There’s a moment — and if you’ve lived in Tbilisi long enough, you know exactly what I mean — when you stop being a visitor somewhere and just become a regular. The staff knows your order before you sit down. The shisha master starts prepping your bowl the second you walk through the door. The waiter brings you that glass of something amber and qvevri-aged without being asked. That’s what Saint Bunny is to me. Not just a restaurant. It’s my living room in the middle of the city.
Finding the Rabbit Hole
Let me save you the five minutes of confused wandering I went through the first time: St. Bunny is on the third floor of Merani Mall, near Rustaveli Avenue. You’ll walk past shops, step into an elevator, wonder briefly if you’ve made a wrong turn — and then you emerge into this warm, buzzing, beautifully strange world where a painting of a royal bunny smoking a hookah greets you from the wall like a renaissance-era fever dream. That painting alone is worth the visit. The bunny sits there on its throne, draped in brocade robes, puffing away with absolute regal indifference. It sets the tone for everything that follows.
The space itself opens up into a huge terrace overlooking a quiet courtyard — the kind of terrace where you can spend an entire afternoon with your laptop, transition into an evening with friends, and suddenly it’s midnight and you’re three glasses of Rkatsiteli deep wondering where the time went. Inside, there’s live music most evenings — a pianist or acoustic guitarist playing everything from Georgian classics to Led Zeppelin — and the whole atmosphere just works. Cozy without being cramped. Upscale without being pretentious. Lively without being loud.
The Food: Rabbit Kingdom (and a Killer Filet Mignon)
St. Bunny’s concept is delightfully eccentric: rabbit everything. Rabbit khinkali, rabbit khachapuri, rabbit chakhokhbili, rabbit shmeruli in garlic cream, rabbit pâté, rabbit pie. They’ve taken this humble animal and run the entire Georgian (and European) playbook with it. It’s creative, it’s playful, and it genuinely works.
But if I’m being personal — and this is my blog, so I will be — my go-to is the filet mignon. It comes out beautifully seared, nestled on a bed of roasted pepper purée with a sprig of rosemary on top, looking almost too pretty to eat. Almost. The meat is tender, rich, cooked exactly right, and when you pair it with grilled seasonal vegetables and a drizzle of balsamic reduction, it becomes the kind of meal you think about the next day.
And then there’s the Georgian salad with walnuts and adjika sauce — don’t skip it. It’s supremely refreshing, with just enough onion and spice to give it a proper kick. On a warm Tbilisi evening, it’s the perfect counterpoint to a heavier main course. Simple, balanced, and exactly what you want.
While St. Bunny is a Russian-owned establishment, their kitchen speaks fluent Georgian. Megrelian khachapuri, ojakhuri, elarji — all represented and all done well. They also lean into Ukrainian and European influences: borscht, chicken Kiev, aged beef steaks, truffle fries. The seasonal menu and specials are always worth showing up for — I’ve rarely been disappointed by whatever the chef is experimenting with that week.
They run a brunch menu from 11:00 to around 15:00 daily, with eggs Benedict variations and a very reasonable 25 GEL breakfast combo that includes any breakfast item plus coffee or tea. An easy start to the day before the city wakes up properly.
350+ Wines at Shop Prices (Yes, Really)
Here’s the thing that elevates St. Bunny from “great restaurant” to “place I genuinely recommend to every single person who visits Tbilisi”: the wine program. They stock over 350 wines on actual shelves — this is a wine shop and a restaurant in one — and you can grab any bottle off the rack, pay the retail price, and drink it right there at your table with full service. No restaurant markup. None.
Let that sink in for a second. In a country already famous for absurdly affordable wine, St. Bunny figured out how to make it even more accessible. They carry Georgian producers like Tchotiashvili, Tiko Estate, Barbale, Mtsvane Estate, Iago’s Winery (hard to find elsewhere in Tbilisi), and Guniava. There’s also a solid international selection — over 30 French wines, plus bottles from Germany, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, Argentina, and Italy. The sommeliers speak English, know their stuff, and are happy to walk you through the Georgian wine landscape if you’re still learning your Saperavi from your Rkatsiteli.
They even host wine tastings and beginner education classes, which I think is brilliant. Georgia’s wine tradition is over 8,000 years old, and having a place that actively invites you to explore it — glass in hand, no pretension — is a gift.
The Shisha: An Art Form
Okay, I need to talk about the shisha, because this is a huge part of why I keep coming back. St. Bunny doesn’t just offer hookah — they have genuine shisha masters on site who treat it like the craft it is. This isn’t an afterthought or a menu add-on. It’s a core part of the experience.
My personal order: mixed sour chai, sour berry, strong and on ice. If you know, you know. The flavors are layered, the smoke is thick and cool, and it lasts. I’ve sat on that terrace for hours with a good bowl, a glass of wine, my laptop open, just vibing. There’s something about the combination of excellent shisha, good food in your stomach, and the quiet hum of a Tbilisi evening that makes everything else fall away.
Reviewers across the internet consistently rate their hookah as some of the best in the area, and I’d agree wholeheartedly. The staff working the shisha station clearly know what they’re doing, and they’ll work with you on flavor profiles and strength.
The Staff Makes It Home
I’ve saved this for last because it’s the thing that actually matters most. You can have the best food, the finest wine, the smoothest shisha in the world — but if the people serving it to you are indifferent, it all falls flat.
The staff at St. Bunny are incredibly friendly and professional. Not the performative kind of friendly where someone reads your order back with a practiced smile, but the real kind — where they remember your face, ask how you’ve been, and genuinely seem to enjoy the fact that you showed up. In a city where hospitality is already a cultural art form, St. Bunny’s team stands out. Individual servers like Lela and Mari get called out by name in reviews, which tells you everything you need to know about the level of personal service here.
The Practical Stuff
Where: 3rd floor, Merani Mall, 31 Aleksandre Griboedov Street, Tbilisi (Mtatsminda district, near Rustaveli Avenue)
When: Monday through Sunday, 11:00 AM – 2:00 AM
How much: Budget around ₾100+ per person for a full experience (food, wine, shisha). Brunch is considerably cheaper.
Contact: 558-808-844 | Instagram: @st.bunny_tbilisi
Pro tip: They’re also on Wolt for delivery (including their “Pizza by St Bunny” brand), but honestly, the whole point of St. Bunny is being there. The terrace, the music, the atmosphere — you can’t deliver that.
The Bottom Line
Every expat in Tbilisi has their spot. The place they default to when they don’t want to think about where to eat. The place they bring visitors to show off the city. The place they go alone with a laptop and end up staying five hours longer than planned.
Saint Bunny is my spot.
It’s a place where rabbit khinkali meets filet mignon, where 8,000 years of Georgian winemaking tradition is available at shop prices, where the shisha masters take their craft as seriously as the kitchen takes theirs, and where the staff makes you feel like you belong — even if you’re still butchering your Georgian pleasantries at the door.
If you’re in Tbilisi, go. Walk into that mall, take the elevator to the third floor, and let the royal bunny welcome you in. You’ll understand.
გაუმარჯოს!