Cafe Laila — Restaurant in Mestia

Cafe Laila is a tourist trap located in the center of Mestia where most visitors to the town typically end up as their first stop. The decor is rustic and pseudo-Georgian (that is, Georgian in a way that makes tourists think it's Georgian). They often host Georgian dancers during the tourist season which is usually pretty fun. It's a nice place to sit and the ambiance is decent, but the most important warning of this review is: DO NOT EAT THERE.

It might be tempting once you've sat down there to have some food after a long trip. Maybe you're having a tea (which is just a teabag and hot water they charged you 5X more for than what you could have gotten in the store). However (especially if you've never had Georgian food), chase that temptation away! DO NOT EAT AT LAILA. If you've never had Georgian food, it will make you hate Georgian food for the rest of your trip - if you have, you'll just wish you'd spent your money, somewhere - anywhere - else. Everything at Cafe Laila is LOW QUALITY and done in the laziest way possible. A few examples:

Milkshake = literally milk with sugar, shaken. One ice might be included. Porridge = a lukewarm, watery mess of mystery grain with 5 raisins. "Pizza" = saltless, watery, lukewarm village cheese on soggy bread.

But this is a "Georgian" restaurant, right? It's about as Georgian as Dominos Pizza is Italian. At least Dominos pizza tastes OK, but Cafe Laila's food has NO redeeming qualities.

This is because their sloppy, lazy, and poor quality ethic carries over to their Georgian food is also - which is ABSOLUTELY THE WORST IN GEORGIA. From lukewarm khinkali (Georgian meat dumpling, at Laila it's usually reheated / reused from someone else's plate who didn't finish all theirs) and cold khachapuri (Georgian cheese / bread dish that should be hot), to low quality, burnt and chewy meat, everything is done cheaply, lazily and poorly. You can pay 2/3 the price and get twice the quality at almost every other restaurant in Svaneti.

So perhaps you believe me, and you say: "well, where should I eat then?" LITERALLY ANY OTHER RESTAURANT IN THE CITY. That's right. Just look around, pick a place, any place, and it will better than Laila. A few of the restaurants right across the street from the Mestia courthouse are great (just keep driving / walking down the main street past the square Laila is in, and you will see a few on your right). Even if you pick a place that is "meh - 3/5", I GUARANTEE it will STILL be better than Laila.

You may be a tourist, but don't have the "tourist" experience - that is: paying too much for low quality garbage peddled to the unsuspecting and gullible. Avoid, avoid, avoid the food at this tourist trap and you'll enjoy your time in Mestia / Svaneti and Georgian food much more!

Finally, if you've stayed in Mestia a few times, you might notice that the local Svaneti people love to hang out at Laila and drink. You'll think: well, if the locals like it...? NOPE. Watch them a little longer - they NEVER eat there. That should tell you a lot.

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Please take my word on this, I'm an expat living in Georgia for more than 4 years. I've traveled all over the country and tried all kinds of restaurants and food. I love Georgia and I want people to have a good experience, which won't happen if you eat Laila's terrible food. Don't listen to the tourists who have rated Laila as more than 1/5 - they don't live here - they have no point of comparison. AVOID EATING AT THIS PLACE LIKE THE PLAGUE! You'll be so...

The location and interior is quite nice, but everything apart from that was awful.

The very first item that was brought to the table - desert (cheesecake). It wasn't requested to be brought earlier. Didn't they teach the staff to bring deserts at the very end? The "cheesecake" (or so they call it) itself was no better. It had a consistency of mashed potatoes, tasted like sweetened curd and was brought in a cup. How is that a cheesecake?

Next we had local dish - Ojakhuri. Out of the few other places we tried the same dish, this one was undeniably the worst. 3rd dish were red beans "cooked" in clay pot. At least they were supposed to be cooked. The pot was warm, but beans at the bottom of it were cold as if they were heated separately. Fourth dish - kharcho, which was worst one we tried as well. Final dish was supposed to be mushrooms with cheese, but the rest have finished eating their entire meals, while the person who ordered this dish had to wait for it. After 10 or so minutes after everyone else finished we got tired of waiting and asked about the meal, just to be told it will arrive soon. Another 10 minutes have passed and it was nowhere to be found, so we requested to pay and leave.

Overall experience and food quality - 1/5. One of the worst places we visited during 5+ years...

We have been visiting Cafe Laila in Mestia for three years, but for the first time, we encountered rude and unprofessional behavior from the staff. During this visit, we stayed in Mestia for two days and went to this restaurant both days, but we have no desire to return.

The women's restroom was out of order for two days in a row, which resulted in a long line for the men's restroom. Since there was no possibility to wash hands, this caused significant discomfort. The Wi-Fi practically did not work. The dishes were brought as they were ready, so twice we had situations where the side dish was brought long before the main course. We started talking to the waiter in English, but he switched to Russian without asking. We also know Russian, but it was uncomfortable. It would be better to confirm or continue the conversation in the language the customers started with. The most important issue – when my friend, who was visiting Georgia for the first time from Norway, tried to make a comment about the quality of service and said he left a negative review, the waiter told him (literally) "he can just not come here anymore." This is absolutely unacceptable! I was ashamed that I recommended this restaurant, and I do not understand how such waiters can work in...