DistantNews
Support us
🇳🇴 Norway /Culture & Society

Norway finally gets a taste of Georgian cuisine

From Aftenposten · () Norwegian

Translated from Norwegian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources New plan
  • Marani opened in Oslo in autumn 2026 as Norway’s first Georgian restaurant, while Rustaveli is due to open in Stavanger later this year.
  • Manager Giorgi Kvatchadze said the restaurant aims to share Georgian food, wine, traditions and hospitality.
  • The article highlights Georgia’s khachapuri, khinkali and vegetarian dishes, as well as the cuisine’s growing popularity in Helsinki.

Oslo has restaurants serving malatang, pintxos, neo-Filipino food, Brazilian rodízio and Uzbek home cooking. But until now, one conspicuous gap remained: Norway had no Georgian restaurant at all.

That changed in autumn 2026, when Marani opened in Oslo’s Bjørvika district. It is not only Oslo’s first Georgian restaurant, but the first in Norway. Rustaveli is also scheduled to open in Stavanger later this year.

“The fact that there was no Georgian restaurant in Norway motivated us,” said Giorgi Kvatchadze, Marani’s general manager. “It is not just about opening a restaurant. It is about sharing Georgian culture and introducing people to the flavors, traditions, wines and hospitality that make Georgia so special.”

Kvatchadze pointed to the difficult and bureaucratic process of opening a restaurant in Norway as one reason the country had waited so long. Marani is backed by a Finnish chain, and Georgian food has become firmly established in Helsinki. The Finnish capital has nine Georgian restaurants, compared with one in Copenhagen and two in Stockholm.

The menu includes khachapuri, the cheese-filled bread often served in a boat shape with an egg yolk in the middle, along with large khinkali dumplings. Other Georgian specialties include grilled mtsvadi, spicy lobio, and vegetarian dishes such as pkhali and badrijani, made with vegetables, herbs, walnuts and pomegranate. Georgia’s strong vegetarian tradition is partly linked to Georgian Orthodox fasting, when meat and other animal products have traditionally been forbidden. Georgian cuisine was widely known across the Soviet Union, although the Soviet system also standardized how it was defined. After the Soviet collapse, Georgia rediscovered its own culinary identity.

The fact that there was no Georgian restaurant in Norway motivated us. It is not just about opening a restaurant. It is about sharing Georgian culture and introducing people to the flavors, traditions, wines and hospitality that make Georgia so special.

· Giorgi KvatchadzeMarani’s general manager explained why the restaurant opened in Oslo.
About this summary

Originally published by Aftenposten in Norwegian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog