A hand-picked list of Tbilisi's best Georgian restaurants: standout dishes, striking interiors, perfect vibes, and what to know before you book.
Tbilisi has good Georgian food almost everywhere you go. Tender meat, walnut sauce, cheesy bread, dumplings pinched a dozen different ways, so you don't have to look hard to eat well here.
What's harder to find is a restaurant where the design and atmosphere are just as striking and authentic as the plate. These five are the best Georgian restaurants in Tbilisi I'd point you to for that, places where the ingredients and cooking held up, and the space did too.
I went to all five myself recently, over one trip, last August. For each one below: what to order, what the room & tables look like once you're inside, and the practical details, price, address, how to book.
Good to Know Before You Book a Georgian Restaurant
The Basics for Dining in Tbilisi
- Reservations: essential at all five, especially on weekends. Some book through their own website, some through WhatsApp, some through Instagram. I've noted which for each restaurant below.
- Price: expect somewhere between 120 and 280 GEL for two people sharing several dishes and a couple of glasses of wine, depending on how much you order.
- Payment: cards are accepted everywhere on this list, but it's smart to carry some cash anyway.
- Dress code: nothing formal, but these aren't khinkali-house-casual either. Smart casual works for all five.
Essential Georgian Dishes To Try
You'll see all of these dishes mentioned in the Georgian restaurants mentioned below, but I wanted to give you a quick culinary tour:
- Khinkali: soup dumplings, usually filled with spiced meat or a mix of cheese and herbs, twisted into a topknot at the top that you hold onto.
- Khachapuri: Georgia's cheese bread, though the shape and filling change by region. The Imeretian version is a round, cheese-stuffed loaf. The Adjarian version, my favourite, comes boat-shaped, with a raw egg yolk and a slab of butter melted into the cheese at the center.
- Lobiani: a bread similar to khachapuri, but filled with spiced bean paste instead of cheese.
- Kubdari: a stuffed bread from Svaneti, packed with spiced minced meat.
- Pkhali: cold vegetable pastes, usually spinach, beetroot, or eggplant, mixed with ground walnuts and spices.
- Elarji: a stretchy porridge made from cornmeal and cheese, similar in texture to a very elastic polenta.
-
- Looking for something to burn off all that khachapuri? I've got a complete guide to the best things to do in Tbilisi covering everything from Soviet landmarks to day trips outside the city.
The Best Georgian Restaurants in Tbilisi
1. Stumari
Stumari sits at 9 Giorgi Chubinashvili St. It's an easy walk from most of central Tbilisi, close enough to combine with an evening around Vera or Sololaki.
Interiors
Stumari splits across two rooms, and you can ask for either one when you book. One is a proper dining room with a wall taken up almost entirely by an old map of Tbilisi from 1924, cut into a grid of framed panels, a stocked bookshelf running alongside it, gold sconces throwing warm light across the table.
The other is a terrace strung with string lights, set against a building wrapped in ivy with the green wrought-iron balconies you see all over the old parts of the city. There's also an open kitchen out back that looks onto a garden, which you pass on the way in even if you're not sitting there.
Georgian Dishes
My dinner started with khinkali, both the meat and the cheese versions, and a round khachapuri with a raw egg cracked into the melted center. The lamb kebab came wrapped in lavash, two rolls to an order, with a small bowl of red sauce on the side. We finished with a layered cake, thin sheets of pastry and cream stacked high, caramel pooled underneath, a scoop of vanilla ice cream melting into it. Two glasses of wine, service that stayed attentive without ever getting in the way.
Total for two, sharing everything: around 200 GEL.
How to Book
Stumari takes reservations through Rezto (rezto.ge), the platform several Tbilisi restaurants use. Book several days ahead for weekend dinners.
Stumari’s terrace
Lamb kebab
Khinkali dumplings
Khachapuri
2. Iasamani
Iasamani is located in Sololaki, at 33 Lado Asatiani St, on the first floor of a converted apartment building. You climb a suspicious staircase to get there, but then a gorgeous apartment opens up.
Interiors
The apartment's been restored with the walls left half-finished on purpose, plaster stripped back in patches between beige and faded green, a gilt mirror hanging slightly askew, a portrait of a woman in a red veil watching over one corner. The tables are set with white linen and black bentwood chairs, herringbone parquet underfoot, and the tall arched windows open straight onto the street below.
Georgian Dishes
We started with a pumpkin soup, bright yellow and scattered with chopped herbs and pumpkin seeds, and a Georgian cheese plate stacked with dried apricots, walnuts, and something dark tucked into a small bowl on the side, olives maybe, or stewed plums. The lobiani came out whole and sliced into wedges, a flatbread packed with spiced bean paste rather than the cheese you'd get in a khachapuri. Two glasses of wine, one rosé, one red, and bread on the side for the soup.
Total for two, sharing everything: around 170 GEL.
How to Book
Iasamani takes reservations through WhatsApp, and you can find the number on their facebook page. Message ahead, especially for a weekend dinner, since the dining room isn't large and fills up fast. Of the five restaurants on this list, this is the one where the service stood out the most, extremely nice and attentive.
Iasamani’s dining room
Iasamani’s 2nd dining room
Lobiani and cheese plate
3. Ninia's Garden
Ninia's Garden is at 97 Dimitri Uznadze St, on the left bank of the Mtkvari in what's usually called Old Tbilisi. The restaurant is split between an indoor dining room and a garden out back.
Interiors
We ate inside. The room is high-ceilinged, with oversized paper globe lamps hanging low over the tables, floral wallpaper in green and gold running along one wall. A black grand piano sits pushed against the far wall, more decoration than instrument at this point, its lid crowded with candelabras and thick red candles. Vines and potted plants hang from exposed beams overhead. The garden was lovely, too.
Georgian Dishes
We started with a traditional Georgian chicken soup, chikhirtma, pale yellow and finished with herbs, and a lobiani sliced into wedges. For mains, pork belly came grilled and glazed, served with baby potatoes and a red fruit sauce, alongside a stroganoff made with small potato gnocchi instead of the usual noodles, beef strips folded through in a dark sauce. We also went through four cocktails between the two of us over the course of the meal, including the signature Qarva, built on rum and passion fruit, which is the reason the bill ran higher than the other restaurants on this list.
Total for two, sharing everything, including four cocktails: around 280 GEL.
How to Book
Ninia's Garden takes reservations through whatsapp or this website linked on their IG page, which is the one I used. Specify indoor or garden seating when you book, since the two spaces have a different feel entirely.
Ninia’s Garden outdoors
Pork belly and stroganoff
Lobiani and chikhirtma soup
4. Shavi Lomi
Shavi Lomi sits at 28 Zurab Kvlividze St. The restaurant takes its name from Niko Pirosmani's painting of the same name, the Black Lion, and there's a mural at the entrance, painted in a naive style close to Pirosmani's own, of figures in traditional Georgian dress gathered around a table loaded with wine and food.
Interiors
The restaurant runs across a couple of small rooms. One is burgundy and mauve, with floor lamps topped with mismatched patchwork lampshades stitched from kilim fabric. Another is rust orange, with pleated green lampshades hanging low over the tables. Nothing matches on purpose, all look pulled from different houses and different decades. Out back there's a garden too, with a stone lion statue and a cat that wandered across the terrace while we were there.
Georgian Dishes
We ordered a Georgian risotto, short rice cooked with herbs and a little cheese folded through, and beef stewed in a spicy walnut sauce, dark and thick, topped with fresh coriander. The kubdari came sliced into wedges, a bread from Svaneti stuffed with spiced minced meat. On the side, a bowl of elarji, the cornmeal and cheese porridge that stretches when you pull a spoon through it. Two glasses of Mukuzani.
Total for two, sharing everything: around 143 GEL. The restaurant receipt ended with a printed line reading "Fact check: 20% of Georgian territory is occupied by Russia," which says something about the culture of the place.
How to Book
Shavi Lomi takes reservations through this website, linked from their Instagram profile. Their garden and their smaller rooms both fill up on weekends, so book a few days ahead if you have a preference for either.
Shavi Lomi Garden
Elarji and Georgian risotto
Kubdari and walnut beef
Shavi Lomi Mural
5. Café Littera
Café Littera sits at 13 Ivane Machabeli St in Sololaki, tucked into the garden behind the Writers' House of Georgia, an Art Nouveau mansion built in 1905 for the brandy magnate Davit Sarajishvili. We stopped here for a quick lunch after visiting the Mother of Georgia statue, and the garden alone was worth the detour.
The Garden
We sat outside, which is really the point of the place. Tall trees shade most of the garden, ivy climbing the brick walls that box it in, black and white photographs hung along the stone at odd intervals. A statue stands on a pedestal near the center, and the cream-colored villa rises up behind it all, red-tiled roof, decorative balconies, a wall of windows catching whatever light gets through the branches. Tables are scattered through the greenery.
Georgian Dishes
We ordered the six-dip sampler, a small bowl each of pkhali, beet, eggplant, a white cheese and pumpkin seed dip, caramelized onion, and a tangy yogurt one topped with mint and pomegranate, all arranged around a stack of warm bread. Alongside that, a mushroom and artichoke salad, both sautéed in a dark, glossy sauce and finished with tarragon. A couple of beers to go with it. Service was slow, somewhere around 30 to 40 minutes between ordering and the food arriving, but the garden makes it an easy wait.
Total for two, sharing everything: around 120 GEL.
How to Book
We didn't book. We walked in around lunchtime and got a table without much trouble, though this was on a weekday. For dinner or a weekend lunch, it's worth calling ahead given how popular the garden is.
Café Littera’s garden
Six-dip sampler
Mushroom artichoke salad
If You Just Want Coffee or a Drink in Tbilisi
These three places are small and more about the drink than the room or a full meal, but all three are worth knowing about if you're in the area.
Sali Coffee is on the lower level of a building in Old Tbilisi, run by two young guys with a drinks menu longer than you'd expect from a space this size. Simple, unfussy, the kind of place you duck into between stops rather than plan an afternoon around.
BNKR Coffee sits at the end of a courtyard off the street, behind a black storefront with the name spelled out in block letters and an orange accent wall. It's one of Tbilisi's known specialty coffee roasters, with its own hand brew bar, and the space is big enough to sit with a laptop for a while if you need to.
Tone, tucked into the alley behind Fabrika, is more of a wine stop. Fabrika itself is a converted Soviet-era sewing factory turned into a mix of hostel, co-working space, and shops, and cutting through the building to the back opens onto a narrow lane packed with small bars. Tone is one of them, casual, young crowd, good for a drink before or after dinner somewhere on this list.
FAQ About Georgian Restaurants in Tbilisi
Do restaurants in Tbilisi require reservations?
For the kind of restaurant on this list, yes, especially for dinner on a Friday or Saturday. Casual khinkali houses and smaller local spots are absolutely more flexible, but for restaurants with a set dining room and a following, booking a day or two ahead is the safer move.
How do you book a table at a restaurant in Tbilisi?
It depends on the restaurant. Some use their own website, some take bookings through WhatsApp, some point you to a message on Instagram. A few also use Rezto (rezto.ge), a reservation platform used across the city. Check the restaurant's own page or Instagram bio before assuming one method works everywhere.
Is Tbilisi expensive for dining out?
Not compared to most of Europe or the US. A meal at one of the restaurants on this list, splitting several dishes between two people with wine, tends to land somewhere between 120 and 280 GEL total, roughly 40 to 95 USD. Simpler khinkali houses and neighborhood spots cost a fraction of that.
Do restaurants in Tbilisi accept credit cards?
Cards are accepted at all five restaurants on this list. It's still worth carrying some cash, since smaller or more traditional places around the city sometimes prefer it.
Should you tip in Tbilisi?
Tipping isn't mandatory, but leaving around 10% at sit-down restaurants is common if the service was good. Some restaurants add a service charge automatically, so it's worth checking the bill before adding anything extra.
What's the best neighborhood in Tbilisi for Georgian restaurants?
Sololaki and the areas around Old Tbilisi have the highest concentration of high-end restaurants, housed in converted historic buildings with gardens or courtyards attached. Vera and the newer parts of the city lean more toward casual and international spots.
