such a nice way to end the meal isn't it? And did I mention we're having tea? No, you didn't. I'm having some Georgian tea. Black tea.
and we're trying this for the first time. We didn't order this. We just had wine so. How is that? It is good. It goes well with dessert.
Alright, so I'm going to try the other two. Down here for the walnuts and they're basic it's basically like walnuts and kind of
like a syrupy honey type consistency it looks like there's some icing sugar on
top oh look at that you can see the trail of stickiness
and you always devour that dessert. You don't bother sharing that one. I love. I absolutely love nuts so I mean this is right up my alley.
This sweetness like the syrup and the thickness added
to it really makes it nice mm-hmm alright and the last one for us to try
here and we're gonna have a bit of the dissection going on is the cookies and
then yeah as I'm opening it up here it's basically like a cookie shell yeah and
stuffed inside of that is appears to be like kind of like something like of a jam
like consistency yeah and there's also one with custard right next to it if you
open right the other one okay I'll do that for this too- yeah. Looking good.
Maybe you can make a Sandwich. I'm just gonna try one for now yeah the thing that surprised me
about these for me when we had it last time was that I thought the I thought
the cookie shelf would be more soft but it's actually kind of like it's a hard
and crumbly yeah so I don't know what the ingredients are for that one but to
me it tastes a bit like almonds like an almond cookie yeah yeah I would agree
yeah yeah just the texture of it when you're biting it it does remind me of an
almond cookie yeah that's really good that's also one of my favorites um it's
cool that like these two are my favorites and I think these two are your
favorites oh yeah it works that works out very well okay so this is our
receipt it comes in a little envelope sealed in the back and actually last
time we came here the lady handed us this letter and she's like before you go
here is the letter from Mama Manana (Mama Mahaha) that is the name of the restaurant and I was like oh
that is so sweet. like they give you a little letter and no it is the bill. Hahaha. Anyways, let's see what the damage is.
alright so time to assess the damage it came to 819 which is 31 US dollars so
it's just over fifteen dollars per person and yeah that's a bit of a splurge
meal in Kiev (Kyiv - Київ - Киев) but man we ordered so much food and I don't know if you can see this
but we are taking a big box home we could even finish it we were defeated by
it but their meal it was that good I hope this gives you a
bit of an idea of different types of Georgian food you can try basically
different things you can eat in terms of Georgian cuisine we really like that I
really love this restaurant highly recommended if you're visiting
in Kiev, Ukraine (Україна) and yeah I can get a chance to try George cuisine definitely do so I
don't think you'll be disappointed at all