Dezerter Bazaar
Tbilisi's main food market by the railway station — churchkhela, spices, guda cheese and the city's real everyday life.
- Time needed
- 1.5 h
- From Tbilisi
- 3 km · 0:15
- Road
- Paved
- Car needed
- Economy class
- Season
- All year
- Entry
- free
Tbilisi buys its food here, not at the supermarket. The Dezerter Bazaar sprawls across several blocks between the central railway station and Tsinamdzghvrishvili Street. The name dates to the early 1920s, when deserting soldiers sold off their kit here — the nickname stuck so hard it outlived every official name since.
Today this is the city's main food market and the best single place to meet the ingredients of Georgian cooking:
- The cheese rows — guda, sulguni, smoked and fried varieties, with tastings offered at almost every counter
- Spice stalls — blue fenugreek (utskho suneli), dried marigold, ajika pastes and mixes sold by weight
- Churchkhela and tklapi — hanging in coloured bunches, village-made
- Seasonal fruit and vegetables from all over Georgia, matsoni, honey and pickles
The market runs daily from about seven in the morning to six in the evening. It is not a polished tourist attraction — floors are wet, handcarts barge between stalls — and that is exactly why it is worth seeing. Mornings are liveliest. Redevelopment plans hang over the district, so the old-market atmosphere may not last forever.
Practical advice
Bring cash in small notes — most stalls do not take cards. Mild haggling is accepted. Tastings are offered freely and carry no obligation to buy. Watch your bag in the crush. There are toilets on the market grounds for a token fee. Vacuum-packed cheese and bagged spices travel well as souvenirs; ask vendors to seal them.
How to get there from Tbilisi
The bazaar sits by Station Square, 3–4 km from Freedom Square — 15 minutes without traffic, double that at rush hour. Parking is the real puzzle: the surrounding streets are jammed with handcarts, marshrutkas and double-parked cars. The calmest option is the paid car park of the Tbilisi Central mall at the railway station, five minutes' walk from the stalls. An economy car is fine; the Station Square metro stop opens practically into the market, and is often the easiest way in.
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Nearby places
Fabrika and the Marjanishvili District
A Soviet sewing factory turned into a courtyard of bars and studios, and the old German quarter around it.
Kote Marjanishvili Theatre
A leading Georgian drama theatre with main and small stages on Marjanishvili Street.
State Silk Museum
A museum founded in 1887 that has barely changed — the cases, the labels and the collection are all original.
Best car for this trip
Guides
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Pickup locations
Car Rental in Tbilisi — 3 km (straight line)