12 Best Middle Eastern Restaurants in Tbilisi

Tbilisi's Persian cooking mostly sits out past the centre, and this is the address worth the trip. It's a halal Iranian kitchen on Iuri Gagarini Street with a garden of traditional takhts on one side and an indoor hall on the other, and halal food leads the review topics at 26 mentions, hookah at 13. The listing takes bookings and will lay on a DJ and a celebration service for a private party, so it suits a birthday as well as a Tuesday. It's open 12 to 11 PM every day, and you'll want cash, because cash only carries 7 mentions of its own.

Most of the Middle Eastern cooking in this city starts at dinner. This one opens at 9 AM and runs breakfast to 3 PM, which makes it the entry on this list you can use before noon. It's a cafe on Mikheil Zandukeli Street whose own description leads with hummus and falafel, and the review topics agree: hummus at 103 mentions, falafel at 80, pita at 26. The listing marks great coffee, live music and dogs allowed inside. If you're eating late in the week, the kitchen stops at 8:30 PM from Monday to Thursday.

Kava is a basement, and its own listing says so before you get there: a historic building on Geronti Kikodze Street that you step down into, in a room it calls a mix of cosy and elegant. Lebanese food takes 52 mentions in the review topics, well ahead of anything else in them. The listing marks the room quiet, takes bookings and keeps a private dining room, so a big table works here. It's open 1 PM to 1 AM daily, though one reviewer puts the kitchen's last orders at 10:30 PM, so eat before then.

Egyptian and Gulf cooking is thin on the ground in this city, and this halal kitchen covers both at once. It's on Tkvarcheli Street in Vake-Saburtalo, open 12 PM to 2 AM every day, with a fireplace, a private dining room and free Wi-Fi. Egyptian food takes 7 mentions in the review topics, gulf another 6 and kabsa 6 more. The room is marked quiet and good for kids, which is a combination you don't often get at 1 AM. The listing marks reservations as required, so book rather than turn up.

The cave in the name is the room, which is a sensible thing to do with a Tbilisi summer. Al Madina Cave runs Indian, Pakistani and Arabic dishes off one menu, and halal food leads its review topics at 92 mentions, ahead of biryani at 67 and welcoming staff at 27. 1,619 reviews hold it at 4.7. Come here when the table can't agree and one half wants biryani while the other wants tandoori. It's open 12 PM to 2 AM every day, so you can leave it until late.

On a list built around kitchens, Weller is the one where the bar keeps pace: cocktails take 82 mentions in its review topics, more than any dish. It's a modern Levantine restaurant on Egnate Ninoshvili Street, from the Communal Company, with a menu its own listing traces to the Levant, North Africa, Persia and the Ottomans. The room is marked romantic and trendy, dinner bookings are recommended and dogs are allowed inside. Doors open at 3 PM on weekdays and 1 PM at the weekend, when brunch runs 1 to 5 PM. A 10% service charge goes on the bill, so read it before you pay.

Arabian and Indian cooking come out of the same kitchen here, so mandi, kabsa and grilled meat share the menu with biryani and curry. It's an Arab restaurant on Erekle Tatishvili Street, casual and cosy, 4.8 from 330 reviews, with indian food at 32 mentions in its review topics, welcoming staff at 14 and groups as the crowd it lists. Come here when it's late and you want a plate rather than a wrap, because the doors stay open to 2 AM daily. Google puts a meal at 20 to 80 GEL, though one 2-star reviewer in September called that steep, and parking nearby is usually difficult.

Falafel and the grills do most of the work here, and the fireplace does the rest. Station 1984 is a Lebanese restaurant on Davit Aghmashenebeli Avenue, 4.7 from 422 reviews at 20 to 30 GEL a head, and its own listing points out that it has no branches in the city. Shish tawook takes 14 mentions in the review topics, kebab 13 and tabouleh 12. The room is casual, quiet and good for kids, there's free Wi-Fi, and you can book a table. An 18% tax goes on the bill and service can run slow, both flagged across 2 reviews in August and September.

Hummus takes 33 mentions in its review topics and falafel 23, so the name isn't overselling anything. Supra Hummus is a women-owned Israeli kitchen on Atoneli Street, 4.7 from 118 reviews at 20 to 30 GEL, working pita, salads and wraps around those 2 dishes. The crowd is family friendly and LGBTQ+ friendly, dogs are allowed inside and out, and the summer terrace has a mist spray running over the tables in the heat. Come here when you want lunch that isn't Georgian and isn't 3 hours long. It's open 9 AM to 10 PM daily and takes no reservations.

Half of what gets talked about here is the view: river view takes 44 mentions in its review topics and outdoor seating another 7. Shandiz is a Persian restaurant on Ioane Shavteli Street in the old city, 4.5 from 4,985 reviews, and its own listing calls it a famous Persian brand. Halal food leads the topics at 86 mentions, shisha sits on 75 and live music on 19. Come here when you've got a table that wants a terrace, a long dinner and a pipe after it. It's open 12 PM to 11:30 PM daily, and one reviewer in September found the music too loud for the room.

Kibbeh takes 86 mentions in its review topics, ahead of halal food at 63 and every other dish by a distance. It's a Lebanese restaurant on Ia Kargareteli Street, 4.2 from 2,164 reviews, open 10 AM to 12:30 AM daily, and you reach it down a flight of stairs into a basement with plain decor. The owner is Lebanese, and how he treats a table is its own review topic at 21 mentions, with elegant treatment on 24. Prices are where the reviews split, and one 1-star reviewer in August called them high for what arrived.

Halal food takes 101 mentions in its review topics, the loudest single thing on the listing, with mandi behind it on 44. 1001 Nights is a Persian restaurant on Kote Afkhazi Street, 4.2 from 3,393 reviews, and its own description covers Iranian, Georgian and Arabic cooking with shisha alongside. Live music carries 11 mentions and shisha 34, so this isn't a quiet dinner. Come here when half of you want kebabs and the other half want chkmeruli, because both are on the menu. It runs 12 PM to 12 AM daily and delivers anywhere in Tbilisi by phone or WhatsApp.