Skalka

When we were organizing our schedule around The Locks Cruise by Argosy Cruises, it seemed that Skalka was the best place to start our day.  If you haven't heard about the place, it dishes up a Georgian bread called Khachapuri.  They put all sorts of things in the middle such as cheese, eggs, meat and/or veggies.  Hence, this makes for a great brunch and since it was literally a block away from Pier 54 (where our cruise was scheduled to leave at Noon), it was bliss that this all worked out!

Now, the place is really busy and you must order from the kiosk and you get a number.  However, there is no system for the tables.  It is everyone out for themselves!  Luckily we did get one and got our order of 4 different Khachapuri starting with the Adjaruli.  This consisted of melted fresh cheese, grass-fed butter and soft runny egg yolk.  So the method here is to rip off pieces of bread and dip into the cheesy mix.  Naturally combining the egg yolk and butter was optimal and it was truly delicious.

Now if you wanted something more than cheese (but still wanted cheese, butter and egg), you could go for the buttery Chicken Ragu on the other half of the Khachapuri.  Naturally, the best thing to do here is still to combine everything together with the cheese and egg.  So every bite is just as good as the Adjuruli except with the addition of the savory chicken.  Honestly, I didn't even notice it was chicken because the dominant texture and flavor was still the cheese.

On the other hand, the Veggie was surprisingly the most flavorful due to the combination of tomato, eggplant and onions.  This tanginess with some sweetness was the perfect foil for the creamy and rich cheese and yolk mixture.  It broke up the heaviness and added brightness.  With no meat involved, you'd think this would be my least favorite, but alas, this was probably the one I would order over everything else!

Now the meatiest of them all was the Stroganoff with shredded beef, mushrooms and sour cream.  This was the heaviest version, especially combined with the cheese, egg and butter.  They smartly added pickles to lighten things up and to add a crunch.  I thought the stroganoff was quite good with tender meat and a sweet creaminess.  In the end, we didn't finish all of this because it was a lot.  I think one person would find it hard to eat it all by themselves.  Hence this is reasonably-priced for around $17.00.  This is something I would come back for when I'm in Seattle next!

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:

- Something different

- Super cheesy!

- Quite large

The Bad:

- It takes time to make since it is made-to-order, so be patient

- No real system for tables, it is everyone for themselves