Breakfast and Brunch in Tbilisi: 12 Best Spots and What to Order

Tbilisi is a late-morning city. Plenty of Georgians skip breakfast for strong coffee, and the cafes only fill up from about 11:00, which leaves early risers with quiet rooms and a long list of shakshuka, syrniki and kikliko to choose from. Here's where I'd eat breakfast and brunch, what a Georgian breakfast actually is, which Sunday buffets earn the booking and what it all costs.

Breakfast in Tbilisi at a glance

Twelve places, five neighborhoods, all of them within a short ride of Freedom Square. Opening times are for weekdays unless the table says otherwise.

The 12 best breakfast and brunch spots in Tbilisi, ranked

My ranking weighs the food first, then the room and how easy it is to get a table. Every place here serves a proper plate, not just coffee and a croissant.

1. Crossroads Bistro

Crossroads Bistro is where I send anyone who asks me for brunch in Tbilisi. It's an all-day bistro at 30 Shalva Dadiani Street in Sololaki, a few minutes' walk from Freedom Square, with a calm dining room of patterned banquettes and wall lamps.

Order the draniki, the crisp potato pancakes people mention most, or the syrniki if you want something sweet. The shakshuka arrives with toasted bread for dipping, and there's salmon, brioche and pate if you'd rather build a plate. Coffee runs until 11 PM, and the room stays quiet enough by day to open a laptop after breakfast. Hungrier people can go straight to the English muffin burger with bacon and cheddar.

2. Cafe Stamba

Cafe Stamba fills the ground floor of the Stamba Hotel at 14 Kostava Street in Vera, a few minutes from Rustaveli metro, in a former Soviet printing house with very high ceilings. It's the most polished breakfast in the city, and it's priced to match.

Breakfast runs from 08:00 until late morning. My order is the Udabno Plate: farm eggs, cheeses, honey, almond cream cheese and bread. The fluffy pancakes with butter and maple syrup are the other favorite, and eggs Benedict with salmon and hummus with poached eggs are on the menu too. It's busy by mid-morning, so go at opening or book a table.

3. Kikliko

Kikliko is a small brunch-only cafe at 28 Mtskheta Street, where Vera runs into Vake, with a tiny garden out back. It has been open since 2018, and it takes its name from the Georgian egg-fried bread it does best.

The three-cheese kikliko (22.90 GEL) is French toast under parmesan, mozzarella, cream cheese, sour cream and tomatoes, and the version with ham and sulguni costs 21 GEL. For something sweet, the caramel kikliko is 22 GEL, and machkati, Georgian cottage cheese pancakes with sour cream and jam, cost 19.30 GEL. It opens at 08:00 on weekdays and 09:00 at weekends, and it closes at 15:00 (16:00 at weekends), so it's breakfast and lunch rather than a lazy afternoon.

4. Breakfast Is

Breakfast Is is a tiny Georgian-owned cafe at 14 Ingorokva Street, just behind Freedom Square, with about seven tables, an open kitchen and the menu chalked on a blackboard. It opened in spring 2023 and has been full most weekends since.

Prices are fair for the center: shakshuka 25 GEL, a three-egg scramble 26 GEL, French toast on brioche 24 GEL, avocado toast 26 GEL and machkati 24 GEL, with a cappuccino at 9 GEL. I'd order the shakshuka or the French toast. It opens at 08:00 on weekdays (an hour later in winter), and on a Saturday every table can go within ten minutes, so come early or come midweek.

5. The Blue Fox

The Blue Fox is the restaurant of a small hotel in Old Tbilisi, near Anchiskhati Basilica, and its tables sit in a courtyard under carved wooden balconies. Non-guests can walk in from 08:00, and the breakfast menu runs until 13:00.

The plate I'd come back for is the Moroccan breakfast: two poached eggs with grilled cherry tomatoes, labneh, herbs and toasted shoti bread. The kitchen also does shakshuka, eggs Benedict, waffles, quiche, sandwiches on shoti bread and a Georgian take on menemen, the Turkish scrambled eggs with tomato and pepper. It's the most atmospheric breakfast in the Old Town, and a good start before the walk up to the fortress.

6. Chaduna

Chaduna is a cafe by day and a natural wine bar by night, in a heritage building at 18 Tabidze Street in Sololaki, with a red room with art covering the walls. It's my pick for Georgian breakfast dishes in the center.

Order the chizhi-bizhi, eggs scrambled with tomato, onion and herbs, which is the closest Georgia gets to shakshuka. The syrniki are the other reason to come, served with fresh fruit and cream, and there's a frittata and breakfast quesadillas if you want something heavier. It opens at 09:00 Tuesday to Sunday and stays open until 23:00, so the same table works for a late breakfast and a glass of wine that evening. It's closed on Mondays.

7. Iakobis Ezo

Iakobis Ezo is the restaurant in the courtyard of the Artizan Hotel at 14 Nikoladze Street in Vera, and one of the few breakfast places in town that takes bookings online. The breakfast menu runs from 08:00 to 11:00, and then an all-day eggs menu takes over.

The morning order is pancakes, or the pastry basket with a coffee. Come later and hungrier and the all-day menu has Adjaruli khachapuri, which is how a lot of Tbilisi does a weekend brunch anyway. Inside, the dining room has curved banquettes and glass chandeliers, so it suits a slightly special breakfast, a birthday or a first morning in the city.

8. Sol

Sol is a pastel cafe with an open kitchen and a terrace at 28 Petriashvili Street in Vera, open 08:00 to 20:00 with breakfast all day. It's the easy answer when half your group wakes up at noon.

The full plate is 28 GEL, the cottage cheese crepe with berry sauce 26 GEL and a plate called the Georgian Breakfast 23 GEL, with croissants at 10 GEL and a large cappuccino at 11 GEL. Salmon eggs Benedict on brioche and American pancakes are the other popular orders. Juices, lemonade and cocktails take over in the afternoon, and the room is calm enough to sit with a book for an hour.

9. Hello Breakfast

Hello Breakfast at 40 Zandukeli Street in Vera is the place for pancakes. The pancakes with strawberries (26 to 28 GEL) are huge and properly fluffy, and the menu is long on gluten-free and dairy-free choices: gluten-free bagels with smoked salmon (28 GEL), smoothie bowls (22 GEL) and a shakshuka with blue cheese (28 GEL).

It's a small place with slow service, often with one person running the room, and when it's full they turn people away. The posted opening time is 08:00, but I'd plan on a little later than that, and I'd go on a weekday. It stays open until early evening, so a late pancake lunch works as well.

10. Weller

Weller is a Levantine restaurant at 56 Ninoshvili Street, a short walk from Marjanishvili metro, with a marble bar and a long menu of small plates. On weekdays it serves breakfast from 08:00; at weekends it switches to a brunch mezze from noon.

The weekend mezze is the reason to come: dips, small plates and bottomless pita, sized for two or three people. There's also a Georgian mezze with local cheeses, honey and Racha ham, which is the best way I know to try a Georgian breakfast table in a restaurant. Book for weekend brunch, bring friends and come hungry, because the pita keeps coming until you stop it.

11. Unfound Door

Unfound Door is a hotel in a restored 19th-century mansion at 111 Aghmashenebeli Avenue in Chugureti, and its breakfast room under painted ceilings is open to non-guests. Walk-ins start at 08:00, and the a la carte menu runs until 14:00.

Order the croque madame with prosciutto cotto and a coffee, then sit under the frescoes for as long as you like. It's the breakfast I'd pick for a slow first morning on the left bank, before walking the pedestrian stretch of Aghmashenebeli Avenue with its restored facades. The herringbone floors and painted ceilings make it the best-looking breakfast room in Tbilisi, and nobody rushes you out.

12. Coffee Line

Coffee Line is a Ukrainian-owned cafe at 10 Eristavi Street in Avlabari, a short walk from Avlabari metro and Holy Trinity Cathedral, with a terrace and a courtyard. It opens at 08:00 and rarely has a queue.

The English breakfast is 30.25 GEL, syrniki 26.95 GEL and shakshuka 22.55 GEL, and the avocado toast is one of the best in the city. There are sockets at every table, so it's a good place to sit with a laptop afterwards. It stays open until 20:00, and it's the breakfast I'd plan around a morning visit to Sameba, the cathedral on the hill above it.

Georgian breakfast: what locals eat and where to order it

Georgia has no big breakfast tradition. Most of Georgian food is built for long lunches and dinners, and a lot of people in Tbilisi start the day with strong coffee or sweet black tea and nothing else. The home breakfast table is simple: bread, butter, homemade jam, cheese, matsoni (the local yogurt, often eaten with honey), boiled or fried eggs, and tomato and cucumber in summer. Leftover khachapuri, warmed up and eaten with tea, counts as breakfast too.

The Georgian dishes you'll find on cafe menus are cooked versions of that table, mostly eggs, bread and cottage cheese. These are the ones to look for.

For the most Georgian breakfast in a cafe, go to Dila Georgian Mornings at 8 Isani Street in Avlabari. It opens at 08:00 and does a Georgian breakfast platter of bread, cheese, eggs and jam, plus kikliko with mushrooms and jonjoli, the pickled shoots Georgians eat a bit like capers. It has a busy takeaway trade, so order at the counter early.

Khachapuri for breakfast is real, but Adjaruli khachapuri, the cheese boat with a raw egg and butter, is a weekend dish rather than a weekday one.

Puri Guliani on Saarbrucken Square opens at 09:00 and serves eggs Benedict on brioche with Racha ham, Adjaruli (31 GEL), lobiani and ponchiki, the Georgian doughnuts. Its express branch at 37 Abashidze Street in Vake opens at 08:00.

Sunday brunch and hotel breakfast buffets

Tbilisi's buffets come in two kinds: the cheap all-you-can-eat breakfast at Fabrika, and the hotel spreads that run 60 to 100 GEL. I'd do one hotel brunch per trip, on a Sunday, with a view.

ATI is the Sunday brunch I'd book. It sits on the roof of the Sheraton in Avlabari with a view across the river to the Old Town, and 70 GEL buys the buffet, roast and pasta stations, two plated dishes (chirbuli, eggs Benedict or banana French toast among them) and unlimited sparkling wine, tea, coffee and juice. Book ahead, and Marriott members get a discount.

Fabrika is the budget buffet. The hostel in a former Soviet sewing factory serves eggs cooked to order, house yogurt, cheese and charcuterie, pastries, bread and juices for about 40 GEL, and non-guests are welcome.

Once the buffet closes, Londa in the Fabrika courtyard serves eggs Benedict and bagels at picnic tables from 10:00 to 14:00.

Grand Cafe at the Telegraph Hotel on Rustaveli Avenue is the grandest room of the lot, with coffered ceilings and globe lamps, and its walk-in buffet costs 100 GEL. It's a once-a-trip breakfast, best on a cold morning when you're in no hurry.

Bakeries and chains for a quick breakfast

A tone is the neighborhood bakery: a sunken room with a round clay oven, where the baker slaps shotis puri onto the hot inside wall. For a lot of Tbilisi, breakfast is a piece of khachapuri, lobiani or penovani from the tone window on the way to work, at 3 to 8 GEL. Penovani, a flaky puff pastry square with cheese, is the one made for eating as you walk, and it's my favorite street food in Tbilisi.

For a sit-down pastry and coffee, the bakery chains and French-style boulangeries open early and cost less than the brunch cafes.

Baba is the one I walk to. Everything is baked in house, the coffee is good, and an almond croissant with a cappuccino is my idea of a quick breakfast before a day on foot.

Breakfast by neighborhood

Tbilisi's breakfast is concentrated in Vera, Sololaki and the streets around Freedom Square, but every central neighborhood has at least one good morning table. Here's where I'd eat depending on where you wake up.

If you're staying in Avlabari, you have the best of both: Coffee Line and Dila for weekdays, and the Sheraton's rooftop brunch on Sunday.

In Vake, Chicos at 11a Chavchavadze Avenue opens at 09:00 on weekdays and 10:00 at weekends, does a Vake Breakfast for 31 GEL and eggs Benedict on brioche, and takes reservations online before it turns into a tapas place for lunch.

What breakfast costs and when cafes open

Breakfast is cheap by European standards. A cappuccino costs 9 to 14 GEL at almost every specialty cafe in Tbilisi, a cafe plate 19 to 30 GEL, and a full brunch with coffee usually lands between 30 and 60 GEL a person.

The reliable 08:00 openers are Cafe Stamba, Sol, Iakobis Ezo, Breakfast Is, The Blue Fox, Coffee Line, Dila, Unfound Door, the Fabrika buffet, Spot by Chiti at 3 Sarajishvili Street near Rustaveli metro, and every Entree. Most other cafes open at 09:00 or 10:00, and nearly all of them stop serving breakfast by early afternoon.

If your flight lands before dawn, Lui Coffee at 23 Chavchavadze Avenue in Vake is open 24 hours, with an English breakfast at 25.40 GEL waiting at the end of the airport run into the city.

Cards are standard in cafes, and bookings mostly go by phone or Instagram message. If the bill already carries a 10% service charge, no extra tip in Georgia is expected on top; if it doesn't, rounding up or leaving about 10% is plenty.