Here are three bits of pub quiz trivia that it’s handy to know as a primer to this review:
1. Genatsvale, which has recently opened on Cardiff city centre’s St Mary’s Street, is the only Georgian restaurant in Wales. I am of course referring to the country and not the US state or the period in British history.
2. Khachapuri is a traditional cheese filled bread that’s the country’s national dish. It’s so popular that one measure of the rate of inflation in Georgia, the Khachapuri Index, is determined by the cost of the ingredients needed to make one.
3. Georgia is widely recognised as the birthplace of wine, with archaeological evidence showing that winemaking began there 8,000 years ago.
Armed with this trivia, my sights were set on an a khachapuri and a glass of qveri wine when we rocked up at Genatsvale for a Friday night walk-in.
They’ve done a lovely job with the refurb of the old Café Jazz. Design features include a mix of folk art, ceilings adorned with artificial lemons and pomegranates, and a grand piano that wasn’t put into action on our visit.
With Georgia’s location at the intersection between Eastern Europe and Asia, the country’s cooking bears many similarities to Eastern European, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Turkish cuisine.
Gentasvale’s menu is an interesting one to navigate with sections dedicated to stews & pan-fried dishes, mixed grills, khinkali (dumplings) and khachapuri (cheese-filled breads).
It would have been easy for Gentasvale to play it safe with a wine list offering Savvy B, Prosecco and Merlot as well a few Georgian wines. But, it’s good to see that they’ve gone all in with an entirely Georgian list.
With wines this tasty, I can see why. All four we tried were all delicious. A light Rkatsiteli Qveri orange wine (£7.20) was clean with delicate tannins whilst a Tsinandali white (£6.20) was crisp and citrusy. Red wines were both delicious too. A chilled Pirosmani (£7.20) and a Saperavi (£5.95) both had plenty of red fruits.
Endeavouring to try as many new dishes that we hadn’t encountered before, we kicked off with the “four starter plates” sharer (£21.95).
This monster of a platter was dominated by a quartet of vegetable pate cylinders sat on discs of crispy corn bread. Carrot, beetroot, green bean and spinach all tasted as though they were very good for you. But, they were quite heavy in texture and light on flavour. I thought the spinach was the most pleasant as it had the softest texture and tasted the most of its headline ingredient… Mrs G disagreed as it tasted the most like cold spinach.
Things were much more positive on the other side of the board. Warm dolmades were filled with well-spiced rice. Crisp fried crepes were loaded with nicely herbed minced meat. And soft aubergine rolls were filled with a nutty walnut paste and topped with pearls of pomegranate. A creamy garlicky yoghurt was a good condiment for everything.
Onto mains, and a quintet of whopping khinkali (£15.90) had a light casing and were filled with juicy and herby minced pork and beef and meaty broth.
They’ve done a lovely job with the refurb of the old Café Jazz. Design features include a mix of folk art, ceilings adorned with artificial lemons and pomegranates, and a grand piano that wasn’t put into action on our visit.
With Georgia’s location at the intersection between Eastern Europe and Asia, the country’s cooking bears many similarities to Eastern European, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Turkish cuisine.
Gentasvale’s menu is an interesting one to navigate with sections dedicated to stews & pan-fried dishes, mixed grills, khinkali (dumplings) and khachapuri (cheese-filled breads).
It would have been easy for Gentasvale to play it safe with a wine list offering Savvy B, Prosecco and Merlot as well a few Georgian wines. But, it’s good to see that they’ve gone all in with an entirely Georgian list.
With wines this tasty, I can see why. All four we tried were all delicious. A light Rkatsiteli Qveri orange wine (£7.20) was clean with delicate tannins whilst a Tsinandali white (£6.20) was crisp and citrusy. Red wines were both delicious too. A chilled Pirosmani (£7.20) and a Saperavi (£5.95) both had plenty of red fruits.
Endeavouring to try as many new dishes that we hadn’t encountered before, we kicked off with the “four starter plates” sharer (£21.95).
This monster of a platter was dominated by a quartet of vegetable pate cylinders sat on discs of crispy corn bread. Carrot, beetroot, green bean and spinach all tasted as though they were very good for you. But, they were quite heavy in texture and light on flavour. I thought the spinach was the most pleasant as it had the softest texture and tasted the most of its headline ingredient… Mrs G disagreed as it tasted the most like cold spinach.
Things were much more positive on the other side of the board. Warm dolmades were filled with well-spiced rice. Crisp fried crepes were loaded with nicely herbed minced meat. And soft aubergine rolls were filled with a nutty walnut paste and topped with pearls of pomegranate. A creamy garlicky yoghurt was a good condiment for everything.
Onto mains, and a quintet of whopping khinkali (£15.90) had a light casing and were filled with juicy and herby minced pork and beef and meaty broth.
However, due to my Georgian dumpling inexperience almost all of the liquid ended up on the plate. Apparently, you’re supposed to pick them up by the top knot, bite a small hole in the side and slurp out the broth. This also explains why the top knot was tough and inedible. An explanation from the front of house team might be helpful as I’m sure many diners won’t have eaten them before.
I can see why Georgia’s inflation rate is determined by the price of a khachapuri. If I lived there then I’d be eating them all the time. We ordered the acharuli khachapuri (£18.95) and a gorgeously light and delicately crisp boat shaped bread was filled with a pool of creamy, tangy and salty golden molten cheese.
If it wasn’t already rich enough then a knob of butter and a runny egg yolk ramped up the luxuriousness even more. And the crust also appeared to be stuffed with even more cheese.
With all this rich carb and fat, a side dish of ajapsandali (£8.50) was the MVP (Most Valued Plate). Gorgeously soft and tender slow cooked aubergines, soft spuds, peppers and onions were bathed in a super herby and well-spiced sauce. Served hot, it added layers of complexity to our two main dishes.
We had a very enjoyable evening at Genatsvale guzzling food and wine that’s unlike anywhere else in Cardiff. Whilst our starters didn’t fully hit the mark, I’d gladly go back for khachapuri, ajapsandali and a glass or two of Rkatsiteli Qveri and Saperavi, any day of the week.
The Details
Address - Genatsvale, 21 St Mary street, Cardiff CF10 1PL
I love khachapuri though that seems quite a hefty price for it. It does look like a large size I guess. Lovely to hear that they've gone for an all from Georgia wine list!
ReplyDelete@Kavey Yeah, the khachapuri was a little bit pricey for what it was. But it was definitely the best thing we ate and I had enough leftover for my lunch the next day. I'd definitely order it again. I was very impressed with the wines!
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