Vegetarian and Vegan Tbilisi: Where to Eat and What to Order

Georgian food has a meaty reputation, but a big share of every Georgian table is vegetables: walnut pastes, bean stews, eggplant rolls and herb salads, many of them vegan by tradition because of the Orthodox fasting calendar. Here's what to order, how fasting menus work, what to ask about cheese and butter, and the 19 vegan and vegetarian-friendly places in Tbilisi I'd send you to.

Is Tbilisi good for vegetarians and vegans?

Yes, and better than most visitors expect. Georgian cooking grew out of the garden: beans, walnuts, eggplant, beets, spinach, fresh herbs and cornmeal. The church added its own push. Georgians who keep the Orthodox fasts skip meat, dairy and eggs on Wednesdays and Fridays and through the long fasts before Easter and Christmas, so every kitchen in the country knows how to cook a full meal without animal products.

For a vegetarian, the only real problem is cheese overload. You can eat very well at any Georgian restaurant without looking for a special one. For a vegan it takes a question or two per meal, mostly about cheese, butter and egg, and a handful of fully vegan places fill the gaps when you want tofu, a burger or oat milk in your coffee.

I'd plan it like this: Georgian restaurants for dinner, built around the cold vegetable starters and a clay pot of beans, and the vegan cafes in the old center for breakfast and lunch.

Vegetarian and vegan Georgian dishes to order

The cold starters are where vegetarians eat best. Most Georgian meals open with a spread of vegetable plates for the table, and the hot dishes follow 20 to 30 minutes later, so you can make a whole meal of the first round. The usual rules of Georgian food apply: order for the table, share everything and ask for bread, because stews arrive without it.

The two I'd never skip are pkhali and lobio. A plate of three pkhali is the most Georgian thing a vegan can eat, and the walnut makes it filling enough to anchor a meal. Lobio is the comfort food: beans stewed with coriander and garlic, served in a clay pot with mchadi cornbread and a plate of pickles. A pot costs about 18 GEL at a central restaurant in 2026, and a canteen main runs 10 to 15 GEL.

Ajapsandali is the summer dish, a soft stew of eggplant, tomato and pepper that tastes best from June to October, when the vegetables are local. Out of season I'd order badrijani nigvzit instead, which is on every menu all year.

Vegetarians who eat cheese have the easiest time of all: one Imeruli or Adjarian khachapuri is a meal for two, and the khachapuri styles in Tbilisi run from bakery slices at 3 to 8 GEL to restaurant boats at 14 to 28 GEL.

Fasting menus and Lent in Georgia

The Georgian Orthodox church fasts more than most. The faithful skip meat, dairy and eggs on Wednesdays and Fridays, through the seven weeks of Great Lent before Easter in Georgia and through the weeks before Christmas on 7 January. Fasting food has its own word, samarkhvo, and many traditional restaurants print a samarkhvo menu or mark the fasting dishes on the main one.

For a vegan, that menu is the best tool in the city. It turns a meat-heavy Georgian menu into a list you can order from without questions: pkhali, lobio, mushroom dishes cooked without butter, potato and mushroom khinkali, vegetable stews and walnut salads. During Lent the fasting choice is at its widest.

The word is a strong hint rather than a guarantee. Some places put dairy into dishes on their fasting menu, so if you're strict, ask about butter and cheese anyway.

Hidden cheese, butter and meat: what to ask

The things that catch vegetarians and vegans out are small, and they're the same in every restaurant:

• Sulguni. The salty, stretchy cheese goes on mushroom dishes, into ghomi and elarji, and onto anything described as "with cheese". Ask for the mushrooms without it.
• Butter. Mushrooms baked in a clay dish are often finished with butter, and the Adjarian khachapuri comes with a knob of it on top.
• Egg. Khinkali dough is usually flour and water, but some kitchens add egg. Adjarian khachapuri carries a raw yolk.
• Pork fat and ham. Some bakeries add bacon fat to the bean filling of lobiani, the Racha version comes with ham, and lobio occasionally arrives topped with it.
• Meat in disguise. Kharcho is a beef soup unless the menu says vegetarian, and khinkali with no filling named on the menu are meat.

Where to eat: the 19 places at a glance

Fully vegan restaurants and cafes in Tbilisi

Tbilisi's vegan scene is small but real, and most of it sits in and around Sololaki, the old district of balconies and courtyard houses below the fortress. These five serve no animal products at all.

Kiwi Vegan Cafe

Kiwi was Tbilisi's first vegan cafe, and it still feels like a friend's living room: bookshelves, armchairs and people working over a coffee. It's at 6 Ivane Machabeli Street in Sololaki, a few minutes from Freedom Square. The menu is the comfort end of vegan food: burgers, shawarma, noodles, tofu curry and pizza with vegan cheese.

Save room for the cherry tart or the brownie. The wifi works and nobody rushes you, which makes it my pick for a slow vegan lunch that turns into an afternoon of trip planning.

Shpana

Shpana is a 100% vegan kitchen in Chugureti, in a basement room lit in neon with painted brick walls. The menu wanders across Asia and Italy: vegan ramen, vegetable curry, plant-based kimbap and sourdough pizzas.

It's the one I'd pick for dinner with friends who eat meat, because nobody at the table will feel they're eating a substitute.

Stricha

Stricha is a small vegan cafe and bakery in the center, with red walls, a crowded counter and a glass case of pastries. It cooks savory plates too, but the bakery side is why I go.

The vegan doughnuts and the chocolate-topped baklava are what I'd order with a coffee. It's the best answer in Tbilisi to the vegan question of where to find a proper dessert, since Georgian bakeries lean hard on butter and eggs.

Lutra Lutra Bar

Lutra Lutra is a vegan bar on Alexandre Dumas Street in the old center, a brick-walled room with wooden tables and a relaxed crowd. The kitchen does creative fusion plates, from Asian bowls to Western comfort food.

Order a bottle of Georgian craft cider with the food. It's a bar first, so come for a long evening of eating and drinking in the same seat rather than a quick dinner before something else.

Coffee Place

Coffee Place, at 24 Tabidze Street in Sololaki, is fully plant-based, with frescoed ceilings and oat, coconut and banana milk as standard rather than as an extra. A cappuccino costs 12 GEL and laptops are welcome.

The cakes are vegan too, including an almond cake and a pecan tart. It's the easiest coffee stop for vegans in the city, and the room alone puts it among the prettiest cafes in Tbilisi.

Vegetarian-friendly cafes with mostly meatless menus

These three are not strictly vegan, but meat is rare or absent and most of the menu is fair game.

Cafe Leila

Cafe Leila sits at 18 Ioane Shavteli Street in the Old Town, opposite Anchiskhati Basilica and a few steps from the leaning Gabriadze clock tower. The room is a former Soviet-era sweet shop with carved muqarnas ceilings, open daily from 11 AM to 11 PM. Nothing is fried, and the menu is Georgian without the meat: mushroom kharcho with blackberry sauce and cornbread, vegetarian chakapuli, mushroom and tarragon soup, and a three-cheese mushroom khachapurito.

A few fish dishes, trout among them, keep it from being fully vegetarian. It's busy and much photographed but takes walk-ins, so I'd go for lunch on a weekday, when you get a table without a wait.

Iasamani

Iasamani, at 33 Lado Asatiani Street in Sololaki, is a Georgian restaurant where more than half the menu is vegetarian or vegan. Order the oyster mushrooms in cherry and pomegranate sauce, a dish that shows what Georgian cooks can do with sour fruit and no meat at all. The bar makes a signature Iasamani cocktail, and the staff are relaxed about walk-ins.

I'd pick it for a first dinner if you're traveling with meat eaters. They get a proper Georgian menu, and you get far more than a side plate of pkhali.

Mama Terra Veggie Corner

Mama Terra is a vegetarian cafe in Sololaki, a short walk from Liberty Square, with a mix of Georgian and international plates at low prices. Vegan dishes are prepared and stored separately from the dairy ones, which matters if you're strict.

Breakfast is the time to go. The vegan omelette is its best-known dish, and oats with coconut milk, smoothies and falafel sandwiches fill out the menu. It's simple food in a simple room, and the right call when you want a vegetarian meal without reading every ingredient.

Vegetarian breakfast and brunch

Georgian breakfasts lean on cheese, eggs and pastry, which suits vegetarians and leaves vegans hunting. These are my two favorite brunch spots in Tbilisi for vegetarians.

Hello Breakfast

Hello Breakfast, at 40 Zandukeli Street in Vera, is my first pick for a vegetarian brunch and the easiest one for vegans, because the menu is long on dairy-free and gluten-free dishes. Smoothie bowls cost 22 GEL, and if you eat cheese, the shakshuka with blue cheese is 28 GEL.

The pancakes with strawberries (26 to 28 GEL) are what most people come for: huge, fluffy and enough for a late lunch. It's a small room, often run by one person, so service is slow and it turns people away when it's full. I'd go on a weekday, and since it stays open until early evening, a pancake lunch works as well as breakfast.

Chaduna

Cafe Chaduna is about 90% vegetarian and cooks creative Georgian food in a small red room hung with art. It's at its best for breakfast or lunch.

Order the syrniki, which arrive piled with fresh fruit and cream, then something Georgian from the lunch side of the menu. With so little meat on it, this is a place where vegetarians can order without reading the small print.

Falafel and hummus for a quick lunch

Muhudo

Muhudo is a small falafel bar at 2 Mikheil Zandukeli Street, right behind Rustaveli metro, with record shelves behind a tiled counter. The falafel wrap comes in small, medium and large, and it's an affordable vegan lunch in the middle of town.

The wrap is stuffed with salad and purple cabbage and holds up well as a walking lunch. It's a short walk from the theaters and museums of Rustaveli Avenue, so it fits neatly into a day on the avenue.

Supra Hummus

Supra Hummus opened at the end of 2025 at 13 Atoneli Street, a few minutes from the Dry Bridge market. It's a bright room with a blue counter and woven lamps, and the menu is short: hummus, falafel and falafel wraps.

A plate of hummus and a bowl of falafel make a light lunch for two. I like it after a morning at the flea market, when a full Georgian meal would be too much.

Georgian restaurants with the best vegetarian dishes

Every Georgian restaurant feeds vegetarians, but these five do the vegetable side of the menu better than most. They also hold their own among the best restaurants in Tbilisi for anyone, which makes them easy to share with meat eaters.

Salobie Bia

Salobie Bia means bean house, and lobio is the reason to come. It sits on Rustaveli Avenue beneath the Rustaveli Theatre, a calm, central room that costs a little more than neighborhood places.

The lobio comes in a clay pot with pickles and mchadi, and the rest of the menu is western Georgian: pickled mushrooms, lobiani and ghomi with sulguni. For a vegan, the lobio with its pickles and cornbread is a full meal on its own.

Shavi Lomi

Shavi Lomi is at 28 Zurab Kvlividze Street near Marjanishvili, in an old house down a narrow path. It's open from 1 PM to 2 AM, and dinner runs about 26 to 65 GEL a head. Book at weekends, especially for a table in the summer garden.

Order the gobi, a wooden platter of seasonal starters with pkhali, lobio, beetroot, cornbread and cheese. For me it's the best single vegetarian order in the city, a tour of the Georgian vegetable kitchen on one board, and a vegan can ask for it without the cheese.

Barbarestan

Barbarestan, at 132 Davit Aghmashenebeli Avenue, cooks from a 19th-century Georgian cookbook, and its vegetable dishes are among the best things on the menu. Order the pumpkin patties, the asparagus soup and the pkhali, plus the cherry soup with mint if it's on.

It's open daily from 2 PM to 11 PM, pours qvevri wine and no beer, and has live Georgian music on Saturday evenings. Book well ahead, because it's full most nights.

Racha

Racha is a basement cellar at 4 Mikheil Lermontov Street in Sololaki, and the opposite of Barbarestan: old, cheap and cash only, with no service charge on the bill. The ajapsandali and the lobio are the dishes to order, with a jug of house wine.

English on the menu is thin, but once you make it clear you don't eat meat, the staff steer you to the right plates, and the fasting dishes here are mostly vegan. It's the place I'd send a vegetarian who wants the old Tbilisi cellar experience rather than a designed room.

Cafe Daphna

Cafe Daphna makes its khinkali by hand at two branches, 29 Atoneli Street by the Dry Bridge and 6 Samghebro Street in the Old Town. Vegetarians get garlicky mushroom khinkali, potato and cheese, and spinach, plus pumpkin pkhali and jonjoli, the pickled bladdernut buds Georgians eat as a starter.

It's open daily from 11 AM to 2 AM, until 6 AM at weekends, and a meal runs about 25 to 50 GEL a person. Weekdays are calmer, and the staff will show you how to eat khinkali if it's your first time.

Vegetarian khinkali: where to order it

Khinkali are meat dumplings by default, but the city version comes with vegetarian fillings too: mushroom, potato, spinach, sulguni or nadughi, a soft whey cheese. You still eat them by hand: bite a small hole, drink the broth and leave the twisted top on the plate. Most of the best khinkali in Tbilisi are meat, but these two do the vegetarian ones best.

Klike's Khinkali

Klike's is an underground room at 1 Shio Chitadze Street, behind the Parliament. It has one of the widest vegetarian sets in town: mushroom, potato, cheese and potato, nadughi, spinach with nadughi, and sapirmo, a tarragon filling.

The khinkali are machine-made and very brothy, and the nadughi with butter is the one to try if you eat dairy. Vegans should stick to mushroom and potato and ask about egg in the dough. Drink a tarragon Lagidze lemonade with them.

Asi Khinkali

Asi Khinkali runs big rooms in Chugureti and Saburtalo, the largest at 4 Jerusalem Square, with 8 fillings that include tarragon, mushroom, potato and cottage cheese with sulguni.

It's the easy choice for a group with mixed diets. The table orders 5 of a meat filling and 5 of each vegetarian one, everyone shares, and nobody ends up with a separate, sadder plate.