Every kind of khachapuri, region by region

One name, several different pies

“Khachapuri” is really an umbrella term rather than a single dish — it means, roughly, cheese bread, and every region of Georgia has its own version, shaped and filled differently enough that ordering “khachapuri” without specifying which kind can get you something quite different from what you had in mind. Tbilisi menus, drawing on cooks and traditions from across the country, typically carry at least the two best-known types side by side, but understanding the differences means you can order the version that actually suits the meal you are having, rather than defaulting to whichever one shows up first in translation on the menu.

This guide covers the four types you will most reliably find, plus a couple of rarer ones worth knowing about, and how to eat the boat-shaped Adjaruli version without making a mess of it. For the country’s other signature dish, see khinkali: how to order and how to eat them; the two are ordered and eaten in genuinely different ways, which is worth reading if you assumed they were interchangeable.

Imeruli: the everyday default

Imeruli khachapuri, named for the Imereti region around Kutaisi, is the one most likely to appear on a menu without any qualifier, because it has become the de facto national standard. It is a round, closed pie — dough sealed completely around a filling of imeruli cheese, a mild, slightly salty fresh cheese similar in texture to a firm mozzarella — baked until the crust is golden and the cheese inside has melted and softened. It arrives whole or in wedges, is eaten like a pie with your hands or a fork, and reheats reasonably well if you have some left over, which none of the other types manage as gracefully.

Imeruli is the version most Georgian households make at home on a normal weeknight, and it is the one you are most likely to be offered at a family meal rather than a restaurant, since the dough and filling are simple enough not to require any specialist technique. If you take a general cooking class in Tbilisi, Imeruli is usually the version taught first, before moving on to the more technical Adjaruli shape.

Adjaruli: the boat with an egg on top

Adjaruli khachapuri, from the Black Sea region around Batumi, is the version most photographed and most likely to appear on a “must-try foods in Georgia” list, and for good reason: it looks nothing like a standard cheese pie. The dough is shaped into an open boat, filled with cheese, baked until the cheese starts to bubble, then finished with a raw egg cracked into the centre and a generous knob of butter, both added in the last moment of cooking or immediately on arrival at the table so the residual heat cooks the egg through without scrambling it.

Eating it correctly is part of the ritual: as soon as it arrives, take a fork and stir the egg and butter into the hot cheese, working them together while everything is still hot enough for the egg to finish cooking in the mixture. Then tear pieces off the crusty rim of the boat and use them to scoop the molten cheese-and-egg filling, working inward from the pointed ends toward the centre, where the richest, most saturated filling collects last. It is meant to be eaten immediately and shared while hot — letting it sit turns the egg cold and the whole dish considerably less appealing.

A hands-on Adjaruli masterclass covers the boat-shaping technique specifically, which is harder to get right than it looks — the dough needs to hold its shape without collapsing under the weight of the cheese while still baking through properly at the base.

Megruli, Guruli and the less common regional versions

Megruli khachapuri, from Samegrelo near Zugdidi, is essentially Imeruli with an extra layer of cheese baked on top of the closed pie rather than only sealed inside, giving it a browned, slightly crisp cheese crust in addition to the melted filling underneath. It is noticeably richer than standard Imeruli and less commonly found outside Samegrelo and larger Tbilisi restaurants that stock a wider regional selection.

Guruli khachapuri, from the Guria region between Imereti and Adjara, is folded into a crescent or half-moon shape rather than left open or round, with a hard-boiled egg mixed into the cheese filling before baking rather than added raw. It travels better than either Imeruli or Adjaruli because everything is sealed inside before baking, which historically made it a practical choice for a long journey or a packed lunch.

Penovani khachapuri is a different animal altogether — made with flaky, layered puff pastry rather than the yeasted dough used in the others, closer in texture to a cheese-filled croissant than a pie, and commonly sold from bakery windows as a grab-and-go item rather than served at a sit-down restaurant. Achma, from Abkhazia’s traditional cuisine (made across Georgia today, not tied to the occupied territory itself), is a layered, lasagne-like version with sheets of dough alternating with cheese and butter, baked until the top browns — heavier and richer than any of the others, and usually served in smaller portions as a result.

Batumi and Adjara: eating it where it comes from

If your trip includes Batumi or the wider Adjara coast, eating Adjaruli khachapuri there rather than waiting until Tbilisi is worth doing, if only because the dish carries more weight of tradition in the region it comes from, and Batumi’s khachapuri houses tend to serve it with more confidence and less compromise for a broader palate than some Tbilisi versions aimed at visitors. For a wider view of Adjarian food beyond khachapuri specifically, see Adjarian food in Batumi, beyond the boat-shaped khachapuri.

A Batumi khachapuri cooking class is a straightforward way to learn the Adjaruli technique specifically in the region it originates from, and some operators combine it with a short walking element covering Batumi’s old town architecture and food history — see an architectural walking tour with an Adjaruli tasting built in if you would rather combine sightseeing with the meal than treat the class as a standalone activity.

Ordering, sharing and portion sizes

Khachapuri is usually ordered per pie rather than per person, and one standard Imeruli or Adjaruli comfortably feeds two people as part of a wider meal, or one person as a full lunch on its own. Restaurants rarely offer a half-size portion, so if you are dining alone and want to try more than one type, it is worth asking whether the kitchen can do a smaller version, or simply pacing the meal so you can take leftovers — practical for Imeruli, much less so for Adjaruli, which loses its appeal once the egg has cooled and set.

If khachapuri is one of several dishes at a full Georgian feast, a single pie split across the table alongside khinkali, salads and grilled meat is normal rather than one pie per guest.

What it should cost

Expect roughly 8-15 lari for a standard portion at a normal restaurant, with Adjaruli generally priced toward the higher end of that range because of the extra cheese, egg and butter involved. Prices climb somewhat in the most tourist-heavy stretches of central Tbilisi and in Batumi’s seafront restaurants, and drop in smaller towns, bakeries and canteens away from the main squares.

Penovani khachapuri sold from a bakery window is considerably cheaper again, usually priced as a snack rather than a meal — see Tbilisi street food and bakery windows for where to find it sold this way. For a broader daily budget picture, what a week in Georgia actually costs puts khachapuri and other meals into the context of a full trip.

Khachapuri-making classes: what to expect

A khachapuri class typically starts with the dough, which differs meaningfully between the yeasted, bread-like base used for Imeruli and Adjaruli and the layered pastry technique behind Penovani — most classes stick to one style rather than trying to teach several doughs in one session. After the dough rests, you shape and fill it, and for Adjaruli specifically the boat-folding technique gets the most instruction time, since holding the shape while keeping the base thin enough to cook through is the hardest part to get right on a first attempt.

A combined khachapuri and khinkali masterclass is a reasonable option if you want to cover Georgia’s two signature dishes in a single session rather than booking two separate classes, and most versions send you home with the eating technique for both as well as the making one.

The cheese behind the dish

Most khachapuri relies on one of two Georgian cheeses. Imeruli cheese, used in the Imeruli and Megruli versions, is a fresh, brined cheese with a mild, slightly tangy flavour and a texture close to a firm mozzarella, made to melt smoothly without turning oily. Sulguni, a semi-hard, slightly stretchy cheese with a more pronounced tang, shows up more often in Adjaruli and in some Megruli preparations, and is also the cheese most commonly eaten on its own, smoked or fresh, as part of a breakfast spread or a supra.

Neither cheese has an easy substitute outside Georgia, which is part of why khachapuri made abroad rarely tastes quite the same as the version served here, even when the technique is followed exactly. For more on Georgian cheese beyond just the khachapuri fillings, see a guide to Georgian cheese.

Khachapuri at breakfast

Khachapuri is not reserved for lunch and dinner — a wedge of Imeruli or a smaller Penovani pastry is a completely normal breakfast in Georgia, sold from bakery windows early in the morning and eaten on the way to work rather than sat down at a table. It sits alongside eggs, cheese, honey and bread as one of several breakfast staples rather than a special-occasion dish, which surprises visitors who associate the Adjaruli boat specifically with khachapuri and expect every version to be a sit-down, knife-and-fork event. See what breakfast looks like in Georgia for how it fits alongside the rest of a typical morning spread.

Corn bread, wheat bread and a brief history

Khachapuri’s regional variety traces partly back to older differences in what grain each part of Georgia grew and milled. The western regions, including Samegrelo and Guria, historically relied more on corn (used for mchadi, a plain cornbread eaten alongside cheese) alongside wheat, while eastern Georgia’s bread culture, including the tonis puri baked in a clay tone oven, leaned more heavily on wheat. Khachapuri itself, in most of its forms, uses a yeasted wheat dough regardless of region, but the surrounding bread culture in each area shaped how central cheese-and-bread dishes became to the local diet, and why some regions ended up with more than one signature version.

Buying khachapuri to take away or freeze

Bakeries across Tbilisi sell individual portions, usually a triangular slice of Imeruli or a folded Penovani pastry, wrapped for takeaway and priced as a snack rather than a full meal — a cheap, filling option if you are moving between sights rather than sitting down for a proper lunch.

Whole Imeruli pies also freeze and reheat reasonably well, which is why they turn up as a practical souvenir some visitors bring home in hand luggage or a cooler bag, more so than the harder-to-pack Adjaruli, which genuinely needs to be eaten fresh with the egg cooked at the table rather than reheated later. If you are shopping for ingredients to recreate khachapuri at home instead, Dezerter Bazaar sells the cheese, and a specialist shop is a better bet than a supermarket for something close to the real thing.

Elarji and other dishes that get mistaken for khachapuri

Elarji, a Megrelian dish of cornmeal cooked with sulguni cheese until it forms a thick, stretchy paste closer to a savoury polenta than a bread, sometimes gets grouped alongside khachapuri on menus and in tour descriptions because it shares the same cheese and the same region, but it is a genuinely different dish with no dough involved at all.

It is usually served alongside grilled meat rather than as the centrepiece of a meal, and the stretch it produces when a spoon pulls through it is part of the appeal, similar in spirit to how mozzarella stretches on a hot pizza. Worth trying if you see it on a menu in Zugdidi or western Georgia specifically, but worth knowing it is not a khachapuri variant before you order it expecting bread.

A quick guide to which type suits which meal

If you are eating alone and want something that reheats well for later, order Imeruli. If you are sharing a table and want the most photogenic, indulgent option, order Adjaruli and be ready to eat it immediately. If you want to taste the regional specialty of wherever you happen to be — Megruli in Samegrelo, Guruli in Guria, Adjaruli in Batumi — asking the kitchen which version is the local one is a reliable way to get something more specific than the generic Tbilisi default, and most waitstaff are happy to explain the difference if a menu simply says “khachapuri” without qualifying which kind.

Frequently asked questions about khachapuri

What is the difference between Imeruli and Adjaruli khachapuri?

Imeruli is a closed, round pie with cheese sealed entirely inside, eaten in wedges like a pie. Adjaruli is open, boat-shaped, and topped with extra cheese, a raw egg and butter stirred in at the table before you tear off pieces of crust to dip.

How do you eat Adjaruli khachapuri?

Stir the raw egg and butter into the hot cheese as soon as it arrives, while the filling is still hot enough to finish cooking the egg. Then tear pieces off the crust rim and use them to scoop the mixture, working from the ends toward the middle.

Is khachapuri vegetarian?

Yes, every standard type is vegetarian, since the filling is cheese and, for Adjaruli, egg and butter. None of the standard versions are vegan.

Which khachapuri is best for sharing?

Imeruli, since it is cut into wedges and keeps reasonably well if there is any left over. Adjaruli is meant to be eaten immediately while the egg is fresh, which makes it a poor choice for a slow, lingering meal.

How much does khachapuri cost in Georgia?

Roughly 8-15 lari for a standard portion at a normal restaurant, with Adjaruli usually priced toward the higher end. Prices rise in tourist-heavy central Tbilisi and Batumi’s seafront, and fall in smaller towns.

Can I take a khachapuri-making class in Georgia?

Yes — operators in both Tbilisi and Batumi run hands-on classes covering the dough, the cheese filling and, for Adjaruli, the boat-shaping technique. See the classes section above for what a typical session covers.