The Cheeses You Will Actually Meet
Georgian cheese is mostly fresh, salty and meant to be eaten the day it is made. Imeruli, from the Imereti lowlands around Kutaisi, is the everyday table cheese: mild, springy, slightly sour. Sulguni, from Samegrelo, is the same family but brined and stretched, so it squeaks when you bite it and melts into strings. Guda is the aged exception, packed in sheepskin and pungent, made mostly in Tusheti and available in Tbilisi's Deserter Market in autumn. Expect a market wedge of imeruli or sulguni to cost a few lari — small change, not a splurge.
The cheese you will see most often on a menu is not a single variety but a blend. Khachapuri fillings usually mix imeruli and sulguni so the salt and the melt balance out. If you want to taste them plain, order a cheese plate at a Tbilisi restaurant on Abo Tbilisi Avenue or in Vera, and ask which region each one comes from. In summer, look for tenili, a stringy cheese from Samtskhe-Javakheti, sold in braids at the Saturday market in Akhaltsikhe.
Bread and the Khachapuri Family
Shotis puri is the everyday bread: a torpedo-shaped white loaf slapped onto the clay walls of a tone oven and pulled out in minutes, blistered and chewy. In Tbilisi, bakeries along Leselidze Street in the old town and around the Marjanishvili metro station sell it warm from early morning. Buy one for the day and eat it with fresh herbs, tomato and a chunk of sulguni — that is a complete traveller's lunch for very little money, and it is what most Georgians actually do.
Khachapuri is the celebration version, and the regional styles are genuinely different. Imeruli is a round, flat, cheese-filled pie with no egg. Adjarian is a boat-shaped crust from Batumi filled with cheese, butter and a runny egg yolk you stir in yourself. Megruli adds cheese on top as well as inside. Achma, from Abkhazia, is a layered, buttery tray bake more like lasagne. Order one per two people — portions are large — and eat it hot, because sulguni turns rubbery as it cools.
Where to Eat It: Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Batumi
Tbilisi is the easiest place to build a tasting route. Start at the Deserter Market on Kote Abkhazi Street for cheese, walk ten minutes to a tone bakery near Sioni Cathedral for shotis puri, then eat a proper Adjarian khachapuri in Sololaki or on Chugureti's side streets. Prices in the city centre are higher than in the residential districts; a khachapuri in Vake or Saburtalo generally costs less than one on Rustaveli Avenue, and the quality is just as good.
Kutaisi, two and a half to three hours west of Tbilisi by marshrutka or about three hours by train, is the heartland of imeruli, so the cheese is fresher and cheaper. Batumi on the Black Sea coast is the place for Adjarian khachapuri, though summer prices along the seafront rise sharply in July and August. If you want one base for food, I would book Tbilisi for the variety, then take a day trip or an overnight to Kutaisi rather than splitting a short trip three ways.
What to Skip and When to Go
Skip the hotel breakfast khachapuri if you can. Buffet versions sit under lamps and go doughy. Skip the vacuum-packed sulguni sold at airport shops too; it is fine, but the same cheese costs far less at any town market and tastes better fresh. And be realistic about quantity: Georgian cheese is salty and bread is filling, so a cheese plate plus one khachapuri plus salad is plenty for two people. Ordering three khachapuri for a table of four is a common first-timer mistake.
Late spring and early autumn are the best months: May, June, September and October bring mild weather, good pasture and full markets, without the July-August heat in Tbilisi and the Batumi beach crowds. Late August is also when many families make their winter cheese and tklapi, so markets are busy. Winter is quieter, still perfectly good for khachapuri, and hotels in Tbilisi and Kutaisi are easier to book at short notice. Fly into Tbilisi or Kutaisi, and check the season before you lock in a coast stay.