7 Best Ice Cream Spots in Tbilisi

Most ice cream counters ask whether you want chocolate or pistachio. This one asks whether you want blue cheese, earl grey or eucalyptus, and all 3 sit in its review topics, at 15, 12 and 5 mentions. It's an ice cream shop on Vashlovani Street off Kostava, and its own listing is blunt about the method: homemade, artisanal, no artificial additives. Friendly owners come up 23 times, more often than any single flavour does. Come here once you've worked through the standard scoops. It opens at 12 daily and runs to 11:30 PM from Friday to Sunday.

Some ice cream counters run a long list of the same idea. This one puts chocolate with adjika next to the vanilla, and unique flavours is the biggest topic on its whole listing at 44 mentions. It's a handmade ice cream counter on Taras Shevchenko Street, and its own description is a single line: we serve happiness and handmade ice cream. Google marks it casual, quiet and good for kids, with dogs allowed outside and no table service, so you order at the counter. It's open 11 AM to 10 PM every day.

Tbilisi's ice cream habit doesn't stop when the kitchens do, and this is the counter still open at 1 AM. Luca Polare has been making ice cream since 2008, and its own listing counts more than 100 flavours, with vegan, gluten-free and diabetic versions among them. The Mrgvali Baghi Square branch opens at 8 AM, so it covers the coffee you want in the morning as well as the walk home after dinner. There aren't many seats, and at busy hours it works better as a takeaway counter than a place to sit.

You'll smell it before you reach it: the cinnamon smell alone takes 96 mentions on its listing. The dough comes off the spindle filled with ice cream and fresh fruit, handed over the counter on Pushkin Street by Freedom Square. There's no seating and no table service, and the queue turns up in 85 review topics, so this is a dessert you walk with. It holds 4.6 from 2,161 reviews, the biggest count here. Google puts a visit at 10 to 20 GEL, and it runs to 12 AM daily.

Come here when you sat down for pizza and the interesting part turns out to be dessert. It's an Italian bistro on Kazbegi Avenue that's also listed as an ice cream shop, holding 4.7 from 73 reviews at 20 to 30 GEL a head. Friendly staff takes 13 mentions in its review topics, atmosphere 10, pizza 8 and pistachio 3. There's outdoor seating on the veranda, and the listing marks it popular for solo dining. It's open 11 AM to 11 PM daily, with dinner running to 1 AM from Friday to Sunday, and it takes bookings.

Tolia has been at this since 1997, and by its own count it now runs more than 25 branches around Georgia. This is the Old Tbilisi one, on Pkhovi Street: an ice cream shop that's also a coffee shop and a donut shop, holding 4.4 from 69 reviews. Come here when you're crossing the centre on a warm afternoon and want something cold in your hand instead of a table. The posted hours are 10 AM to 10 PM daily, though one reviewer turned up at 11 AM and found it shut.

It's open until 2 AM every day of the week, which is a useful thing to know at 1 AM in the old town. Roma Gelato is an Italian ice cream and coffee shop on Atoneli Street, holding 4.2 from 113 reviews, and its review topics read like a flavour list: wine ice cream at 5, pistachio, gelato and strawberry at 4 each, mango and yogurt at 2. Come here when dinner ran long and you want dessert on the walk home rather than at a table. One reviewer in August found the room too hot to sit in, so plan on taking it outside.