Where to Eat in Tbilisi: Neighborhoods, Prices and What to Order

Most visitors to Tbilisi end up eating in the Old Town, but prices on its main streets are noticeably higher than in the rest of the city. You will find more choice and lower prices along Aghmashenebeli Avenue near Marjanishvili metro station, in the Vera neighborhood and in Saburtalo, which is where locals go for lunch.

A simple lunch at a khinkali house or canteen costs 20-30 lari per person, and dinner for two at a mid-range restaurant comes to about 100 lari. Khinkali dumplings cost 2-3 lari each, and an Adjarian khachapuri costs 20-30 lari.

Where to eat in Tbilisi by neighborhood

The Old Town is convenient when you are out sightseeing, but on Shardeni Street and Rustaveli Avenue the same dish often costs more than it does elsewhere in the city. If you walk a block away from the main streets, prices drop and there are fewer people trying to wave you in from the doorway.

Aghmashenebeli Avenue has the widest choice of all. Barbarestan serves dishes based on 19th-century Georgian recipes, while Shavi Lomi, which cooks modern Georgian food, sits on nearby Kvlividze Street.

Close by is Fabrika, a former sewing factory whose courtyard is now filled with cafes, bars and a burger place. The courtyard itself is open around the clock, while each venue keeps its own hours.

Vera is where many locals and expats go for dinner. One of the best-known restaurants in the area, Keto & Kote, occupies a 19th-century mansion.

What kind of place to choose

A khinkali house, called a sakhinkle in Georgian, is a simple cafe built around khinkali, and the menu usually includes mtsvadi, khachapuri and beer as well. It is the cheapest way to get a filling meal, and many of them stay open until midnight.

A classic Georgian restaurant serves the full spread, from starters and khachapuri to grilled meat, soups and wine. Expect to spend 40-80 lari per person.

Bakeries with a "თონე" (tone) sign bake shoti bread in a round clay oven. They also sell bean-filled lobiani and flaky khachapuri to go for 3-6 lari, which is the cheapest snack you will find in town.

Shawarma costs 10-18 lari depending on the size, and some shawarma places stay open until 5 a.m. Lunch at a canteen costs about 20 lari per person, but you will often need to pay in cash.

Wine bars are easiest to find in Sololaki and Vera. A glass of house wine starts at 5 lari, while qvevri wine from small producers costs more, up to 15 lari a glass.

What to order and what it costs

Portions in Georgian restaurants are large, so dishes are usually ordered for the whole table and shared. Two people are generally full after one khachapuri and two or three other dishes.

The prices in the table were taken from the menus of 20 Tbilisi restaurants listed on delivery apps in October 2026. The same dish is sometimes a little cheaper when you eat in.

Khinkali are ordered in batches, with a minimum of 5 of one kind, and a hungry adult usually gets through 5-10 of them.

A glass of house wine costs 5-12 lari, and a one-liter carafe at a simple restaurant costs about 13 lari. A bottle of wine in a restaurant will cost 25-70 lari, half a liter of local beer about 7 lari and a Georgian lemonade 3.50-6 lari.

How much a meal costs in Tbilisi

Lunch at a khinkali house, canteen or family cafe costs 20-30 lari per person. Dinner for two at a mid-range restaurant comes to about 100 lari, and at simpler places you can keep it to 60-80 lari.

At an upscale restaurant, dinner for two will cost 150-200 lari. A cappuccino at a coffee shop costs about 9 lari.

Eating out is getting more expensive. According to the National Statistics Office of Georgia, restaurant prices rose by 7.6% over the year ending in May 2026, and khachapuri went up the most, by 11.6%.

The bill, service charge and tipping

Bread and sauces are usually not free in restaurants. Bread costs 3-6 lari, a sauce such as tkemali or adjika costs 3.50-4.50 lari, and both show up on the bill as separate items.

Many restaurants add a service charge to the bill, usually 10-15%. If the service charge is already on the bill, you do not need to tip, and if it is not, people usually leave about 10%.

Since 2024, Georgia's Competition and Consumer Protection Agency has required menus to show the final price, including taxes and the service charge. If your bill includes charges that were not on the menu, you can complain to the agency by calling 1520.

Almost any restaurant takes Visa and Mastercard, as well as Apple Pay and Google Pay. You will need cash in lari at canteens, markets and small bakeries, and it is cheaper to exchange money in Georgia at an exchange office in the city than at the airport.

How to eat khinkali and other table manners

Khinkali are eaten with your hands. You hold each one by the knot at the top, bite a small hole in the side, drink the hot broth first and only then eat the filling. The knot itself is not eaten and is left on the plate.

Locals eat lunch around 2-3 p.m. and dinner late, at 9-10 p.m. You only need to book a table at popular restaurants such as Barbarestan on weekend evenings, and you can walk into most other places without a reservation.

Smoking is banned in restaurants, cafes and bars, and the ban also covers e-cigarettes and IQOS. A glassed-in terrace counts as an indoor space, and customers who break the rule are fined 100 lari.

Tap water in Tbilisi is safe to drink. If you prefer bottled water, a half-liter bottle costs about 3 lari in a cafe.

Vegetarian and halal food

Eating vegetarian in Tbilisi is easy, because pkhali, badrijani, lobio, lobiani and mushroom or potato khinkali contain no meat. Many menus also have a "samarkhvo" section of Lenten dishes made without meat, dairy or eggs, which makes them suitable for vegans too.

Vegans should still ask whether a pastry was made with butter, cheese or eggs. Kiwi Vegan Cafe, which is fully vegan, is on Machabeli Street in Sololaki.

You will find halal food at Indian, Iranian, Pakistani and Turkish cafes in the Old Town, on Rustaveli Avenue and in Avlabari. Leila's Khinkali makes its khinkali with halal beef.

Where to eat late at night

Most restaurants are open from about 11:00 to 23:00. Late at night you can still eat at the 24-hour khinkali houses Pasanauri on Baratashvili Street and Ghebi on Aghmashenebeli Avenue, while Cafe Daphna, another khinkali house, stays open all night on Fridays and Saturdays.

Many shawarma places stay open until 5 a.m. The metro closes at midnight, so after a late dinner the easiest way home is a taxi in Tbilisi booked through an app.

If you would rather stay in, food delivery in Tbilisi brings dishes from most restaurants to your door, although prices in the apps are sometimes higher than in the restaurant itself.

How to avoid overpaying

Touts on the street, a photo menu at the door and a folk show inside usually mean a tourist restaurant with inflated prices. If the menu has no prices on it, it is best to leave right away.

Check the bill before you pay. Make sure you actually ordered every dish on it, see how much service charge has been added and compare the amounts with the prices on the menu.

It is also worth knowing about the bar scam. Strangers on the street or on social media invite a tourist to "a great local bar", and at the end of the night the tourist is handed a bill for hundreds or even thousands of lari while security staff hover nearby.

This is not an urban legend. In 2024 police arrested 15 people at 5 nightclubs in Tbilisi where staff had been adding an extra zero to bills, so tourists paid 3000 instead of 300 lari. If you are pressured or threatened, call the police at 112. Overall, though, street crime in Georgia is low.

Key takeaways

• Aghmashenebeli Avenue, Vera and Saburtalo offer more choice and lower prices than the main streets of the Old Town.
• Khinkali cost 2-3 lari each, an Adjarian khachapuri 20-30 lari, and lunch at a simple place 20-30 lari per person.
• Dinner for two at a mid-range restaurant costs about 100 lari.
• Bread and sauces are charged separately, the service charge is usually 10-15%, and if there is none, people leave a tip of about 10%.
• Smoking is banned in restaurants, and if a menu has no prices, it is best to walk out.