Little Georgia – review

Cosy: Little Georgia

Fear not citizens, I’m not sending you to another super fashionable burger joint. Actually I’m not sending you to any burger joints. But I am sending you to this frankly wonderful Georgian restaurant.

Hidden up between Columbia Road and Broadway Market, Little Georgia feels like a home from home.  The plates are hearty, it’s bring your own booze and you can hear yourself talk.

There are mezzes to share if you want to try a bit of everything, as well as plenty of tasty starters and a menu full of stews and other good things if you’re after something a bit more substantial.

We went for a bit of everything, firstly because I was hungry but mainly because we couldn’t pick.

First the blini. It was fantastic. Don’t think of demure little Christmas canapés with artful piles of smoked salmon though. This was a sturdy warm crepe stuffed full of perfectly spiced minced meat, plumped up with creamy ricotta and mozzarella and finished off with a cool layer of yoghurt and mint.

We also had the traditional borscht, because how could we not? And it was nothing like I expected. A hot bowl of crimson-coloured soup made of shredded cabbage and beetroot. I expected it to be sickly, but it had a rich coulis-like texture, deep with gorgeous savoury  avours that were just sweetened by the beets.

Alongside that came the hachapuri – bread filled with ricotta mozzarella. It’s a Georgian staple you can also get with meat and it was really very good. Then there were nigziani – red peppers and aubergines stuffed with walnuts, chopped up vegetables and herbs, as well as fresh salads with carrot
and dill.

The food is uniformly excellent. Of an autumn evening it’s bright and cosy with duck egg blue walls, scrubbed wooden doors and furniture and little lights winking in the windows. There are handsome gramophones perched on the walls and Georgian pop songs playing over the hubbub of diners.

Probably not the kind of place you’d stumble across if you weren’t looking for it, but I urge you to go check it out if you’re nearby and after a solidly good meal.

Little Georgia
87 Goldsmith’s Row, E2 8QR