Bazari Orbeliani: Tbilisi's Restored Market and Food Hall

Bazari Orbeliani is a large, three-floor food market and dining hall on Orbeliani Square in central Tbilisi, capital of Georgia (the country in the South Caucasus) — a short walk from Rustaveli Avenue and within easy reach of the Old Town. It opened at the end of 2021, on the site of a market that has stood here since 1886, as part of the wider wave of food-hall and gastro-space concepts that have appeared in Georgian cities over the past decade. It's a polished, modern, design-led venue rather than a gritty traditional bazaar — high-quality and photogenic, and a convenient single stop to graze across a lot of Georgian (and international) food, even if it sits at the upscale, visitor-friendly end of the spectrum rather than the everyday-local one.

What is Bazari Orbeliani?

Bazari Orbeliani is a restored historic market building on Orbeliani Square, central Tbilisi, reopened at the end of 2021 as a three-story, roughly 10,000 m² food market and food hall. The ground floor is an agricultural/produce market (with a Carrefour supermarket alongside) selling Georgian cheeses, wine, churchkhela, honey, spices, and other artisan products; the upper floor is a food court of around 30–35 bars, cafés, and restaurants spanning Georgian and many international cuisines; and a rooftop terrace offers drinks and city views. The site has been a market since 1886, and the project is part of the "New Tiflis" rehabilitation that pedestrianized and revived the square. It's a comfortable, central place to sample a wide range of food in one stop — more upscale gastro-hall than traditional bazaar.

The building

The building is worth noting before the food. The site has functioned as a market since 1886, most recently as the Soviet-era collective-farm market, and the recent restoration brought the historic structure back to life as the centerpiece of the revitalized Orbeliani Square (part of the "New Tiflis" urban-renewal project). The restoration kept enough of the original character — the proportions, the materials, the sense of a place long used for commerce — to give the interior a warmth that purpose-built food halls rarely manage. Exposed stone and brick, good natural light, the restored upper levels, and the general activity of a busy market make it a place that's comfortable to spend time in rather than simply pass through.

What the market offers

Bazari Orbeliani is organized across its floors. The produce and market floor carries a curated range of Georgian food: local cheeses (the fresh Imeretian cheese, and the lightly brined, elastic sulguni that turns up in so many Georgian dishes), cured meats, honey from different regions, tkemali and adjika in various preparations, dried herbs and spice blends, dried fruits, and Georgian wine and chacha by the bottle. Churchkhela — the dense, chewy Georgian sweet made by repeatedly dipping a string of walnuts in thickened grape must and drying it — appears in several varieties, the color and flavor shifting with the grape used. The quality is consistently high; the trade-off is that prices are higher than at an ordinary neighborhood market, and this isn't where most locals do their weekly shop.

The food court upstairs is where the breadth shows. Freshly baked khachapuri comes in its regional forms — the round Imeretian version, the boat-shaped Adjarian one with its egg and butter — alongside khinkali, lobio, and grilled dishes, the dough going into the tone oven and emerging hot within minutes. But the offer is genuinely international too: Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Pan-Asian, Turkish, and other kitchens sit alongside the Georgian ones, which makes the hall an easy choice for a group with different tastes rather than a purely Georgian experience. Wine — both conventional and traditional qvevri-made amber styles — is available by the glass from several vendors, so you can work through a small tasting of regional styles without committing to a bottle. The rooftop terrace adds cocktails and a view over the city.

The market also runs craft demonstrations and workshops — ceramics, enamel, bread baking, churchkhela- and cheese-making among them — which add a hands-on, cultural dimension beyond eating and shopping. And the vendors tend to be knowledgeable about their products in a way that distinguishes a good food market from a simple retail operation: the cheese and wine sellers can usually explain the regional differences and production methods behind what they're selling — which, in the Georgian context, is also just ordinary hospitality, and makes the place a better introduction to the food than a menu alone.

An honest note on what it is

It's worth being clear about what Bazari Orbeliani is and isn't. It's a modern, polished, somewhat tourist-friendly food hall — frequently compared to the Time Out Market format — rather than a traditional, workaday Georgian bazaar. The quality is high and it's a genuinely pleasant and convenient place to eat and sample products, but if what you're after is the raw, bustling, everyday-local market experience, the sprawling Dezerter Bazaar (near the central station) is the place for that. Bazari Orbeliani is the curated, design-led, central-and-comfortable end of the Tbilisi market spectrum — useful precisely for that, on its own terms.

As part of a Tbilisi itinerary

The market works well as a midday stop on a walking day through central Tbilisi — a place to eat something good and rest before continuing. Its location between Rustaveli Avenue and the Old Town puts it within natural reach of most of the central sights, so combining it with a walk along Rustaveli or through the Old Town needs no special detour. It also works as an early-evening destination, when it's typically at its most active and the lit interior, the food smells, and the rooftop terrace are at their most appealing.

Getting there and visiting

• Location: Orbeliani Square, central Tbilisi — a short walk from Rustaveli Avenue and the Old Town.
• Layout: Three floors — produce/agricultural market and supermarket (ground), food court of ~30–35 outlets (upper), rooftop terrace with views.
• Hours: Open daily, roughly morning until late evening; busiest and best from late morning through the evening. (Individual restaurant and stall hours vary.)
• Good for: A central, comfortable food stop; sampling Georgian products and wine; a group with mixed tastes (lots of international options); a rooftop drink.
• For a traditional market instead: Dezerter Bazaar, for the raw, local, everyday experience.
• Combine with: Rustaveli Avenue, the Old Town, and the rest of central Tbilisi — all within easy walking distance.