9 Best Cheap Eats in Tbilisi

The counter does the talking here. You point, they weigh it, and that is how the bill gets built, which is why one reviewer left calling it super cheap. It's a family-run Georgian kitchen on Pavle Ingorokva Street, with free Wi-Fi and a bar onsite. Its review topics put home-cooked food at 57 mentions and a cosy atmosphere at 67. Come here when you want a full plate for 10 to 20 GEL and no menu to negotiate, any day from 9 AM to 11 PM.

Nobody heads to Didube for the view, which is the point of this courtyard. Ochamchire is a Mingrelian kitchen on Akaki Beliashvili Street with outdoor tables, a private dining room and a free car park, all inside Google's 10 to 20 GEL band. Its review topics reach food at 30 mentions and Mingrelian food at 4. It suits a group big enough to want the private room, with someone in it driving. It's open 9 AM to 10 PM daily.

The Google listing runs to 1 line of Georgian, and all it promises is shawarma cooked over embers. That turns out to be enough. Tiflis Fast Food is a fast food room up in Nadzaladevi on Ilia Vekua Street, and its interior gets 6 review mentions of its own. The reason to make the trip is the 1 AM version of dinner without the 1 AM queue, because one reviewer counts never being crowded among the perks. Open 11 AM to 2 AM, Monday to Sunday.

788 Google reviews at 4.4 is what a shawarma counter looks like when a whole district eats there. MacShaurma sits on Ilia Vekua Street with order screens, and the review topics put a queue in front of those screens 4 times over. This is the midnight option when you're on this side of town and don't want to think about dinner. It runs 10 AM to 2 AM daily, and preparation time has a review topic too, so pick a quiet stretch.

Lunch here is a buffet line and a bill Google puts at 1 to 10 GEL a head. Degusto is a canteen on Zakaria Paliashvili Street with seating inside and tables outside, and its review topics go friendly staff at 12 mentions and canteens at 4. Use it on the workday when lunch has to be quick and cheap, in that order. It's weekdays only, 9:30 AM to 6:30 PM, so it is no help to you on a Saturday.

Cheap and quiet do not often turn up together, and on Vazha-Pshavela Avenue this is where they do: a quiet atmosphere is a review topic here, with 8 mentions. It's a fast food room built on pita and shawarma, and it rates 4.3 from 631 reviews. Bring a vegetarian, or bring yourself on the afternoon when you want lunch somewhere calm rather than quick. The doors stay open 11 AM to 11 PM, all 7 days.

There is nowhere to sit. No seats is one of its review topics, the listing marks table service unavailable, and none of it has dented a 4.2 from 709 reviews. It's an open kitchen behind a counter on Shalva Dadiani Street, and waiting time is what reviewers raise most, at 22 mentions. One reviewer clocked it at 10 minutes and put a vegetable stir-fry at 12 GEL, 14 with meat. Google files the crowd as college students, and the counter runs 12 PM to 12 AM daily.

Same wok, different rules. The Saburtalo branch on Zhiuli Shartava Street has dine-in on the listing, a restroom, a kitchen running to 2 AM and a note saying good for kids. That makes it the Fire Wok you take people to rather than carry away from, and its crowd listing adds groups and tourists to the students. The case for the trip is a curry at 1 AM inside Google's 10 to 20 GEL band. Parking is marked usually difficult, so arrive on foot.

A lot of DeGusti's food is eaten somewhere else. Google files it as a soup restaurant on Alexander Kazbegi Avenue, and its reviews read like a delivery history: Wolt orders, lunch boxes, dinner on nights you aren't cooking. Tasty food leads its review topics at 9 mentions, with large portions and variety of dishes behind it. Come for a box and a coffee rather than an evening. It opens at 9:30 AM, closes at 8 PM and takes Sunday off.