How to Book Ninia's Garden in Tbilisi
Published
Meriko Gubeladze — the chef who gave Tbilisi Shavi Lomi — named her fourth restaurant for Ninia Zaridze, a merchant who, the story goes, opened her garden to the city’s young lovers. Book the vine-draped courtyard on +995 598 19 66 69; dinner is when it fills, and the garden tables go first.
The Garden, the Legend, the Left Bank
Ninia’s Garden sits at 97 Dimitri Uznadze Street in Chughureti, on the river’s left bank — not the Old Town, and better for it. The setting is a heritage brick house wrapped around a covered courtyard: vines overhead, a cherub fountain, a wall mural, an open kitchen at the back. The cover means the garden works year-round, which matters in a city where most courtyards close with October. Our Ninia’s Garden review ranks it among the city’s essential tables, and the room’s daily 13:00–02:00 hours make it the rare Tbilisi book-end: long lunch or last table of the night.
How to Reserve
Phone first: +995 598 19 66 69, or a message to the restaurant’s Facebook or Instagram — Georgian restaurants live on social channels, and Ninia’s answers. Email works too ([email protected]). Reserve a day or two out for dinner and name the courtyard explicitly; the indoor rooms are handsome but the garden is the point. Lunch rarely needs a booking. There is no online widget — a call is the whole system, and it is not a hard table by international standards, just a beloved one.
Gubeladze’s Georgia, Plated
The cooking is Georgian classics run through a fine-dining sensibility without losing the country’s generosity: chicken-liver pâté with beetroot confit; rabbit in walnut sauce with fried polenta — the kitchen’s calling card; shkmeruli, the garlic-cream chicken, done properly; veal shank over cheesy mash; grilled trout or a whole sea bream; cabbage-leaf dolma with a walnut mousse that argues the vegetarian corner. Menus are seasonal and unpriced online — expect around ₾60–70 a head with wine, which for cooking at this level is one of Europe’s quiet bargains. The wine list leans natural and Georgian: ask for a qvevri amber and let the table argue about it.
Where It Fits in a Tbilisi Evening
Chughureti is ten minutes on foot from the Dry Bridge market and fifteen from the Fabrika complex — build the evening around the neighbourhood rather than commuting from the Old Town twice. Pair it with our Funicular guide for the city’s other essential booking, the 1938 palace above the city; between them they bracket what eating in Tbilisi is now. The full map is in our Tbilisi dining guide, and the first-date list rates the courtyard exactly as Ninia Zaridze would have wanted.
View Ninia’s Garden on Restaurants for Kings →
Related Reading
- Our full profile: Ninia’s Garden review.
- The city: Tbilisi dining guide.
- The other essential booking: the Funicular complex on Mtatsminda.
- Occasions: first dates and birthdays.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you book Ninia’s Garden?
By phone (+995 598 19 66 69), by message on the restaurant’s Facebook or Instagram, or by email. There is no online booking widget. A day or two ahead covers dinner; ask specifically for a courtyard table — the covered garden is the room everyone comes for.
Who is behind Ninia’s Garden?
Meriko Gubeladze, the chef-founder of Shavi Lomi and one of the cooks who defined modern Tbilisi dining — Ninia’s is her fourth restaurant. It is named for Ninia Zaridze, a twentieth-century merchant who by local legend opened her garden to the city’s young couples.
What should you order at Ninia’s Garden?
The rabbit with walnut sauce and fried polenta is the signature; around it, the chicken-liver pâté with beetroot confit, a proper shkmeruli, the veal shank with cheesy mash, and the cabbage dolma with walnut mousse. Menus rotate seasonally, so treat the list as a direction rather than a contract.
How much does dinner cost at Ninia’s Garden?
Around ₾60–70 per person with wine — roughly €20–25 — for cooking that would cost four times that further west. Prices are not published online; the estimate comes from recent diner reports.
Where is Ninia’s Garden in Tbilisi?
At 97 Dimitri Uznadze Street in Chughureti, on the left bank of the Mtkvari — about ten minutes’ walk from the Dry Bridge market. It is open daily 13:00–02:00, and the covered courtyard runs year-round.