Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

News

Signal of the Absurd: Saakashvili's Restaurant Review

Signal of the Absurd: Saakashvili's Restaurant Review

What a ride Mikheil Saakashvili has had. In November 2003 he led the Rose Revolution in his native Georgia and became president. After two terms, a botched war, and a lost election, he fled the country to avoid corruption charges he says were politically motivated.


After hanging out in Brooklyn for a bit — where else — in 2014 he threw his support behind the Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine, and parlayed that into Ukrainian citizenship and a job as governor of Odessa. But after clashing with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, whom he says is corrupt, he was apprehended in a restaurant last week and thrown out of the country. He is now stateless and holed up in Poland.

We imagine his review of that Kiev restaurant as follows…

Reviewed February 11, 2018

Tasteless, overpriced, and excessively brutal

First things first. I’m not writing this bad review simply because my waiter tipped off the police that I was there, the cops pulled me by my hair from the building, and then I was deported to Poland…though these things definitely didn’t help. Even if I were still living large at large in Kiev, I’d be panning the tasteless and overpriced meal I had at Harry’s Carpathian Steakhouse.

I don’t eat calamari. Nor do I enjoy steak that is as chewy as calamari. Yet, that’s what they served me at Harry’s Carpathian Steakhouse. I was hungry enough to try drowning this rubbery piece of garbage in steak sauce. But Carpathian Harry thinks Moldovan ketchup is a low-cost steak sauce substitute. My tobacco-flavored mashed potatoes should have appeared on the menu under “Soup.” The salad was every color you’ve ever seen except green. The police arrived before I could order the six-day-old shifty-looking dessert I saw wheeled past from time to time. I’m giving the place two stars only because my forced deportation saved me the few Hryvnia I might have blown on this meal. And yet, despite the free meal, I still feel ripped off. And now I’ve been deported to Poland!

This review is the subjective opinion of Mikheil S and does not represent the views of Signal or GZERO Media.

More For You

​Paramilitary police cadets sit in rows as they watch a parade performance to mark the 20th anniversary of the founding of their military school in Kunming, Yunnan province July 8, 2011.

Paramilitary police cadets sit in rows as they watch a parade performance to mark the 20th anniversary of the founding of their military school in Kunming, Yunnan province July 8, 2011.

REUTERS/Wong Campion
China wants the Iran conflict to end – but could it still benefit?Given that China is the world’s top oil importer, and oil prices continued to surge this week as energy facilities in the Middle East were struck, it’s no surprise that Beijing again called for an end to the Iran conflict on Friday. That doesn’t mean that the CCP won’t gain anything [...]
​Liberia-flagged Aframax tanker Suvorovsky Prospect discharges fuel oil from Russia at the Matanzas terminal, in Matanzas, Cuba, on July 16, 2022.

Liberia-flagged Aframax tanker Suvorovsky Prospect discharges fuel oil from Russia at the Matanzas terminal, in Matanzas, Cuba, on July 16, 2022.

REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini
What is Vladimir Putin thinking? It’s certainly not the first time we’ve asked the question: for 25 years, the wily ex-spy has shown a penchant for testing geopolitical limits, wrongfooting his opponents, and craftily antagonizing his adversaries. The latest episode is taking place on the high seas, where a tanker laden with some 730,000 barrels [...]
​Presidential Candidate Gustavo Petro for the political alliance 'Pacto Historico' speaks during an interview with Reuters in Bogota, Colombia June 10, 2022.

Presidential Candidate Gustavo Petro for the political alliance 'Pacto Historico' speaks during an interview with Reuters in Bogota, Colombia June 10, 2022.

REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez
2: The number of US federal prosecutors’ offices currently investigating whether Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has connections to drug traffickers, per The New York Times. In the past, US President Donald Trump has alleged Petro has ties to the drug trade in Colombia, a country that is one of the US’s closest allies in Latin America and where [...]
​Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, right, alongside United States Vice President JD Vance.  07 Nov 2025

Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, right, alongside United States Vice President JD Vance. 07 Nov 2025

Aaron Schwartz/POOL via CNP
Can JD Vance save Orbán?US President Donald Trump’s allies have taken a major interest in European politics over the last 18 months, attempting to boost far-right leaders in Albania, Germany, and Poland. Now, Vice President JD Vance is aiming to boost MAGA’s closest ally on the continent: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Vance reportedly [...]