Georgian Food

Georgian food is a delicate mixture of eastern spices and sensible European fare. It has the heartiness of Russian cuisine with plenty of root vegetables, cream, and fatty red meat; it balances the aforementioned with vibrant spices like those in Indian food. All of this makes for delicious food.
I first tried Georgian food at a place called “Genatsvale,” which supposedly means “comrade” in the Georgian tongue. The place has a warm wooden interior with low ceilings and low lighting. It all makes for a cozy dining experience.
Our first time eating there was excellent: the food was tasty, the wait-staff was prompt and friendly, and our dinner didn’t cost very much! Basically, it fit all of my criteria for a good eatery.
That our second visit was so unbelievably terrible was shocking.
On our second visit we came with about eight people. I talked the place up the whole way there and assured everyone that they would love it, even though Russians don’t like spicy food…
Our waiter, our smug waiter, came to the table and recommended that we take an appetizer sampler since most of us had never tried Georgian food before. He was pretty insistent, so we said that that sounded good. He walked off and returned a few minutes later, by which time we had decided against a sampler platter, and would prefer to just order our own entrees and share if we so desired. The waiter was taken-aback, he put on his most condescending smirk and said that it was too late, that he had already put the order in! Oh, and by the way, it cost 6,000 rubles!!!!!!! That’s $200, between 8 people, or $25 dollars each. Not only that, it was a sampler of the “cold” appetizers.
We should have just walked out, or insisted that he cancel the order, but we were polite instead.
While we were waiting on the food to come, we began to assure ourselves that surely there had been some kind of mistake- maybe this would actually be a full meal, or maybe it wasn’t really 6,000 rubles. Nope.
They brought us out a basket of bread, some cucumber and tomato slices, a kind of Georgian salsa, some vegetable pâté’, stuffed peppers, grape leaves, and a cold-cream and chicken soup. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t filling and it certainly was not something I would pay $25 dollars for.
I was so angry at our petulant, haughty, cheating, lying waiter that when he brought our bill I asked him “почему?” which means why? “Почему что?” (why what?) He asked. You know damn well what I’m talking about you foul moron! Why would you recommend a 6,000 ruble plate of cold appetizers to a bunch of college kids?! What do we look like? And then we say we don’t want it before it’s brought out and he gives us a hard time about it. It was a bunch of cold appetizers that were probably already prepared, so it’s not like they had to throw it all out.
So, now I’m torn. I love Georgian food, but I’m fostering a fiery hatred for that waiter- oh, you should have seen the way he carried himself, a real arrogant jerk. Ergggh! Here it is a week and a half later, and I’m still mad about the whole thing. Should I return to the restaurant? Can I return and still be able to call myself a principled person? I don’t know.