Georgian cuisine is already well known and well accepted even out of its formal borders. People living outside Georgia admire Georgian dishes such as: chakhokhbili, tabaka, kharcho, khachapuri, khinkali etc.
Georgian cuisine is rich of many dishes characteristic to Svaneti, among them famous sulguni - kind of cheese, kaarz - cheese with mint boiled in milk, khachapuri - baked cheese in wheat bread, Pishvdar - cheese baked in corn bread, or Tchkut - baked cheese in millet bread, kubdari - stewed beef baked in wheat bread, sham - corn flour porridge with slices of sulguni cheese, tashmijab - cream of potatoes and cheese mixed with corn flour, chadi - a cornbread etc. There is also a wide range of pasties cooked with different stewed herbs inside. Svans like barley soup seasoned with garlic and pepper (Lutspek) and barley flour boiled in nettle soup (Kharshil). These soups are also very healthy food, they say that if one eats them at least ten times, he won't get sick during the whole year.
Almost all dishes are dressed with Svan salt - a regular table salt mixture with bits of ground red hot pepper and variety of spices. The dishes dressed with Svan salt have a very characteristic flavour and taste.
Another reason for specialty of Svaneti cuisine is that all dishes are cooked with local, natural products giving a unique taste and aroma to them.
It is impossible to grow grapes in Svaneti highland, that is why Svans have to buy wine in the low-land regions or distil vodka from local fruits or honey. An important attribute of Svans feast is mineral water from natural sources, which can be found all over the region.