Mafshalia — Restaurant in Tbilisi

Overall it is ok. Nice granny’s homemade dishes with budget-friendly price.

I personally don’t think it is a hidden gem anymore as it was crowded with long queue when I was there at 4pm on Saturday so it’s more like you know, I know & we all know this place.

If the queue is very long, I don’t think it’s worth waiting.

There are approximately 6 tables in the open and 4 in more like private room with little closable door.

There were 2 queues before us and it moved quite fast like 15-20 minutes as people usually eat and go. Well, they might feel guilty to hang out longer when other fellow are waiting and staring.

They accept cash only.

The food was served pretty fast. I like beef ostri. Here it is pretty much like beef stewed in light tomato sauce when compared to other restaurants.

Chicken kharcho with nuts - the sauce is nutty and spicy, which I really like but chicken comes with bones so that’s the minus from me.

Pork ojakuri: pork with bones & french fries. I love the fries as they are crunchy but again pork with bones aren’t my liking.

If you don’t speak the language or Russian, just watch out because people behind might try to jump the queue. It happened to us when it was our turn to get the seat. Granny came and spoke either Georgian or Russian, which we totally did not understand but girls behind answered back and squeezed through us to take the seats. I used google translate to ask granny why they got seat before us and granny went straight to them and talked. I guess she was unhappy that they skipped the line and lied to her face. I also talked to them but they denied with lame excuses. Well, they could speak English and did not bother to help translate when granny talked to us. Never mind, we...

The restaurant is more in the underground basement area so it might but hard to find the restaurant at first. It is a bit dark but there are about 3-4 rooms with seats to the side of the restaurant where there’s a window so you can see a bit outside and it’s a bit more private. But majority of the seating area is in the bigger, more spacious area with about 6-7 tables ranging from 2 seater tables to 6 seater tables. The interior design of people was also pretty cool.

The menu is pretty simple with just 2 sides on 1 menu slide with cold dishes, beverages, and hot dishes. They have a lot of popular local Georgian dishes here so if you have a bucket list (like I had) this place is the place to go. The prices at the time also seemed pretty decent as well. Keep in mind that you can only pay in cash as well.

I had ordered, spinach with walnut, lobiani, and pork barbecue with potatoes (Ojakhuri). You could tell that all the hot food I had was pretty much fresh out of the oven and it tasted awesome. The cheese overall from the lobiani was a tad bit too salty for my taste but the texture was great. The portion sizes (especially of the lobiani) was pretty good as well. I had brought someone else along with me but I’m pretty confident I could’ve eaten and been satisfied with 3-4 people.

Overall, I really recommend this place when you’re in Tbilisi because it just feels like a homey place, prices are decent, portion sizes are great, and the people working there are also...

Visit 1: October 2023

So I went here yesterday to give it a try as I’ve heard some good things about this place.

The food was very good, pretty good portion size especially for the price we paid (34 Lari for 3 meals, 1 beer, 1 water and 1 jug of juice). The Georgian I was with wasn’t as impressed but said it wasn’t bad by their standards.

The service was very good, food came out very quick within 10-15 minutes and the place was pretty busy so I was impressed with this.

Atmosphere gave old soviet union vibes or Georgian village vibes… very traditional feel so if this is your thing, definitely give it a try.

Note, this place only takes CASH, so bring cash with you. Overall I would recommend this place - I will definitely be going back again before I leave Georgia.

Visit 2: January 2024

This time I visited with a friend, and got decent pictures of the menu/prices, and the food that we ate.

We had x 2 beef Kharcho with nuts, x 1 beef + liver, x 2 Ajarian Khachapuri, x 2 waters & x 2 Elarji for a total of around 63 lari.

INSANELY GOOD taste & price, and the service was QUICK... and the restaurant was very busy as well as it was a Friday evening, so we was very impressed.

If you do not have cash, you can ask them to transfer to their bank directly (if you have a Georgian bank only).

Still highly recommend this place, check it out if you are...