Shopping Malls in Tbilisi: East Point, Galleria and the Rest

Tbilisi is better known for flea markets and wine shops than for malls, but the city has a handful of big, modern shopping centers, from Galleria on Freedom Square to East Point on the airport road. Here's where each one is, what's inside, how to get there and which one fits a rainy afternoon, a day with kids or the last few hours before a flight.

The main malls in Tbilisi at a glance

Six shopping centers matter to a visitor, and they sit in very different parts of the city. Only Galleria fits around a day of sightseeing in the old center; the two big ones, East Point and Tbilisi Mall, sit at opposite ends of town and are a taxi ride each.

If you only visit one, make it Galleria for convenience or East Point for the full mall experience. The rest earn a visit only when they happen to sit on your route.

Galleria Tbilisi: the mall on Freedom Square

Galleria is the mall you'll end up walking past on almost any day in the center. It stands on Freedom Square at the top of Rustaveli Avenue, in the shell of one of the four univermags, the state department stores of Soviet Tbilisi. It reopened as a modern mall in 2018 and added about 21,000 m² of shops to the center.

Inside, it's international high-street chains, cosmetics and sportswear on several bright floors, with food counters and cafes upstairs and a gallery space that shows work by local artists. It's not a place I'd cross town for. It's a place I use: for an ATM, a clean bathroom, a phone charger I forgot, a cold drink on a 35°C afternoon or a dry hour when the rain sets in over the Old Town.

Keep an eye out for the kiosks between the shops. Small Georgian brands sell dried fruit, chocolate-coated sweets and gift boxes from carts on the mall floor, and they make an easy present if you run out of time for the markets.

East Point: the biggest mall in Georgia

East Point opened in 2015 and is still the biggest shopping and entertainment complex in the country: 85,000 m², more than 150 brand shops, a hypermarket and a cinema. It sits about 10 km east of the center on the road between Tbilisi and the airport, which is the single most useful fact about it for a visitor.

The layout takes a minute to read. A big open-air car park, free to use, splits the complex in two. On one side are the Carrefour hypermarket, Elit Electronics and the large specialist stores, including a big DIY store. On the other side is the main three-floor building with the fashion shops, plus an outdoor fashion street lined with shopfronts under steel awnings that feels more like an outlet village than a mall.

What sets East Point apart is everything that isn't shopping. Its cinema brought Georgia's first IMAX screen, there's a children's entertainment center, and the food choice is wider than anywhere in the center. If you want to spend a whole afternoon in one place out of the heat, this is the one.

Getting there is the catch. A free mall bus and city minibuses run out from town, but they're slow, so I'd simply book a car on one of the taxi apps in Tbilisi, which shows the fare before you ride.

Tbilisi Mall: Digomi, on the road to Mtskheta

Tbilisi Mall sits on David Aghmashenebeli Alley in Digomi, the highway out of the northwest of the city, at the opposite end of town from East Point. It's a big indoor box: more than 74,000 m² over 4 floors, with room for up to 250 shops and kiosks and a 15,000 m² hypermarket.

The upper floors hold the multi-screen cinema, the food court and a family entertainment center, and there's a small indoor zoo that kids tend to remember. The central atrium hosts fashion shows and sports events, and 2,700 parking spaces fill 4 underground levels. It opens daily from about 10:00 to 22:00.

For most visitors, Tbilisi Mall makes sense in one situation: a Mtskheta day trip by car or with a driver. The mall is about 4 km from Jvari Monastery as the crow flies, right on the way, so it's an easy stop for lunch, a supermarket run or a film on the drive home. Without that reason, East Point does everything it does on a larger scale.

City Mall Saburtalo and City Mall Gldani

City Mall is two malls under one name. The Saburtalo branch, at 70 Vazha-Pshavela Avenue in Saburtalo, is the one a visitor might use: Zara, Massimo Dutti, Hugo Boss and Karl Lagerfeld for the bigger fashion names, a Goodwill hypermarket, a cinema, a gym and a food court with Georgian, Asian and European counters. It's a useful mall if you're renting an apartment in Saburtalo or Vake and want a big supermarket and a few chains on one trip.

City Mall Gldani is in the far north of the city, near Akhmeteli Theatre, the northern end of the first metro line. It's an everyday mall for the neighborhood, with cheaper shops and nothing you can't find closer to the center. I wouldn't make the trip unless you're staying up there.

Smaller shopping centers in the center

Two smaller centers are handy because of where they are, not what they sell.

• Tbilisi Central. The modern shopping center built over the railway station at Station Square mixes local and international brands, with a rooftop terrace that looks out over the city. Station Square metro is underneath.

• Merani. A shopping gallery right on Rustaveli Avenue, with affordable fashion and none of the scale of the big malls. Pop in if you're already walking the avenue; don't plan around it.

What to buy in a Tbilisi mall, and what to skip

The international chains in Tbilisi charge about what they charge at home, and sometimes a little more, because everything is imported. Unless a sale is on, I wouldn't plan a shopping trip around Zara or Massimo Dutti here.

The real reason to visit a big mall is the hypermarket. Carrefour at East Point, the hypermarket at Tbilisi Mall and Goodwill at City Mall stock long shelves of Georgian food and drink at everyday local prices:

• Wine. Saperavi, Rkatsiteli and amber qvevri wines from the big Kakheti producers, usually cheaper than in the specialist wine shops in Tbilisi, though with a narrower range of small natural producers.
• Chacha. The grape spirit comes in every size from miniatures to big bottles, and a supermarket bottle of chacha makes a fine gift.
• Churchkhela. The walnut and grape-must sweets, sealed and ready to travel.
• Sauces and spices. Tkemali plum sauce, adjika and bags of khmeli suneli, the spice blend in half of Georgian cooking.
• Borjomi and tea. Mineral water and Georgian black tea, both light enough to pack.

Handmade things are a different story. Enamel jewelry, felt, ceramics, carpets and Soviet-era odds and ends don't turn up in the malls at all, and most of the Georgian souvenirs I'd actually bring home never reach a mall shelf. For those, the Dry Bridge market and the craft shops of the Old Town are where the good stuff is. For fresh spices, cheese and dried fruit, the Dezerter Bazaar by Station Square beats any supermarket on price and on fun.

Most of the shopping in Tbilisi I'd actually recommend happens on the street and at the markets. The malls are where you fill the gaps.

Eating in Tbilisi's malls

Every big mall has a food court, and they all follow the same pattern: international fast food, a pizza counter, an Asian counter, a coffee chain and at least one place selling khachapuri. East Point has the widest choice, City Mall Saburtalo mixes Georgian, Asian and European counters, and Galleria keeps its food on the upper floors.

Mall food is fine for refueling, but it isn't why you came to Georgia. For a proper meal of Georgian food, walk out and eat in town. If you do want something quick inside, this is my pick.

Big Sam's, Galleria Tbilisi

Big Sam's is a burger counter inside Galleria, all red steel stairs, black brick and chunky wooden tables. You order at the counter under the menu board and eat at the long tables or upstairs on the mezzanine. It's my choice when I want something fast in the center that isn't another khachapuri.

The burgers are the thing to order: thin, crispy double patties with melted cheese on a soft brioche bun, with bacon if you want it and crinkle-cut fries on the side. It's quick, it's filling, and it's a short walk from the metro when you come in from the rain.

Which Tbilisi mall should you visit?

The right mall depends on where you're going anyway. Here's how I'd pick.

• A rainy afternoon in the center: Galleria Tbilisi. It's on Freedom Square, steps from the metro, and an hour inside fits between a museum on Rustaveli and dinner in the Old Town.
• A day with kids: East Point, for the IMAX, the children's entertainment center and the open-air street where they can run around; Tbilisi Mall comes second with its entertainment center and small zoo. Both are good backup plans on a wet day of Tbilisi with kids.
• Your last day before a flight: East Point. It's on the way out of town, so a stop there fits neatly into the ride from the city to the airport if you're traveling by car.
• A day trip to Mtskheta by car: Tbilisi Mall, on the road out, for lunch or a hypermarket run on the way back.
• An apartment in Saburtalo or Vake: City Mall Saburtalo, for the supermarket and the bigger fashion chains in one stop.
• A train to catch: Tbilisi Central, right above the platforms.

And the honest answer for a short trip: if you have a weekend or a 3-day Tbilisi itinerary, skip the suburban malls altogether. Galleria is the only one that fits around sightseeing without costing you half a day.

Tips for shopping malls in Tbilisi

• Expect long hours. Most malls open from about 10:00 to 22:00 every day, Sundays included.
• Pay by card. Contactless works in mall shops and food courts, and a mall ATM is a safe spot to take out Georgian lari for the markets, which still run on cash.
• Use the metro for the central ones. Galleria, Tbilisi Central and City Mall Gldani all sit on the Tbilisi metro, so you can reach them for the price of a single ride.
• Take a taxi to the big two. East Point and Tbilisi Mall are built for cars, and a ride-hailing app is far simpler than the buses.
• Don't count on bargains. Chains match home prices; the good deals are Georgian products in the hypermarkets.