The Best Restaurants in Tbilisi

Tbilisi is known for khinkali, khachapuri, walnut-rich salads and wine poured from a jug, and you can eat very well here for very little. These are the restaurants I'd pick for a classic Georgian dinner, a cheap regional lunch, a khachapuri fix or a big night with music, plus what dinner costs and how ordering works.

The best restaurants in Tbilisi at a glance

I've split my 34 picks by what you're hungry for, because the best khinkali house and the best anniversary dinner are never the same place. If you only read one table, read this one.

Classic Georgian restaurants

These are the places I send people for the dishes they came for: pkhali, lobio in a clay pot, shkmeruli, mtsvadi and khinkali, cooked the way Georgian families cook them. If the names are new, the Georgian dishes to order first are mostly walnut, cheese, grilled meat and bread in different combinations, and every place below does them well.

Shavi Lomi

If I had one dinner in Tbilisi, it would be here. Shavi Lomi sits in an old house down a narrow path at 28 Zurab Kvlividze Street, a short walk from Marjanishvili metro, and its garden fills up all summer. Start with the gobi, a wooden platter of seasonal starters like pkhali, lobio, beetroot, cornbread and cheese, then add the lamb kebab or the shkmeruli. Expect 26 to 65 GEL a head. It's open 1 PM to 2 AM daily, and I always reserve for a weekend.

Shemomechama

Shemomechama is my default when someone wants a good, all-round Georgian meal without a plan. The original is at Mtskheta Street 8 in Vera, open 11 AM to midnight, with a second branch at Samghebro Street 9 in the Old Town. The shkmeruli, pkhali sampler and chakapuli are the dishes to order. The khachapuri is fine but it's not the reason to come. Expect a wait on weekend evenings.

Salobie Bia

Salobie Bia sits beneath the Rustaveli Theatre at Rustaveli Avenue 17, which makes it the easiest proper Georgian lunch in the center. It's a calm room built around beans: lobio in a clay pot with pickles and mchadi cornbread is the order, with pickled mushrooms, kubdari (Svan meat bread) and ghomi with sulguni on the side.

It costs a little more than a neighborhood place, and the location is what you pay for.

Sormoni

Sormoni is worth the trip out to Saburtalo, at 57 Alexander Kazbegi Avenue across from City Mall and near Delisi metro. Trees grow through the dining room and the terraces are built like old wooden balconies.

Order the shkmeruli, veal in pomegranate sauce, fried Mukhrani chicken or ekala with walnut paste, plus an Imeruli khachapuri. It's open daily from 11 AM to 12:30 AM, so it suits a long, late lunch.

Khash-Khash

Khash-Khash, at 33 Giorgi Mazniashvili Street, is an easy walk from Fabrika's courtyard bars, which makes it my pick before a night out in Chugureti. The khinkali are hand-wrapped, big and juicy, and the chikhirtma (chicken soup), kharcho with elarji, kupati and fried Svan sulguni are all strong. There's natural wine and chacha to go with it. Budget 30 to 60 GEL a head; it's open noon to 2 AM, from 10 AM at weekends.

Sofia Melnikova's Fantastic Douqan

Come here for the setting. Sofia Melnikova's Fantastic Douqan fills a courtyard under grapevines on Tabukashvili Street, behind the Rustaveli Theatre and near Liberty Square metro, and it's open noon to 2 AM. The handmade khinkali, the dambalkhacho cheese and the baked pumpkin with walnuts are good, and the chocolate fondue with walnut ice cream is a fun finish. Service is the weak spot, and VAT isn't included in the menu prices, so the bill lands higher than you expect.

Modern Georgian restaurants

This is where young Georgian chefs rework old recipes: smaller plates, sharper sauces and natural wine lists. Book these, because most of them fill up.

Barbarestan

Barbarestan, at 132 Davit Aghmashenebeli Avenue, cooks from a 19th-century Georgian cookbook, and it's the restaurant most visitors have heard of before they land. Order the pumpkin patties, the cherry soup with mint, the rabbit wrapped in ham or the chakapuli.

The drinks list is qvevri wine and no beer. It's open 2 PM to 11 PM daily, with live Georgian music on Saturday evenings. Book well ahead, as it's full most nights.

Van Goghi

Van Goghi, at 24 Mikheil Zandukeli Street, is my splurge pick. The tasting menu is the way to eat here, built around plates like salmon tartare on a potato waffle, beef cheeks and mini cheese khinkali with truffle.

Portions are small, so order more than you think, and go early because the popular dishes sell out. It's open 1 PM to midnight daily, and you'll need a booking.

Cafe Littera

Cafe Littera serves a changing Georgian-fusion menu in the garden of the Writers' House at Machabeli Street 13, and on a warm evening I can't think of a prettier table in the city. It's open 1 PM to 11:45 PM daily, and tables go days ahead, so reserve as soon as your dates are fixed. Come for a long dinner rather than a quick plate.

Sasadilo at Zeche

Sasadilo is chef Luka Nachkebia's modern canteen inside the Zeche complex at Queen Tamar Avenue 18, near Station Square metro, under a Soviet-era fresco. The menu runs through ostri (spicy beef stew), kofte and lobiani bao buns. Tamtaki, chef Tamta Kikaleishvili's street food counter, shares the space: try the buffalo or oyster mushroom tamtaki. It's the place I take friends who have already done the classics.

Chveni

Chveni, at 8 Tchorokhi Street near Marjanishvili metro, is a restaurant and boutique hostel in one, open daily from about noon until late. The kitchen has fun with the classics: chicken croquettes in shkmeruli sauce and ghomi dumplings with bazhe (walnut sauce) are the dishes I'd order.

At 30 to 60 GEL a head, it's good value for cooking this careful.

Best restaurants for khinkali

Khinkali are on almost every menu in town, from the hand-wrapped mountain style to machine-made city dumplings full of broth, and these four are the ones I go back to.

Klike's Khinkali

Klike's sits in an underground room behind the Parliament, at Chitadze Street 1 in Sololaki. The khinkali are machine-made, which means thin dough and a lot of broth, and the fillings go well past meat: mushroom, potato, spinach and nadughi (a soft whey cheese). My order is nadughi with butter and a cold Alkhanaidze beer. It's the best khinkali stop for vegetarians and anyone who loves the soup more than the meat.

Pictograma

Pictograma is under the Dry Bridge flea market, with its entrance from 16 Zurab Gamsakhurdia Right Bank. It makes small, hand-wrapped Khevsureti-style khinkali, fatty and very juicy, from a short menu. The flavor is strong and old-school, so it's not for everyone, but it's where I'd send a khinkali obsessive. Eat here after a browse of the stalls above.

Cafe Daphna

Cafe Daphna, at 29 Giorgi Atoneli Street by the Dry Bridge, has a second branch at Samghebro Street 6 near the baths. It makes hand-wrapped khinkali (beef, potato and cheese, spinach) and a good Imeruli khachapuri, and the staff will show you how to eat them.

Expect 25 to 50 GEL a head. It runs 11 AM to 2 AM, to 6 AM at weekends, and weekdays are calmer.

King and the Bird

King and the Bird (Mefe da Chiti), behind the Opera House on Rustaveli, is where khinkali get modern. The dish to order is fried black bean khinkali with smoked ham, served in a clay pot, followed by the cheese and nadughi khinkali with pesto. It's my pick once you've eaten the classic kind three nights running.

Best restaurants for khachapuri

Khachapuri is Georgia's cheese bread, and the boat-shaped Adjaruli with an egg yolk and butter in the middle is the one everyone photographs. For the other khachapuri styles, like round Imeruli and cheese-topped Megruli, any good Georgian restaurant will do; for the Adjaruli, I go to these three.

Puri Guliani

Puri Guliani, by the Dry Bridge market in Chugureti, is where I'd eat my first Adjaruli. It also does pkhlovana (with leek and tarragon), kachma and a four-cheese version, plus a tomato salad with nadughi and sulguni sticks. Ask for "tsomi gamotslili" and you'll get less dough in the boat. Drink a Lagidze lemonade with it. There's a second room at Saarbrucken Square with tables over the river.

Cafe Stamba

Cafe Stamba, inside the Stamba Hotel in Vera and a few minutes' walk from Rustaveli metro, makes a thinner, crispier Adjaruli than Puri Guliani, plus Imeruli and a puff pastry khachapuri. The rest of the menu leans international, which helps when not everyone at the table wants cheese bread. Reserve, especially for dinner.

Retro

Retro, in Saburtalo, is the Adjaruli specialist. The large one costs about 20 GEL and easily feeds two with a salad on the side. Come as a pair, or come very hungry, and skip the bread basket.

Regional Georgian food: Megrelian, Abkhazian and more

Georgia's regions cook very differently, and Tbilisi has a restaurant for most of them. These are my picks for food from the west, the mountains and the south.

Mapshalia

Mapshalia, at Aghmashenebeli Avenue 137 a few minutes from Marjanishvili metro, is a Megrelian canteen and one of the best cheap meals in Tbilisi. Order elarji (cornmeal with sulguni) with bazhe or kharcho, Megrelian khachapuri, kupati sausage and mchadi. You'll eat well for under 20 GEL a head. It gets busy at lunch and dinner, so book ahead, and carry cash.

Amra

Amra, on Danelia Street in Saburtalo and a few minutes' walk from State University metro, is the city's Abkhazian specialist. Order the abkhazura meatballs, elarji with smoked ham, Sokhumi katleti and Abkhazian khachapuri, with ajika for heat and gebzhalia (cheese in mint sauce) on the side. Finish with Sokhumi ice cream.

Ghebi

Ghebi, at Aghmashenebeli Avenue 115, cooks Racha food and is open 24 hours, which makes it my favorite late meal in town. The lobio and the shkmeruli are the Racha dishes to order, the chvishtari (cornbread with cheese) comes big, and the Megrelian kupati is good too. Skip the khinkali here.

Chef Saradjeff

Chef Saradjeff, at Gorgasali Street 11, cooks the food of Meskheti in the south, including apokhti khinkali.

It sits right below the bathhouses, so it's my pick after a soak in the sulfur baths, and nowhere else on this list cooks Meskhetian food.

Cheap restaurants in Tbilisi (under 20 GEL a head)

Eating cheaply in Tbilisi is easy, and the cheapest food is often the most local. A canteen lunch for one comes in under 20 GEL, and two people eat a full canteen meal for about 40 GEL. Mapshalia belongs here too, and for a cheap sit-down plate of shkmeruli, khinkali or mtsvadi, Chashnagiri has rooms at Kote Afkhazi Street 25 and Vazha-Pshavela Avenue 30.

Coca-Cola Diner

Coca-Cola Diner, at Tsereteli Avenue 114 in Didube, has been feeding the neighborhood for over 30 years from a handwritten chalkboard menu. Point at kharcho, chakapuli, kupati, mtsvadi, ojakhuri (pork and potatoes) or cutlets with mash. It feels like lunch in the Soviet era, and it's cash only.

Dumplings N1

Dumplings N1 (Sapelmene N1), at Ketevan Dedofali Avenue 69a in Isani, serves Soviet-style pelmeni around the clock. It's cash only and open 24 hours, which makes it the late-night dumpling stop on the left bank of the river.

Tone bakeries

Every neighborhood has a tone, a bakery with a round clay oven, selling shotis puri for 1 to 2 GEL and khachapuri or lobiani for 3 to 8 GEL. A hot lobiani from the window is my favorite piece of Tbilisi street food, and with cheese, churchkhela and fruit from the stalls at Dezerter Bazaar, it makes a proper picnic lunch.

Vegetarian-friendly restaurants

Georgian food is kind to vegetarians: pkhali, badrijani (fried eggplant rolled around walnut paste), lobio, khachapuri and mushroom dishes are on almost every menu. Some restaurants also run a fasting menu without meat, though dairy can still turn up on it. Fully meat-free vegan restaurants in Tbilisi exist too, but these two are where I take vegetarian friends for Georgian food.

Cafe Leila

Cafe Leila, at 18 Ioane Shavteli Street opposite Anchiskhati Basilica, fills a former Soviet-era sweet shop with muqarnas ceilings. The menu leans vegetarian: mushroom kharcho with blackberry sauce and cornbread, vegetarian chakapuli, a three-cheese mushroom khachapurito and mushroom tarragon soup, and nothing is fried. It's open 11 AM to 11 PM daily and walk-ins are fine. In spring, ask for a table outside under the cherry blossom.

Iasamani

Iasamani, at 33 Lado Asatiani Street, has more than half its menu vegetarian or vegan. The oyster mushrooms in cherry and pomegranate sauce are the dish I'd order, with the house Iasamani cocktail. It's relaxed about walk-ins, which makes it an easy dinner after a wander through the old townhouses of Sololaki.

Restaurants with live music and dancing

A dinner with folk singing and dancing is touristy, and I'd still do it once. Georgian folk singing, voices layered in close harmony, sounds better over a table of food than in a concert hall.

Ethno Tsiskvili

Ethno Tsiskvili, at 99 Akaki Beliashvili Street, is the big night out: live music, dancing, a waterfall, and tonis puri baked by the entrance. Order the badrijani nigvzit, pork mtsvadi and lobiani.

It's out of the center, so take a Bolt taxi both ways, and book ahead. It's my pick for a first-timer who wants the full show in one evening.

Georgian House

Georgian House, at 2 Giorgi Tsabadze Street in Vera and an easy walk from Station Square metro, has folk singers and dancers at weekends from 8 PM. The mtsvadi is the highlight, and the cherry strudel is a good finish.

It's open noon to 1 AM daily, with dinner at 30 to 60 GEL a head. I'd pick it over Ethno Tsiskvili if you want the music without the taxi ride.

Maspindzelo

Maspindzelo, at Gorgasali Street 7 in the bath district, has live singing and stays open round the clock on Fridays and Saturdays, 10:30 AM to midnight the rest of the week. Order the eggplant with walnut, the mtsvadi and the kebabs, and budget 20 to 70 GEL a head. Its sister, Maspindzelo Express off Kostava Street, is the quick version. For one more option, Restaurant Margalita, just off Rustaveli Avenue, has live music every night from 8 PM.

Special occasion restaurants

Tbilisi's fine dining scene is small, and these five are the rooms I'd book for an anniversary or a last night. Plan on 150 GEL and up for two.

Where to eat in Tbilisi by neighborhood

Where you stay decides where you eat most nights, so here's one classic dinner, one casual meal and one special night for each area I'd base myself in.

The Old Town has the prettiest outdoor tables in the city, under the fortress and close to the bathhouse domes, and the khinkali at Cafe Daphna's Samghebro Street branch cost the same as anywhere else in the city.

Marjanishvili and Chugureti is where I eat most often. Shavi Lomi, Barbarestan, Mapshalia, Ghebi, Chveni and Khash-Khash are all within walking distance of Marjanishvili metro, and no other part of town packs in this much good cooking.

In Sololaki, I eat at Iasamani or Klike's Khinkali on an ordinary night and book Cafe Littera's garden on Machabeli Street for a special one.

Vera and the streets off Rustaveli Avenue are the easiest for a first night: Salobie Bia, Cafe Stamba and Georgian House are all close to a metro station.

What dinner costs in Tbilisi

Tbilisi is cheap to eat in, even at good restaurants. These are the prices I plan around in 2026.

The jump from a canteen to a good restaurant is small, so I'd rather spend on one booked dinner a day and eat bakery and canteen lunches in between.

How ordering works in a Georgian restaurant

Eating out in Tbilisi works differently from most of Europe in one big way: Georgians order for the table and share everything, so don't order one main each. Pick a few cold dishes first, like pkhali, badrijani or a tomato and cucumber salad, and they'll arrive while the hot dishes cook. A wait of 20 to 30 minutes for those usually means they're made fresh.

Portions follow their own logic. Mtsvadi usually comes as 4 to 6 pieces, mchadi cornbread is ordered by the piece, and khinkali come in fives. Over-ordering is normal, and any restaurant will pack up the leftovers for you.

House wine from a jug is the local order, from about 5 GEL a glass, and Georgians drink beer or lemonade with khinkali rather than wine. For the serious qvevri bottles after dinner, Tbilisi's natural wine bars pour them by the glass.

The bill only comes when you ask for it. Many restaurants add a service charge of 10%, sometimes 12 or 15%, and if it's on the bill, nothing more is expected. If it isn't, round up or leave about 10% in cash, which is the normal rule for tipping in Georgia.