Georgia. One of our favourite discoveries from last year! A place that amazes with beautiful, often unspoiled landscapes, friendly people, the atmosphere, wine from Kakheti and delicious food with cheese, aubergines, tomatoes, pomegranate and walnuts being its main players. We spent a week in Georgia during last year’s long May weekend – we visited picturesque Svaneti, Batumi tea fields known from the song, lively Tbilisi and astonishingly beautiful dessert terrains around David Gareja monastery complex. We ate more than a dozen different Khachapuri pastries (imeruli and adjaruli), lots of khinkali dumplings but also a lot of tomato and walnut salads, aubergines with nut paste and pomegranates! It was delicious! You can find our Georgian cuisine guide here.

Yesterday, almost a year after our trip to Georgia, we suddenly felt the need to bring back the culinary memories. There’s a few spots with Georgian cuisine in Warsaw. Our first choice was a little restaurant called Gaumarjos, located in Ursynów (Al. KEN 47). The owners have a second one in Piaseczno but it’s much too far for us!

We found the place quickly and entered… it doesn’t look stunning, it’s dark, not too cosy, a bit shabby in fact. I guess some renovation would work here – animal skins and tapestries on the walls… wires hanging below the ceiling! They should really do something about it! There’s a winery downstairs, selling wines to take away as well… first floor a few steps up and the second another few steps up. 8-10 tables altogether. a bit narrow, a bit too hot…

Well, let’s hope the food is better than the place!

khinkali, Georgian cuisine, Gaumarjos

khinkali – dumplings with minced meat and broth – PLN 20

Obviously, we go for things we best remember from Georgia. I want a hot khachapuri – a pastry with cheese (PLN 17) and Łukasz wants khinkali dumplings – quite large pouches filled with minced meat and broth to drink. The broth is crucial when it comes to khinkali and at the same time it makes eating the pouch the way Georgians do, quite difficult. You have to grab the khinkali correctly, bite it, drink the broth and then eat he rest.

We also order one aubergine roll stuffed with walnut paste with coriander and pomegranate (PLN 4 for a piece), one grilled capsicum roll stuffed the same way as the aubergine (also PLN 4 for a piece), and when it comes to main courses, we go for a capsicum tolma (PLN 25). For drinks we order a “must”: Borjomi Georgian water and red wine. There’s a lot of wines served by glass to choose from – 6-7 types of both red and white. We order Mukuzani and Napareuli. A glass of wine costs PLN 10-16 while a bottle costs PLN 50-80.

Everything is chosen, time try it!

aubergine, Georgian cuisine, Ursynów, Warsaw, Gaumarjos

a rolled aubergine was the most popular starter for us during our stay in Georgia

georgian cuisine, Gaumarjos, Ursynów, Warsaw, restaurants,capsicum

rolled capsicum: not to picturesque but tasty

tolma, Georgian cuisine, Warsaw, Georgian restaurant, Gaumarjos

capsicum tolma – capsicum stuffed with minced meat, served with tomato sauce and fresh coriander

We started our feast with the vegetable rolls. Both of them were really tasty and after the first bite we started remembering our first feast in Kutaisi that we had with some random guys from Warsaw we met on the airport. The flavour was 100% genuine! After the rolls, we got a huge khachapuri (I love it!) served with hot tomato sauce. Delicious!!! I already forgot how much I like it! What’s interesting, Maks liked it this time, even though he couldn’t even look at a khachapuri during our Georgian trip in 2013. This time he considered it a type of pizza and devoured his piece.

Khinkali dumplings were also identical to those we remembered from the restaurants in Tbilisi or Batumi. The problem was us – we definitely forgot how to eat them properly! 🙂 Before coming to Guamarjos we have never tried capsicum tolma. The capsicum was soft, it melted in my mouth, the meat was spiced well and the taste of coriander gave it a bit of an exotic feel. Worth recommending!

Gaumarjos is also worth recommending because they serve genuine Georgian dishes. You can feel that the owners David and Liana Gamtsemlidze as well as the chef Lela Czcheidze are native Georgians. No bummers – really tasty! Due to the interior design it’s not a good place for a romantic dinner, but a perfect one for lunch! 🙂

And if you find Georgian cuisine tasty, buy a low fare airline ticket and visit Georgia! 🙂

 

Practical information:

Gaumarjos

Warsaw – Ursynów

Al. Komisji Edukacji Narodowej 47

opening hours:

Mon-Sun.  12.00-22.00

Piaseczno

ul. Sierakowskiego 29

opeing hours:

Mon-Sun. 14.00-21.00