Batumi McDonald's

Award-winning glass-and-steel building that happens to house a McDonald's

The Batumi McDonald's is the only fast-food restaurant most people travel across town to look at. It sits at the south end of the boulevard, a swooping glass-and-steel structure with a reflecting pool, sweeping cantilevered roof, and an angled facade that catches the light. Inside, the McDonald's itself is a perfectly ordinary fast-food restaurant.

The building has won architectural awards and is included on tours of contemporary Batumi. Photographing it from the reflecting pool side, around dusk, is the standard shot. The food, predictably, is the same as everywhere else.

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Designed by the Georgian architect Giorgi Khmaladze, the building won the 2014 Architizer A+ Award and is regularly cited as one of the most striking McDonald's restaurants anywhere in the world. The fast-food restaurant occupies only part of the building; the rest is a petrol station and reflecting pool.