Gorging on My Mind

Tbilisi‘s dining scene combines old-world tradition and thoughtful reinvention, with a deep respect for its culinary roots. From elegant takes on historic recipes to beloved neighborhood joints, these restaurants showcase the best of Georgian hospitality—generous, exciting, and always best shared. Here’s where to eat in Georgia’s lively capital.

Rated so highly that it’s even on the World’s 50 Best Discovery list, Barbarestan recreates recipes based on 19th-century princess Barbare Jorjadze’s original cookbook, which is also believed to be Georgia’s first cookbook. As legend has it—meaning, according to Barbarestan’s hosts—restaurant founder Zviad Kurasbediani discovered it in a secondhand market. Now, its timeworn pages inspire seasonal Georgian dishes, from the Christmas specialty satsivi (turkey in a rich walnut sauce) to autumn’s duck breast with cherry sauce and korkoti (overnight-cooked wheat with honey and raisins).

The menu changes often, but the food always stays true to tradition. So do the live folk music and eclectic vintage interiors, which make it feel like dining in a Georgian home. Although it’s fine dining—arguably Tbilisi’s finest—you won’t pay more than $140 for dinner for two with wine.

You come to Café Daphna for one thing and one thing only: khinkali. Although its coral-hued art deco interiors are inviting and complementary dishes like rich khachapuri (cheese-filled bread) and chicken liver pâté are tasty, this small restaurant near the Dry Bridge flea market knocks its pillowy, meaty soup dumplings out of the park.

There are seven kinds to try at this late-night favorite, including some stuffed with dambalkhacho (soft, moldy mountain cheese), but the best is the simplest. Order the kalakuri (beef and pork with herbs) in sets of five, as is tradition. Get a megruli khachapuri with sulguni and Imeretian cheese—Georgia’s rich, salty answer to a cheese pizza, and one of several varieties beyond the cheesy bread boat we all know and love—and pickled vegetables for good measure. Then wash it all down with a khikhvi amber wine aged in qvevri, Georgia’s famous clay amphora, and a shot of homemade chacha (grappa).

Daphna isn’t the only khinkali specialist in town. This local favorite, located in a brick-walled basement just up the road from the brutalist Ministry of Internal Affairs building, keeps it simple. Klike’s has seven types of khinkali on the menu, including an excellent nadughi cheese option, all cooked to order. To pair with it, opt for a cold Alkanaidze beer or a Lagidze water—a local soft drink combining soda water and natural syrups in flavors that range from chocolate, cream, and plum to tarragon.

While most are content with just five dumplings per person, don’t be surprised to see Georgians chipping away at impossibly packed plates of 20-plus dumplings.

A partner venue to Pheasant’s Tears winery, Poliphonia is a laid-back wine bar and restaurant celebrating Georgia’s rich culinary and winemaking traditions. Co-founded by American artist and winemaker John Wurdeman—one of the partners in Pheasant’s Tears and a natural wine pioneer that has sought to revive native Georgian grapes and traditions—the restaurant highlights seasonal, regional, and often forgotten recipes, like tempura-fried jonjoli (bladdernut) with aioli, new potato tartlet with green tkemali (sour plum) and dill, and ekala, spinach-like greenbrier mixed with walnut paste.

The excellent natural wine list leans heavily on Pheasant’s Tears and its friends. You can also try Wurdeman’s saisons, pale ales, and lagers, made at his Lost Ridge Inn, Brewery, and Ranch in bucolic Signaghi—then perhaps plan your trip to stay there. Thoughtfully sourced and very vegetarian-friendly, this is Georgian drinking food at its best.

Tbilisi-born, Europe-trained Giorgi Ninua has turned heads with OtsY (“twenty”), offering a refined take on what he calls Tbilisi cuisine—classic Georgian flavors elevated with French techniques. Set in a beautifully restored house near the Gabriadze Theater, the restaurant pairs impeccable service—far from the norm in Tbilisi—with exquisitely plated dishes made to share, as if you’re enjoying the finest supra (traditional Georgian feast) in the city.

Highlights include saperavi wine-braised beef cheeks, grilled Borjomi trout with asparagus and lemon butter sauce, and eggplant “achma,” a spin on layered khachapuri, here featuring layers of roasted eggplant with tomato jam and sulguni cheese.

Opened in 2017 by restaurateur Giorgi Iosava, his wife, Natalia Buskhrikidze, and sous chef Gari Saakian, Salobie Bia is an intimate cellar restaurant right on Rustaveli filled with keepsakes and original artwork. Although its name most commonly means “bean house” in Georgian, the restaurant serves a lot more than lobio (traditional bean stew). Classics like chikhirtma (chicken soup with vinegar or lemon, egg yolk, and coriander) and ojakhuri (fried pork with potatoes and onions) burst with rich, soulful flavors. Some dishes, like the ubiquitous tomato and cucumber salad, are refreshed, too. Here, Iosava and company swap cucumber for jonjoli and drizzle it all with local sunflower oil.

Don’t skip dessert, especially when it’s sour plum season—the tkemali sorbet with white chocolate mousse is a standout, a sweet-tart finish to one of Tbilisi’s most beloved dining experiences.

Chef Meriko Gubeladze helped to kickstart Tbilisi’s culinary revival when she opened Shavi Lomi—meaning “black lion”—in Chugureti back in 2011. Set in an old wooden home with a spacious outdoor terrace, the restaurant is devoted to Georgia’s most famous artist, Niko Pirosmani, a so-called naive painter with a penchant for symbols like animals. It’s not just eclectic thrifted interiors like vintage wooden furniture, an old piano, and mismatched tablecloths that reflect this inspiration. Gubeladze’s original, if subtle, riffs on Georgian recipes speak to a sense of playfulness you don’t often find in tradition-mad Tbilisi.

Order the phkali (walnut-laced dips made from beetroot, spinach, and pumpkin) with mchadi (pan-fried cornbread) to start, then select from filling mains like skhmeruli (chicken swimming in cream and garlic sauce) and Georgian risotto with lamb and mushrooms.

Gubeladze runs another excellent restaurant called Ninia’s Garden in the Marjanashvili area. With its beautiful outdoor courtyard, it’s the perfect place to go in summer.

Set in a 19th-century brick house in up-and-coming Vera, Sulico (a local name meaning “soul”) blends European and Georgian flavors in a warm, inviting space. The menu spans from light bites like stuffed zucchini flowers and tomato-burrata galette with basil sauce to heartier dishes like trout with berry sauce, pork-filled pan-fried grape leaves, and boneless ribeye steaks with celery root puree. With 100-plus Georgian wines on hand, the staff skips the formal list—share your preferences, and they’ll find the perfect bottle for you.

The courtyard, lorded over by a colorful mural and metal installation, is a beautiful, semi-secret perch in summer. But even in winter, heating lamps make it a fine place to eat and enjoy a bottle of wine or two.