The FINANCIAL — According to The FINANCIAL there are already 5 Georgian restaurants in the UK. Tables are fully booked especially on weekends, offering the best of Georgian traditional cuisine.
The overwhelming majority of visitors come from Russia, then Europeans and barely any Georgians actually. Prices range from 2-18 GBP, beginning from shoti bread to baked layers of veal and Khinkali. Tantalizing Georgian wine is most demanded by visitors for which prices start from 16-49 GBP.
The first restaurant was opened in early 2000 and once demand for Georgian food increased 4 others followed suit. Zaur Goreli was among those brightly minded Georgians who thought of starting up Mimino restaurant on 197C Kensington High Street. (Open from Mon-Sat: 6-12 PM)
“I set up Mimino Ltd in 2004 and opened Mimino Restaurant in 2006, the idea came simply because there was only one Georgian restaurant in London at that time, now there are 5, which means good competition. It will be 11 years in October since I came to the UK. It took me 2 years and 300,000 GBP to establish Mimino on Kensington High Street. Soon I am planning to develop a chain of cafe style restaurants in other parts of London (not in other countries though),” said Goreli.
“We have 20-30 visitors on weekdays, and up to 100 people on weekends; 60% Russians, 30% locals and Europeans; Georgians – less than 5%,” said Goreli.
“All the staff are Georgian, the head chef is Ushangi Makharashvili who has 25 years of experience, 10 of which in the Krtsanisi residency from 1981 to 1991 and in many famous Tbilisi restaurants. Most ingredients are local, we only bring spices from Georgia and wines too of course,” Goreli told The FINANCIAL.
Everything on our menu is popular but Khinkali is probably the most demanded as we make them by advance order only. We are selling about 100 khinkali and 40 khachapuri on busy days.
Tamara Lorkipanidze, political economist and former basketball player for Georgia, was the third to establish an authentic Georgian restaurant in the UK. Tamada was established in 2008 on North-West St John’s Wood. Tamada offers all sorts of dishes for those willing to taste truly traditional Georgian food prepared by Georgian chefs.
As Tamara says, she’d had this dream since she moved to London in 2001.
“However due to various reasons I was not able to do that until 19 December 2008 when with the help of my family and friends I finally realized my dream costing several hundred thousand pounds,” said Lordkipanidze.
“Our main clientele are local residents, expats and people from former soviet countries. The restaurant has 58 tables and on average we have 30-35 customers per day, and are fully booked on weekends,” Lordkipanidze told The FINANCIAL.
“At Tamada we have five full/part time staff and all of them are Georgian. Almost all the ingredients apart from ‘sunelebi’ are available here so we buy the ingredients and then our staff prepare all the dishes,” said Lordkipanidze.
“It takes a lot of effort to set up any restaurant in London. However it is nothing in comparison with the effort one has to make in order to promote it and make it successful. Since this venture is my hobby it makes all the effort more enjoyable. Though establishing a restaurant in London could also cost several million dollars depending on the location of the restaurant,” Lordkipanidze told The FINANCIAL.
Tamada has been so successful that we do plan to open another Tamada in the West End and after that we will think of our next move.
According to The FINANCIAL the other three Georgian restaurants in London are Tbilisi at 11 Holloway Road owned by Nika, Little Georgia in 87 Goldsmith’s Row owned by Tamar, and Iberia on Caledonian Road, London, N1 1BA, owned by Rati Gvelesiani.
