What to Eat in Tbilisi
Ostri: A Spicy Georgian Beef Stew
Ostri sounds like the Slavic word for "spicy", yet the first spoonful doesn't set anything on fire. This Georgian beef stew in a thick tomato sauce with onion, garlic and cilantro is everyday food, cooked from whatever the house has on hand. I tasted it in Kutaisi alongside a supra feast in full swing and at Mapshalia Restaurant in Tbilisi - different each time, and ostri each time.
Mapshalia Restaurant, Tbilisi: Standing in Line for Georgian Classics
A line forms regularly outside an unremarkable door on Aghmashenebeli Avenue in Tbilisi. Mapshalia is a cheap Mingrelian eatery that Forbes Georgia ranks among the best restaurants in the city. I worked my way through almost its entire menu, from lobio to khachapuri megruli. Here's why I kept coming back more often than anywhere else.