The Flavors of Georgia: Traditional Cuisine

Georgian food means khachapuri, khinkali, cheese, herbs with walnuts and wine on the table. Every region has its own dishes: Adjara bakes the open boat-shaped khachapuri, Imereti a closed one with local cheese, Samegrelo uses two cheeses and more spice. Below is what to try and where, with answers to common questions at the end.

Khachapuri: every region has its own

There is no single khachapuri in Georgia. The Georgian National Tourism Administration calls the Imeretian version the most widespread and the Adjarian boat the most popular with visitors. Imeretian khachapuri is a closed round flatbread with Imeretian cheese inside and butter on top; the tourism board calls it the "mother of khachapuri". Some Imeretian villages still bake it on a ketsi, a clay pan over embers.

Megrelian khachapuri is closed too, but it has two cheeses: fresh chkinti inside and sulguni on top. The Gurian one is called ghvezeli, a crescent-shaped pie with cheese and boiled eggs baked for Christmas. In Samtskhe-Javakheti they make abokhti, a layered khachapuri.

Adjarian food in Batumi

Adjarian khachapuri (adjaruli) is a dough boat filled with cheese, topped with an egg and a piece of butter when it comes out of the oven. Stir the egg and butter into the hot cheese, then tear off the crust and dip it in. In a Batumi café it costs about 18 GEL, in restaurants up to 25 GEL (2026). In mountainous Adjara, try borano - young cheese stewed in butter. Places to go are listed in our guide to where to eat in Batumi.

What else to try and where

• satsivi - poultry in walnut sauce; the tourism board recommends eating it in Guria;
• chakapuli - meat stewed with tarragon and herbs, a Kakheti dish;
• shkmeruli - chicken in garlic sauce, from the village of Shkmeri in Racha;
• mountain-style khinkali - from Khevsureti, Pshavi, Khevi and Tusheti;
• gebzhalia and elarji - Megrelian dishes with sulguni: rolls with mint and matsoni (Georgian yoghurt) and cornmeal porridge with cheese;
• chicken in isrimi (unripe grape) and blackberry sauce - Imereti;
• pkhali - a starter of greens and walnuts, served almost everywhere.

The feast and the tamada

A big Georgian feast, the supra, is led by a tamada, the toastmaster who gives the toasts and keeps order at the table. Bread is part of the tradition too: UNESCO added the culture of Georgian wheat, with local varieties and bread from clay ovens, to its intangible heritage list in 2025, and qvevri winemaking in 2013. Read more about the Georgian supra and grape varieties and wineries in our guide to Georgian wine.

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