At This New Georgian Restaurant, Try a ‘Mother Dumpling’ Stuffed With Mini Dumplings

Georgian native and restaurateur Gurami Oniani debuted his first American restaurant in New York this year. Laliko opened in the West Village at 80 Carmine Street at Varick Street in early March — serving, among other things, a giant dumpling stuffed with little ones.

Laliko serves a menu of traditional and contemporary Georgian dishes: Of course, there’s the Eastern European country’s iconic dish, khachapuri, that wonderful gooey cheese-laden bread. The restaurant offers versions like the classic adjaruli ($25) or the imeruli with mint ($24).

Georgian dumplings, khinkali, come with fillings like beef, pork, lamb, or cheese (four pieces for $20) and the fancier mushrooms doused in truffle sauce ($28). Then there’s the mega-dumpling dish, the Mother Khinkali, where a giant dumpling is stuffed with six little dumplings ($35). Oniani notes that his team didn’t invent the dumpling-in-dumpling dish but that his restaurants in Moscow helped popularize it.

Oniani runs his own hospitality company, Guliani Group, which operates Georgian restaurants in Tbilisi and Moscow, ranging from casual to fancy. The reason he decided to expand into America and New York is because: “I deeply believe — and, at the same time, feel frustrated — that Georgian cuisine remains vastly underrated and largely unknown,” he writes via a rep.

Other dishes include the chkmeruli ($32), where chicken is braised with a creamy garlic-walnut-chile sauce; the chashushuli ($28), a veal-tomato-bell pepper-mashed potato stew; skewered meats called mtsvadi ($29) in pork or chicken; crispy cauliflower served in a walnut-cilantro sauce ($24); and spreads like the tart plum sauce tkemali ($4) and the spicy blackberry ($5). Desserts include the korkoti ($14), where ice cream is topped with grains, honey, and nuts; and the layered creamy pastry Napoleon ($14).

Jovani Demetrie/Laliko

The wine menu focuses on small-batch producers in Georgia, such as amber wines aged in earthenware vessels called qvevri; and cocktails made with grape-based spirit cacha. There’s the Strawberry Fields made with strawberries, honey, and lime; Tangerine Dreams with mandarin, lemon, and a touch of Tabasco; and others.

Georgia-based architecture and interior design firm Surgula Studio designed the 2,000 square-foot restaurant. It features a mural with cultural images from the country, a green column with hand-painted tiles from Tbilisi, a communal table in the spirit of what is known as supra in Georgia, a giant feast, and an open kitchen. The dining room has 42 seats.

Laliko’s Georgian kitchen staff includes two chefs dedicated to khachapuris and khinkalis, respectively, Jimi Kurtanidze and Ruslan (Ucha) Giorgberidze. Kurtanidze had worked under Georgian khachapuri chef Gia Agirba. And Giorgberidze worked at Oniani’s first restaurant in Russia, Khinkali House in Moscow. Manuchar Tsikolia is Laliko’s executive chef. Tamaz Akhobadze is the restaurant’s lead bartender, who had worked at New York places like L’Abeille à Côté and the Portrait Bar.

Jovani Demetrie/Laliko

Jovani Demetrie/Laliko

Restaurants focusing on Georgian cuisine aren’t a new thing for New York, but since the late 2010s, there has been a resurgence in the eye-catching khachapuri along with Georgian wines.

“I want to help bring Georgian cuisine the recognition it deserves, placing it alongside the world’s most celebrated culinary traditions,” says Oniani. He named the New York restaurant after his grandmother. He’s also looking to expand with more places across the country.