Tbilisi Nightlife Guide: Bars, Clubs, Live Music and Things to Do at Night

Tbilisi is known for its techno clubs, but going out here starts long before the club doors open: a cocktail in Sololaki, natural wine in a brick cellar, a jazz band on Rustaveli Avenue, khinkali at 3 AM. Here's what you need to know about Tbilisi nightlife: where to start, which night to go out, the clubs and their doors, what a night costs and how to get home.

Tbilisi nightlife at a glance

Tbilisi goes out late. Dinner starts around 9 PM, the bars fill from 10 PM, and the clubs only get going after 2 AM. Most of a night out happens on foot around Freedom Square, with Fabrika and the big clubs a short taxi ride away.

How a night out in Tbilisi works

Going out in Tbilisi runs on a late clock. Georgians eat late and long, and bars are at their best from about 11 PM. A club before 1 AM is an empty room with a DJ warming up; the peak runs from about 3 AM until it's light.

The big clubs open two nights a week, but the bars and music rooms have something on every night. This is how I plan a week:

Two club nights back to back is a lot when each runs until 9 AM. I'd spend Friday in the bars and save the legs for Saturday.

The best bar to start a night out in Tbilisi

Crossroads Bar is where I start a night out, and where I send anyone who asks. It's the best cocktail bar in Tbilisi to make new friends: a very open, social room at 30 Shalva Dadiani Street in Sololaki, a few minutes' walk from Freedom Square, with a real mix of expats and locals along the bar. You can walk in alone and leave with people to go on with.

The weekly program does the introductions for you. Wednesday is the expat meetup, Tuesday and Sunday are karaoke nights, and Thursday is live music. Order the Pinelet, the bestseller of gin, pinecone liqueur and lime with a gentle pine aroma. The kitchen runs until midnight, with mini quiches at 7 GEL and potato pancakes.

The best bars in Tbilisi for a night out

After Crossroads, the rest of my night stays in the same few streets. 8 of the 12 best bars in Tbilisi I rate sit within a short walk of Freedom Square, so a bar hop needs no taxi until the club. These are the ones I'd put on a first night.

Chacha Time on Geronti Kikodze Street pours 40+ kinds of Georgian chacha, the grape spirit, in 25 ml measures, so you can taste several and still stand.

41° Art of Drinks is a brick basement behind a sliding metal door at 19 Galaktion Tabidze Street.

Ambavi, at number 12 on the same street, is the speakeasy you climb the stairs to and knock.

Apotheka Bar fills a former 1902 pharmacy near Freedom Square, with bartenders in white lab coats.

Vino Underground, also on Galaktion Tabidze Street, is the cellar for natural wine in Tbilisi, at 10 to 20 GEL a glass.

Tsota Tsota is the first of my two beer stops, a vaulted Sololaki pub pouring Georgian craft beer.

Abragi on Shalva Dadiani Street is the second, with drafts you'll find nowhere else in the city.

That puts two of the city's best speakeasy cocktail bars and its best-known natural wine cellar a few doors apart on one street.

For the hour before, a sunset drink on one of the rooftop bars in Tbilisi is the best warm-up: Point Terrasse at 15 Anton Catholicos Street puts Narikala and Holy Trinity Cathedral in the same view.

Where to go out in Tbilisi: the nightlife areas

Tbilisi's nightlife sits in five pockets, and each one suits a different part of the night.

Sololaki is my base because almost every bar I've named so far is in it or on its edge.

In Old Tbilisi, Shardeni Street is the cobbled tourist strip by the baths and the priciest place in the city for a drink, while Erekle II Street nearby has outdoor tables under string lights. I eat in the Old Town and walk up to Sololaki to drink.

Across the river, Fabrika's courtyard is the outdoor option: a converted Soviet sewing factory at 8 Egnate Ninoshvili Street with around a dozen bars and cafes and no cover charge. On warm weekends it stays loud until 2 or 3 AM, and a Bolt from Freedom Square costs about 5 to 7 GEL.

Tbilisi techno clubs: Bassiani, KHIDI and the door

Techno is what put Tbilisi nightlife on the map, and two clubs carry it. Bassiani opened in 2014 in a drained Soviet swimming pool under Dinamo Arena, the national football stadium, and you dance where the water used to be. It opens on Friday and Saturday from 11 PM to 9 AM, entry runs 25 to 50 GEL, and tickets sell online per event after you register and get verified. The big lineups sell out days ahead.

KHIDI opened in 2016 inside the Vakhushti Bagrationi Bridge by the river. It holds up to 1,200 people over 3 floors and plays harder, more industrial techno from midnight to 9 AM, with entry at 20 to 40 GEL. Its door is the friendlier of the two, which makes it my pick for a first club night.

For something softer, Café Gallery has a relaxed door and entry of 10 to 25 GEL, and Mtkvarze plays house and disco by the river (15 to 35 GEL).

Getting past face control at Tbilisi's techno clubs has nothing to do with money. The door staff protect a crowd that came for the music, so they let in calm, sober guests who know who's playing. Wear dark, plain clothes, have 1 or 2 names from tonight's lineup ready, and bring your passport plus 50 to 80 GEL in cash, because there's no ATM inside. A sticker goes over your phone camera at the entrance.

Live music and jazz in Tbilisi

Live music is the part of Tbilisi nightlife most visitors walk straight past, and it fills the five nights a week the big clubs are shut. There's live jazz every night of the week, carried by three rooms, and every October the Tbilisi Jazz Festival fills the Tbilisi Concert Hall.

Jazz Club 1984 on Rustaveli Avenue has a show every night of the year, in a former apartment with floral wallpaper.

Tatuza Jazz Club in the Telegraph Hotel books the international names, with tickets on tkt.ge.

Singer in the Old Town has free jazz from Georgian bands nightly from about 9 PM; the room is small, so arrive 30 minutes early.

For something you can only hear here, the folk dinner shows at Ethno Tsiskvili and Ethnographer put Georgian polyphonic singing and dance on stage in the evening, with dinner at about 100 GEL a head or more.

Ethnographer, a few doors up Akaki Beliashvili Street, stages its show in a hall hung with chandeliers.

Pub crawls in Tbilisi

Four organized pub crawls run in Tbilisi, starting at 8 or 9 PM and moving through 4 or 5 bars in about 4 to 5 hours. A ticket costs about 85 to 100 GEL and covers a welcome shot at each stop. The City Pub Crawl meets at Crossroads Bar, Irine's Pub Crawls in the Fabrika hostel lobby and the Legendary Pub Crawl on Freedom Square. A DIY crawl of five drinks and a taxi home costs about 55 to 90 GEL, so on one of the organized pub crawls in Tbilisi you pay for the company more than the drinks.

Things to do in Tbilisi at night (besides drinking)

Not every night has to end in a bar, and some of the best things to do in Tbilisi after dark cost nothing.

My favorite free night in the city is a walk. Cross the Bridge of Peace after dark, when about 50,000 LEDs light its glass canopy and the reflections run down the river to Metekhi.

Then ride the cable car to Narikala from Rike Park for the lit Old Town under your feet.

Mtatsminda Park gives the highest view in the city, and it is best at night, with the valley lit below.

For a slower evening, Gulo's Thermal Spa keeps a private room in the sulfur baths going until 03:00, later than any other bathhouse.

For ballet or opera, a seat at the striped Moorish opera house on Rustaveli Avenue starts at about 20 GEL.

Late-night food in Tbilisi

Khinkali is the city's after-midnight food. Maspindzelo Express, off Kostava Street in Vera, runs round the clock on Fridays and Saturdays.

Cafe Daphna, by the Dry Bridge and in the Old Town, stays open until 6 AM at weekends.

A piece of khinkali costs 2.40 to 3 GEL at the places I rate for late-night khinkali. The morning after, Georgians fix a hangover with a bowl of khashi or chikhirtma soup.

What a night out in Tbilisi costs

Going out here is cheap by European standards, as long as you skip Shardeni Street. These are 2026 prices.

A full night of dinner, bars and a club usually runs 80 to 150 GEL a person. A Saturday before dinner works out like this: a cocktail and a beer at Crossroads (about 25 GEL), two more cocktails in Sololaki (about 35 GEL), KHIDI at 30 GEL with 2 beers inside (about 16 GEL), a Bolt each way (about 20 GEL) and 5 khinkali at sunrise (about 15 GEL) comes to about 140 GEL.

Getting home and staying safe at night

I find Tbilisi relaxed late at night, and the realistic risks in Tbilisi are an inflated bill or an overpriced taxi rather than violence. The metro closes around midnight, so after that it's a car. Bolt and Yandex Go run 24 hours and fix the fare before you get in, which matters at 9 AM, when the taxis in Tbilisi waiting outside a club quote whatever they like. Walk 100 to 200 meters from the exit before you order.

Buy your own drinks and keep them in sight, especially in the big clubs. Since late November 2024, protests have gathered in the evenings in front of Parliament on Rustaveli Avenue; most are peaceful, but not all, so keep your distance from that stretch after dark.