The King & The Bird — Restaurant in Tbilisi

On our visit to Tblisi, we wanted to experience traditional Georgian cuisine and stumbled upon this place that seemed to have a happening vibe located on a busy street. Most of the waitstaff seemed indifferent and disinterested. We walked in waiting to be seated, and though the place seemed about 50% occupied overall we were offered probably the least desirable spot right beside the kitchen door, when there were clearly better options available. When asked, we were told that the other tables were "reserved", although we didn't see them being occupied for the longest time post us being seated. We wondered if this was just a one-off incident or was the general treatment of non-local guests here. A distasteful way to start. We ordered the kachapuri, couple of home made chachas, fried khinkali and sausage platter. Five stars for the kachapuri and drinks. The khinkali however was a let down. It was supposed to be a "smoked ham with bean" filling when it turned out the other way round - mostly bean and finding the few "bits" of ham was more of a treasure hunt. The so called "sausage board" was just an overpriced (costed 30 Lari!) arrangement of chopped-up heavily salted store bought deli meats that we couldn't bring ourselves to even sample with all the excessive amount of salt. Overall : Come here for the vibe, stay for the drinks, and leave to another place...

We visited The King & The Bird twice during our visit to Tbilisi. On both occasions the restaurant was quiet (we were the only diners for most of both of our visits) though I suspect that is because we dined at times not usual for Georgian culture.

The food was consistently tasty on both trips. The tomato and cucumber salad (with walnuts) was the best example of the genre that we tasted during our trip. Other notable dishes included the shkmeruli (some might say the sauce was over-seasoned but to me it was perfect) and the chakondrili.

I also had the mountain khinkali on our first trip. I came to learn that these are not traditional "mountain khinkali" because they are small and do not contain soup. Nevertheless, they were delicious. Whilst they do not contain soup, they are instead served in a delicious spicy green sauce which is packed with herbs (including lots of tarragon).

I have knocked one point off for service. We found the customer service a little bit cold, but this may be a difference in culture.

All in all, we highly recommend The King & The Bird (as evidenced by our return visit). It offers a more refined atmosphere and take on traditional...

Since I'm not very well educated on handling google maps reviews, I will have to update my original review in order to reply to your answer.

It is not very clever to call the respective price on the bill right next to a product a 15 percent service fee, is it? If a service fee adds, the client should be informed that they will be charged a certain amount for service. The menu said Lobiani costs 12, the bill said it was 13. I don't think this is the definition of the service fee and if you think it is, well, that is interesting.

I liked that you had anti–occupational wifi name and password but I expressed it in a wrong way :) It's not like I serve Russians at my Restaurant

Anyway, I do not...