15 Best Mtsvadi in Tbilisi

Mtsvadi is a late dish here as much as a lunch one, and this kitchen treats it that way. Vakhtanguri has been feeding Avlabari since 1993, 11 AM to 2 AM, 7 days a week. Mtsvadi and chkmeruli turn up in 4 reviews each, and the chebureki in 403. It works for a family table, for a group or for lunch on your own, all 3 of them on the listing, and there is a private dining room for the middle one.

Some Georgian dinners are about the plate, some about the room. Georgian House is the second kind: 2 linked spaces on Giorgi Tsabadze Street, one built on old Tbilisi and one on the city's bohemian side, holding a 4.8 from 6,712 reviews. The programme gets named more than the food, with live music in 251 reviews and the dancers in 112. Come here when someone is seeing Tbilisi for the first time and you want dinner and the show in one evening. It runs 12 PM to 1 AM.

The skewer arrives on its own, which one reviewer found out at the table: side dishes sit on a separate menu, so order in 2 goes. Tsiskvili Terrace is the group's rooftop restaurant on the Gamsakhurdia right bank, with live music and a 4.8 from 4,221 reviews. Google tags the crowd groups and tourists, and the room cosy, romantic and upscale. It suits a group with an evening to spend outside. It opens at 1 PM, or 12 PM at weekends, closes at 1 AM, and dinner reservations are recommended.

Out in Saburtalo, the Tsiskvili group took the Beliashvili Street Beer Square and rebuilt the idea as a 2-floor glass box seating about 200, with an enclosed terrace on the side. The grill is the reason to make the trip out of the centre, and the room holds a 4.9 from 550 reviews with the environment named in 15 of them. Go on a night when the plan is meat, a beer and nothing else. Doors are 11 AM to 1 AM.

Charru puts kebabs and mtsvadi in its own description, which saves you reading the menu. It is a Georgian bar and grill on Fkhovi Street, rated 4.8 from 1,813 reviews, with an outdoor section one reviewer calls quiet and peaceful. Pork kebab is the most-named dish on the listing, with 11 mentions, ahead of grilled chicken at 7 and grilled vegetables at 6. This is the lunch for a day that was mostly walking. It opens 12 PM to 12 AM, and the entrance, seating and parking are step-free.

The yard is the point here, and the restaurant is named for it. Its front courtyard appears in the film Giorgobistve, and the team behind the old Veraze kitchen brought those dishes to Zandukeli Street. Shashlik is named in 25 reviews, kebab in 14 and wine in 37, which tells you what the tables are doing. Save this one for an evening when nobody is counting minutes. It runs 11 AM to 11 PM, and to midnight on Friday and Saturday.

Order in 2 directions here: the skewer off the grill, then the dumplings that come in a pot. Tbili Kera is an Old Tbilisi kitchen on Giorgi Leonidze Street that puts Georgian cooking next to European plates, and it holds a 4.9 from 203 reviews. Shashlik sits in the review topics beside pelmeni, kharcho and adjarian khachapuri, and the upstairs floor is low sofas and a table. It suits a quiet lunch, or a table at 11 PM, since it is open 12 PM to 1 AM every day.

The wine leads at Badagoni, which is what happens when the winery opens the restaurant. It sits on Freedom Square, opens at 8 AM for a Georgian breakfast and holds a 4.7 from 1,146 reviews. Pork barbecue is the grill order, named in 3 reviews beside the beef khinkali and the adjarian khachapuri, and the sommelier has 3 mentions, with one reviewer introduced to the Kisi grape from eastern Georgia. Pick it for a dinner where the wine matters as much as the meat. It shuts at 11 PM.

Mtsvadi picks up 73 mentions here, and the listing's own line for the place is barbecue offering Georgian mtsvadi and more. Tsetskhli Ainto grills on Tashkenti Street in Saburtalo, and 285 reviews put it at 4.8. One reviewer calls the concept barbecue as fast food: a digital queue, and paper bags for takeaway instead of cellophane. Come here when you want the skewer without the supra around it. It's open 12 PM to 10 PM daily, and the entrance is not step-free.

The listing sells an early 20th-century countryside house, and the garden is where that lands. Stumari sits on Giorgi Chubinashvili Street with a fireplace inside, live music in the evenings, dogs allowed indoors and a private dining room for the group that outgrows the garden. It holds a 4.7 from 388 reviews and stays open to 12 AM. Come here on an evening you've left free, because several recent reviewers put their wait for food at 30 minutes or more.

Take the metro to the last stop, walk 15 to 20 minutes, and the prices change with the postcode. Nikala's Yard is a Georgian kitchen in Isani-Samgori with tables outside in the yard it's named for and a free car park. The crowd is groups, and breakfast, lunch and dinner run from 9 AM to 11 PM. Make the trip for what this end of town eats, not for what Old Tbilisi sells. It takes bookings, but you'll have to ring for one.

The vineyard, the fruit garden and the goats belong to the restaurant, and that's an unusual amount of supply chain for a Tbilisi dining room. Kakhelebi cooks Kakhetian food out on the Kakheti Highway, bakes its bread on site without yeast, and dates the owners' winemaking to 1955. Google tags the room quiet and family-friendly, with a kids' menu, high chairs and free parking outside. Make it a long lunch rather than a late dinner, because the doors shut at 9 PM.

Chveni leads with its chef, and the menu behind Guram Baghdoshvili isn't the classics reheated. It runs Georgian fusion into Asian cooking on Tchorokhi Street, with a bar, a fireplace, rooftop seating and a 4.6 across 2,035 reviews. Shashlik picks up 9 mentions in a room where the cocktails pick up 56, so the grill shares the night. Book it when your table wants a drinks list as long as the dinner. Late-night food runs to 1 AM.

The fire is what gets written about here: mtsvadi leads Chashnagiri's review topics with 13 mentions, against barbeque's 12, veal on 4 and trout on 3. It grills on Akaki Beliashvili Street in Didube, where live music picks up 5 mentions and the musicians themselves 3. The entrance, car park, restroom and seating are all step-free, and the doors open at 9 AM and shut at 12 AM. There's no booking link on the listing, so a table for a crowd means ringing ahead.

Even the 2-star reviews here stop to say something nice about the courtyard, though one of them waited a long time out there for 2 dishes. Sormoni sits on Kazbegi Avenue behind a garden of greenery, with Georgian cuisine on 44 review topics, polite staff on 30 and live music on 18. Give it a long evening outside rather than an hour squeezed between other plans. It's open 11 AM to 12:30 AM, takes bookings by phone and parks you for free.