Adjarian Cuisine — 10 Dishes to Cook or Taste at Akutsa

Mountain Adjarian food is one of Georgia’s best kept secrets. While everyone knows khachapuri, the highlands of Adjara have a culinary tradition that goes far deeper — rich, hearty dishes built from local butter, mountain cheese, walnuts, and herbs that have been growing on these hillsides for centuries. At Guest House Akutsa, you don’t just eat this food. You can make it. Here are 10 dishes you can cook or taste right here in Village Akutsa. --- 1. Borano — The Dish That Defines the Highlands If you eat only one thing in the Adjara mountains, make it borano. Pressed local cheese is placed in hot water until it melts into long, stretchy threads, then burnt butter is poured over the top. Rich, salty, deeply satisfying. Eaten with fresh cornbread (chadi). Available at breakfast. Can be made in our culinary masterclass. --- 2. Sinori — Layers of Tradition Thin sheets of dough are fried and layered with crushed walnut, garlic, and matsoni. More butter. More layers. A dish that takes patience to make and seconds to fall in love with. --- 3. Achma-Khachapuri — The Mountain Khachapuri Adjara’s mountain version of khachapuri — eight to eleven layers of boiled dough, each separated by cheese and butter. Completely unlike anything in Batumi’s restaurants. Learn to make it properly. Take the recipe home. --- 4. Iakhni — Beef with Walnut and Saffron Slow-cooked beef braised with onion and butter, finished with ground walnut, local saffron, and spices. Aromatic, complex, and unlike any stew you’ve had before. --- 5. Adjarian Chakhokhbili — Chicken, Rice, Walnut Chicken braised with tomato, herbs, cooked rice, and freshly crushed walnut with garlic. Closer to a thick fragrant soup than a stew. Completely different. Completely delicious. --- 6. Malakhto — Bean Dish with Wild Grape Vinegar Young green beans dressed with onion, walnut, herbs, and isrimi — the sharp juice of unripe grapes. Served cold with hot cornbread. A dish almost no restaurant in Georgia serves. You can taste it here. --- 7. Pkhal-Lobio — Black Bean and Spinach Black beans cooked with dark spinach, garlic, walnut, and pepper. Simple, nutritious, and deeply rooted in mountain cooking. --- 8. Chirbuli — Mountain Eggs Tomato cooked down with fresh herbs, then whole eggs cracked in on a gentle heat. Never stirred. A breakfast dish, technically. Also acceptable at any time. Made fresh every morning at Akutsa. --- 9. Qaisapa — Plum Dessert with Walnut Dried plums simmered until soft, topped with crushed walnut, sugar, and burnt butter. Sweet, slightly sour, warming. One of those dishes that sounds simple and tastes like nothing you expected. --- 10. Rdze Halva — Milk Halva Two litres of milk and two kilograms of sugar, simmered for two to three hours until deep caramel. The flavour is somewhere between toffee and fudge. In Adjara, this halva was traditionally made before young men left for military service. We make it for guests instead. --- Cook With Us Our culinary masterclass runs for 2-3 hours. You work alongside the host, hands in the dough. Price: 30 GEL per person Book via Telegram @raultsintsadze or WhatsApp +995577225289 See the full menu at akutsaresosort.ge/menu Guest House Akutsa — Village Akutsa, Keda Municipality, Adjara, Georgia 40km from Batumi · akutsaresosort.ge