Georgia Street Food

Tbilisi's streets smell of baking bread and boiling dumplings, and locals treat both as an art form worth arguing about.

🧀 The boat-shaped bread isn't just decorative — you're meant to tear off the crust and use it to scoop the melted cheese inside.

22 street food dishes from Georgia, across 6 regions — what each one is, why it's made that way, and what to expect when you order it.

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Signature street foods of Georgia

Bakery Window · Cheese Bread Khachapuri (Adjaruli) You don't cut it with a fork — you stir the raw egg and butter into the molten cheese first, then tear and dip. Khachapuri is a bread boat filled with melted cheese, topped with a raw egg and a knob of butter stirred into the filling right before eating. Bakeries and street stalls across Tbilisi…

Market Stall · Hand-Pleated Dumpling Khinkali There's an unspoken rule for eating them: never touch one with a fork, and never eat the twisted knot on top. Khinkali are twisted, pleated dumplings filled with spiced meat and its own savory juices, boiled and ordered by the count rather than the plate. Street stalls and food trucks in Tbilisi…

Grill · Roadside Skewers Mtsvadi The first skewer off the fire is traditionally handed to the eldest guest — grilling mtsvadi outdoors is as much a ritual as it is cooking. Mtsvadi is pork, or sometimes beef or lamb, cut into chunks, briefly marinated and skewered, then grilled over embers until charred outside and juicy within. Roadside stands and market…

Market Stall · Candle-Shaped Candy Churchkhela Georgian warriors reportedly carried churchkhela into battle centuries ago — an early version of the modern energy bar. Churchkhela is made by threading walnuts or hazelnuts onto a string, then dipping the strand again and again into thickened grape juice, called tatara, until it builds into a firm…

Street food by region

6 regions of Georgia with their own dishes.

Tbilisi3
Adjara (Ajaria)3
Kakheti3
Samegrelo (Mingrelia)3
Svaneti3
Imereti3

Tbilisi street food

Legendary Soda Fountain · Lagidze Water Lagidze Water (Tarkhuna Soda) This fizzy syrup soda was served to world leaders at both the Yalta and Tehran conferences during World War II — Tbilisi's beloved corner-shop drink… Lagidze water is a naturally flavored soda made by mixing carbonated water with handmade fruit and herb syrups, poured fresh from a soda fountain rather than bottled. The tarragon… 🫘 Bakery Window · Bean-Filled Bread Lobiani It's baked in the same clay tone oven as khachapuri and looks similar from the outside, but crack it open and it's stuffed with spiced mashed beans… A round or half-moon of yeasted dough is filled with mashed kidney beans seasoned with onion and spices, then baked until the crust is deep golden. Tbilisi bakeries and street kiosks sell… 🍩 Old Town Stall · Fried Doughnuts Ponchiki These pillowy fried doughnuts are a holdover from the Soviet era, and small stalls in old Tbilisi still fry them to order the same simple way they… A yeasted dough is deep-fried into puffed, golden rounds, then dusted heavily with powdered sugar or filled with custard or jam. Street stalls near Tbilisi's markets and metro stations…

Adjara (Ajaria) street food

🌸 Coastal Grape · Adjaran Original Chkhaveri Wine This pale rosé-like wine comes from a grape variety that grows almost nowhere in Georgia except the hillsides around Adjara's coastal villages. Chkhaveri is an indigenous red grape grown mainly in Adjara, near the Black Sea, producing a light, delicate rosé-toned wine that's traditionally fermented in qvevri. It's been preserved… 🧀 Bakery Tray · Layered Cheese Pastry Achma It looks like lasagna and is built the same way — sheets of dough layered with butter and cheese — except there's no tomato sauce or meat anywhere… Thin sheets of boiled dough are layered with generous amounts of butter and sulguni and imeruli cheese, then baked until the top turns golden and the inside stays soft and molten. Bakeries… 🐟 Seaside Stall · Fried Anchovies Khamsi (Fried Black Sea Anchovies) When the anchovy shoals arrive each cold season, Batumi's seafront stalls sell them so fresh and cheap that whole trays disappear within a single… Small Black Sea anchovies are lightly floured and fried whole until crisp, then eaten by the handful, bones and all, often with a squeeze of lemon. Seafront stalls and market fry-cooks in…

Kakheti street food

🍷 Ancient Craft · Clay-Vessel Wine Kakhetian Qvevri Wine Georgians have been fermenting wine in buried clay vessels here for at least 8,000 years, a method so old it's protected by UNESCO. Qvevri wine is made by fermenting grape juice together with skins, stems and seeds inside large egg-shaped clay vessels buried underground for months. Kakheti, home to around… 🍲 Tavern Pot · Clay-Baked Beans Kakhuri Lobio It's traditionally cooked and served in the same small clay pot it's baked in, sealed enough that the pot arrives at the table still bubbling. Kidney beans are slow-simmered with onion, herbs, and sometimes smoked meat in an individual clay pot until thick and rich, then served with a wedge of hot mchadi cornbread. Roadside… 🌯 Grill Stand · Wrapped Minced Meat Kakhuri Kababi Unlike mtsvadi's whole chunks of meat on a skewer, kababi is seasoned minced meat molded straight onto the skewer, then wrapped in flatbread to eat… Minced beef or pork is seasoned with onion and spices, pressed onto skewers, and grilled over open coals, then slid off into a sheet of warm lavash with onion and herbs. Grill stands…

Samegrelo (Mingrelia) street food

🍇 Mingrelian Red · Ojaleshi Ojaleshi Ojaleshi's name literally means 'growing on a tree' — for generations Mingrelian farmers trained these vines up living trees instead of trellises, a… Ojaleshi is a semi-sweet red wine with a deep ruby color, velvety texture, and natural sweetness balanced by bright acidity, made from a grape grown almost exclusively around Martvili and… 🧀 Bakery Window · Double-Cheese Bread Megruli Khachapuri This version doubles down on cheese in a way even other Georgians consider extreme — it's filled with cheese like a standard round khachapuri, then… A round of dough is filled with imeruli cheese, sealed, and baked, then topped with even more grated cheese that melts into a bubbling layer over the crust. Bakeries and market stalls… 🌽 Market Kitchen · Cheese Cornmeal Elarji Stir it right and elarji stretches into long, gooey cheese strands when you lift a spoonful — locals judge how well it's made by how far the cheese… Cornmeal is cooked slowly with sulguni cheese stirred in until it melts completely into the porridge, turning it stretchy and elastic. Market kitchens and small eateries in Samegrelo serve…

Svaneti street food

🥃 Mountain Moonshine · Svanuri Chacha Svanuri Chacha Svaneti's villages were cut off by snow-blocked mountain passes for much of the year for centuries, so nearly every household distilled its own… Chacha is a strong, clear pomace brandy distilled from the leftover grape skins, seeds, and stems of winemaking, and in Svaneti it's typically homemade in small batches rather than bottled… 🥩 Mountain Bakery · Meat-Stuffed Bread Kubdari Traditional Svan households once baked kubdari specifically to send with travelers heading over the high mountain passes — a stuffed bread solid… Yeasted dough is filled with chopped, heavily spiced meat (often beef, pork, or a mix) and onion, sealed, and baked until the crust browns. Bakeries and market stalls in the Svaneti… 🫓 Village Griddle · Fried Cornbread Chvishtari Unlike most Georgian cornbread, which is baked, chvishtari is fried, and it comes studded with chunks of cheese that melt into pockets as it cooks. Cornmeal dough is mixed with chunks of sulguni cheese, shaped into flat rounds, and pan-fried in butter until crisp outside and soft within. It's sold hot from village stalls and…

Imereti street food

🍶 Western Method · Lighter Amber Wine Imeretian Qvevri Wine Just a mountain range away from Kakheti, winemakers use the same clay qvevri but a completely different method, using far less skin contact for a… Imereti's take on qvevri winemaking uses shorter skin contact and less stem material than Kakheti's method, producing wines that are paler, higher in acid and more delicate. It centers on…

Bakery Counter · Classic Cheese Bread Imeruli Khachapuri This is the round, cheese-filled loaf most people picture when they hear 'khachapuri' — the open-boat Adjaruli style is actually the regional… A round of dough is filled with a mix of imeruli and sulguni cheese, sealed completely, and baked until the crust is golden and the inside is molten. Bakeries across Imereti sell it whole… 🍗 Market Pan · Fried Giblets Kuchmachi It's built from parts most Western kitchens throw away — chicken or pork liver, heart, and gizzards — fried down with walnuts and pomegranate until… Chicken or pork offal (liver, heart, gizzards) is fried with onion, then finished with crushed walnuts, garlic, and a scatter of pomegranate seeds. Market kitchens and tavern counters in…

More street food in Europe

Part of World of Street Food — 690 dishes from 118 countries. Photo credits.