Pasanauri — Restaurant in Tbilisi

I am an experienced chef from a 5 star restaurant in Hollywood, California USA, and I live abroad now and eat at many restaurants in Europe and Asia. I can honestly tell you I have never been treated so horribly by any restaurant staff in any country in my entire life. These people are unbelievably arrogant and rude. My experience started when my girlfriend ordered a Greek salad that came without any olives. We noticed because the man at the table next to us had the same salad and it came with olives. I asked three times for olives for my girlfriend, twice from waiters and once from a manager. No olives came. Instead, after 20 minutes, the waitress came to our table with her cellphone showing us a very blurry photo apparently from the security camera (?!) showing someone carrying a plate with a geek salad with olives on it, and she's telling us no we're wrong, we got the olives and so shut up. She was very rude, instead of admitting she made a mistake and taking one minute to fix it by bringing us a handful of olives (canned olives by the way). I was insulted by her horrible behaviour and became angry, saying to her what's her problem she thinks we're here to steal olives etc. Then she became very arrogant saying I'm acting badly and I can pay and leave. So I said fine, paid the bill, while she continued to say rude things to me. So I stood up very quickly from the table to leave and I accidentally broke my drinking glass as it dropped from my hand and she became very angry. We left the restaurant and after 5 minutes my girlfriend realized she had left her airpods at the table so we had no choice but to return to this place to get her airpods. When we came back the waitress was very angry saying she had called the police and I could talk with them if I wanted to get my girlfriend's property back. They were actually holding the airpods hostage while we had to wait to talk to the police! Over a handful of olives! They made such a scandal over nothing when it was their mistake to begin with. I of course paid for my broken glass, for which they made me pay for two glasses in fact. The police were actually laughing at how stupid these people are and were very polite with me. I thank the local police for their professional attitude when dealing with such a ridiculous situation. We actually had to beg them to return our aipods which they kept saying they didn't have, but then suddenly produced it after forcing me to apologize by police pressure. Then yelled at us never to return again, as if I could ever return to a place where I was treated in such an unprofessional and absolutely rude manner. As I said, I have worked many years as a professional chef in Hollywood and this is not how you treat customers..over a handful of olives. How hard is it and what is the cost of a handful of canned olives? Instead showing us a security photo that was not of our table and talking rudely the entire time. I honestly don't know what to say, it's the absolute worst treatment I have ever experienced from any restaurant in any country anywhere in my entire life. This establishment deserves to be put out of business and I highly recommend spending your money elsewhere and not supporting these horrible people.

Edit: now the staff are posting fake reviews telling lies about me, you can easily see how arrogant and dishonest these...

A local recommended us this restaurant so that's always a good sign and it has a lot of good reviews so our expectations were quite high. Unfortunately, it was our worst experience in a restaurant in Georgia ever, especially after we got used to eating at the restaurant Nikolozi with wonderful service and wonderful food. I think it was my mistake, because I chose to eat here on January 1st and it was much too busy for the waiters to deal with. It was clear that everyone was really stressed and I can understand that, because it must be very exhausting to attend to too many guests. But that shouldn't be an excuse for acting unfriendly and grumpy. I think my experience would be better if we had come at a day where it was more quiet and if we had had a different waitress. We saw that there was 1 very kind and smiling waitress (I didn't see her name) and I admire how she kept being happy and smiling to the guests. Unfortunately, we had a different waitress, who was very unfriendly. Even though we kept smiling at her and stayed friendly and extremely patient and polite till the end, she did not even once look us in the eyes, she never smiled but seemed to be angry (probably because she couldn't handle the amount of guests) and she spoke only Georgian to us (which we don't understand). If this would happen in my country, she would certainly be fired. When she took our orders, she forgot it and came back much later to ask for them again in an unfriendly tone (it took some time before we understood her, because she didn't seem to speak or understand any English). After the food was finished (which was much too salty according to all of us so I think the cooks were also overburdened) we had to ask 3 times for the bill and finally, when she came, she more or less snatched the money from my hand without showing me the bill (she was in an extreme hurry all the time). Later she came back, indicating that it was not enough (if she had showed me the bill, I could have given her the right amount the first time, or if she had payed attention to what she had snatched from my hand, she wouldn't have to waste our time). She didn't come back to give us the change and we were tired of waiting (1,45 hours for just some simple dishes) so we just left. I'm sure our evening would have ended in a much better way if the kind waitress would have served us. I hope the waitress we had can learn something from the kind lady, because the way she behaves is bad for the restaurant. I told the local (who recommended me the restaurant) about my experience and he said this is not acceptable as a service in Georgia at all. So that's why I decided to put it all in the review, and hopefully, other guests won't experience what we have...

When one visits Georgia, especially Tbilisi, a restaurant that often gets uttered to try Georgian cuisine is "Pasanauri". It has several branches throughout the city. Has ample options of Georgian dishes. It's also a popular place for both locals and foreigners to dine at.

I had lunch there on a weekday. I ordered their khinkali with potatoes (no minimum pieces to order, from my recollection), eggplant with walnuts, and spinach with walnuts. For one person, this was a lot! I was still new to Georgian cuisine so didn't know about their portion size and how filling their dishes can be. So I had to request to take away any I didn't finish. Everything tasted very good and tasty. The walnut dishes tasted fresh.

The menu is extensive, and so it can be hard to pinpoint which dishes are vegan and vegetarian as they don't mark dishes to denote these. During the time I went (lunch), the restaurant was packed and busy. From the layout it seemed the restaurant is quite small and I thought I wouldn't find a seat, but there were some seats the more further inside one goes.

To order, they have buttons on the table to click whether you want to order or request the bill. It can take a bit of time for them you reach you.

When I visited, I left my beanie/hat (which dropped off the table). I didn't notice this as I walked and left. Upon realising, I walked back to the restaurant, asked whether they found my beanie, and they kept it in their drawer and...