Shemoikhede Genatsvale

Shemoikhede Genatsvale is the Batumi khachapuri house that every Georgian taxi driver will tell you to eat at. It sits on a corner of the old town, has three rooms and a summer courtyard, serves from 11:00 to past midnight, and has been doing so under the same family management since 2007.

The Adjarian khachapuri is the dish. It arrives on an oval wooden board, the boat-shaped bread golden and crackling at the edges, the sulguni cheese molten and the butter-egg mixture stirred in at the table by the waiter with two spoons. It is the size of a small pillow. You eat it with your hands, pulling the crust off in strips and dredging through the cheese. One is a meal for two. Two is a meal for four. They cost the equivalent of about six US dollars.

Everything else is also worth ordering: mtsvadi (charcoal-grilled pork on a skewer), lobio (kidney-bean stew in a clay pot with mchadi cornbread), khinkali (the giant soup dumplings from the mountains), a full grill platter for a table of six at around $40 total. House wine in a carafe for $8 a litre. The floor service is brisk and warm; English is minimal; pointing at the neighbouring table's order is the accepted ordering strategy.

For a Team Dinner: Shemoikhede Genatsvale is the ideal group room. The summer courtyard seats twelve across long benches; the khachapuri arrive in a procession; a dozen skewers of mtsvadi, a giant platter of khinkali, and three carafes of house red will land the bill at under $25 a head. It is the most authentically Georgian group dinner you can put together in Batumi.