A couple of years ago, vegetarian and vegan places in Tbilisi were a rare find. However, with the increase of tourism, both cafés and restaurants that offer such meals have started to pop up across the city. Vegetarian options are available more often than vegan dishes, but there are a couple of places that are tailored to those needs. So, here’s a list of some of the best vegetarian and vegan venues for you to check out.
Hurma
Cafe, European, $$$
For those who are on a budget and are vegan or vegetarians, Hurma offers six different vegetarian dishes to choose from, along with smoothies with spinach, apple, and ginger; pumpkin and apple; orange and persimmon; or one with cucumber, celery, and spinach. The smoothies here are 6.50 Lari, while meals are between 4.70–7.70 Lari.
Kiwi Vegan Café is one of the most popular places for local vegans. Here, you can have a variety of meals made from tofu, such as curry, a burrito, a buckwheat bowl, and a sandwich. Alternatively, you can have an eggplant sandwich, cheeseburger with fries, hummus, and falafels. The prices range between five and seven Lari.
The centrally located Sakhli 11 offers a home-like, cozy atmosphere and excellent Georgian music in the background. Even the name “sakhli” means home in Georgian and perfectly suits the place. Delicious and well-presented food and a good selection of local wine are what await you here.
Cafe Leila is another vegetarian and vegan café in town. Moorish-style décor, a friendly staff and a wide variety of vegetable meals await you here. Their signature dish is the Gobi, and it includes a plate of different Georgian phkali, jonjoli, mchadi (cornbread), and cheese. They also offer salads, soups, and main courses as well.
Amber Bar is a wine bar on Agmashenebeli Avenue that focuses on local traditional qvevri wine. The bar has a menu tailored for wine enthusiasts and offers meals that go well with the beverage. Even though most of the options place an emphasis on meat, there are some vegetarian choices as well, such as warm vegetable salad, cheese, pkhali plates, and satsivi or eggplant in a walnut sauce.
Inspired by the medieval Georgian literature masterpiece The Knight in the Panther’s Skin by Shota Rustaveli, the menu of Rustaveli Cafe & Restaurant is full of the phrases and aphorisms from the poem. Complete with a cozy atmosphere with a Georgian touch, the café offers plenty of vegetarian meals.
Salobie Bia focuses on one Georgian meal called lobio, a black bean meal that looks like a thick, unmashed soup. The dish is often served with mchadi and marinated vegetables. However, besides lobio, the venue offers other meals to its visitors as well.
Hummusbar is precisely what the name suggests. Here, you can try hummus with different toppings, along with the other meals made from chickpeas, including Msabbaha. However, if you are not a big hummus fan, the venue serves other dishes such as Shakshuka—poached eggs in a tomato sauce—baked falafels, eggplants, and cauliflower, and salads.
The word “bina” in Georgian means an apartment, so Bina N37 is an apartment in a residential house turned into a restaurant. In this somewhat unique setting, Bina 37 has 43 qvevris, Georgian traditional clay jars used for producing wine, placed on the roof veranda of the venue. Thus, you’ll be tasting some homemade Georgian cuisine and wine taken from those jars on the spot!
