15 Most Unique Restaurants in Tbilisi

Most restaurants write a menu. This one inherited one. Barbarestan cooks from one book, Complete Cooking, which its own listing credits to the 19th-century writer Barbare Eristavi-Jorjadze and dates to 1914. The same listing tags it World's 50 Best Discovery and La Liste 1000 listed. The room on Davit Aghmashenebeli Avenue is filed as historic, quiet and upscale, with live music in 56 of its review topics and a wine cellar in another 4. Come here when you want dinner to be the evening rather than a stop in it. Reservations are marked required, and it's open 2 to 11 PM with the kitchen closing at 10.

The address is the attraction: entrance 2, 8th floor, apartment 37. Bina N37 is a working winery on the roof of a Vake-Saburtalo apartment block, and the flat underneath it is the dining room. Its own listing counts 43 qvevri up on the top veranda and says this is the only place where you can taste Georgian wine from them, with homemade Georgian dishes to go alongside. It opens 7 to 11 PM and reservations are required, so book 1 or 2 days ahead rather than turning up. The entrance is marked as not wheelchair accessible.

The name is an instruction about where to look. Hide sits under Gorgasali Square in the part of a historic building the sun never reached, which is why wine was kept down there for centuries and why you're eating in a brick-vaulted cellar rather than a dining room. Its own listing tells that story before it gets to the food. Above the cellar there's a terrace, so a basement isn't the only option. Reservations are marked required, the price band is 20 to 60 GEL, and the doors close at 11:30 PM, 11 PM on Mondays.

You climb to get in, and the name has already counted the steps for you. What's at the top of Salami Street is closer to a collection than a dining room: theatre puppets, vintage dishes and paintings, and a gallery you can walk while the kitchen works. Cats and dogs live there too, and the cats alone take 99 mentions in the review topics against 284 for the view. It's open 12 PM to 12 AM and takes bookings online, which is the thing to sort out before the climb rather than after it.

The name is a small dare, and the listing opens by congratulating you for getting past it. Behind the door is a 19th-century interior on Davit Aghmashenebeli Avenue that the same description sells before it mentions a single dish: historic rooms, a modern bar and live music, with French technique run through Georgian and European cooking. Google files the atmosphere as historic, quiet and romantic, and dogs are allowed in with you. Dinner is 6 PM to 10:30 PM, 11:30 PM on Friday and Saturday, and reservations are marked required.

The building did something else first. Its own listing calls this the former ladies' school, and the arched cellar dug in underneath now holds wine from small Georgian producers, with the tasting run down there rather than upstairs. The room above has a fireplace, vintage decor in 4 review topics and live music in 69, which is more mentions than any dish on the menu gets. Come here when the evening needs a room that does some of the work for you. It's on Belinski Street, open 12 PM to 12 AM, at a price level Google puts above 100 GEL.

Half the reason to book is the house. Craft Wine occupies a 19th-century noble townhouse in the historical Plekhanovi district that its own listing names as the former home of Alexandre Dumas, with a small garden off it and a fireplace indoors for the rest of the year. The wine follows the same thinking: rare bottles from natural and organic winemakers across Georgia, which is why wine recommendations take 48 mentions in the review topics and natural wines another 18. It's open from 3 PM, runs to 1 AM on Friday and Saturday, and recommends a dinner booking if you want to be outside.

The room is the concept here. Stumari's own listing says the place is built on the atmosphere of an early 20th-century countryside house, and it runs hall by hall, each with its own interior: one narrow with a panoramic window onto the courtyard, one with a piano in it, and the courtyard itself green and open. There's a fireplace and live music in the evenings. Plan a night you're not rushing, because several September reviews put the wait for food at 30 minutes or more. It's open 1 PM to 12 AM on Giorgi Chubinashvili Street.

Sheen Aura is built into the house and art studio of the Georgian artist Antimoz Gorgadze, which is why its listing runs as restaurant, art gallery, bar and winery at once. Its own description promises art, crafts, a courtyard garden and a terrace planted with pomegranate trees, and the hidden garden picks up 3 mentions in the review topics. It's out in Saburtalo at 189 Nutsubidze Street, holding 4.6 from 420 reviews. Come here when you want dinner in a room that doubles as somebody's studio. It's open 1 PM to 12 AM daily, with no booking link on the listing.

Usakhelouri is a wine before it's a restaurant. Its own listing calls Usakhelouri the most famous and special Georgian wine and says the concept of the place follows from there, which is how a Georgian kitchen ends up with the wine list doing the talking. The other half happens outside: balcony seating carries 418 mentions in its review topics and the sulfur baths another 97, since the room sits next to them. It's 4.8 from 5,192 reviews at 20 to 60 GEL, open 1 to 11 PM. Ask for a balcony table when you book, because that's what you came for.

The listing leads on vintage rooms with original hand-painted walls, and the reviews lead on the cats, which turn up in 4 of them. They play in the little courtyard, they're fed by the restaurant and they don't go after anyone's plate. It's a women-owned Georgian kitchen on Vashlovani Street cooking family recipes, 4.8 from 449 reviews at 30 to 60 GEL, with a small garden and a traditional balcony for the warm months. Dogs are allowed inside and out. Come here when you want dinner in a room that feels like a relative's old flat. It runs 1 to 11 PM and takes bookings.

A grand piano sits at the centre of this one, and piano takes 116 mentions in Muse's review topics, more than anything else on the listing. Its own description sets out the split: a relaxed cafe by day, a jazz restaurant by night, with vocalists singing Georgian polyphonic and urban music on Thursdays and Saturdays. It's at 52 Vertskhli Street, a few steps from Meidan Bazaar and Abanotubani, with a candle-lit hall inside and an open-air garden courtyard outside. At 4.7 from 1,575 reviews and open 9 AM to 2 AM, it can be your first coffee or your last drink.

You come here for the balcony, which carries 49 mentions in Nilo's review topics and sits under a huge chestnut tree. Inside runs to antique furniture mixed with modern pieces, art on the walls and ceramic coffee cups. It's a women-owned room on Vertskhli Street, 4.8 from 400 reviews at 10 to 60 GEL, and dogs are allowed on both sides of the door. Come for a slow afternoon rather than a quick lunch. The doors open at 10 AM and shut at 11 PM, or 12 AM on Friday and Saturday, and street parking here is usually hard to find.

Cafe Dante has kept the furniture of the old Tbilisi apartment it occupies, down to the neon sign out on the street. Vintage decor carries 24 mentions in its review topics, and its own listing leads on the decor and the open-air terrace before it gets to the food. The balcony is the loudest topic at 53 mentions, and the terrace isn't obvious from the front room, so ask where it is. It's on Lermontovi Street at 4.6 from 853 reviews. The hours are the other odd part: 8:30 AM to 4 AM, every day of the week.

Van Goghi takes the Van Gogh idea past the name and onto the table. Its Instagram says every plate is handmade for the restaurant by a ceramic studio, and the sunflower dessert arrives as a canvas you paint yourself; the same account books art brunches with a guest artist. The cooking is fusion, Georgian and European, in a candle-lit room on Zandukeli Street holding 4.8 from 2,131 reviews. Live music carries 43 mentions in the review topics and pleasant music another 7. It's open 1 PM to 12 AM, and dinner reservations are recommended.