Cazbar - Columbia — Restaurant in Columbia

My aunt made a reservation for her 50th birthday and was super excited to see the belly dancing show this past Saturday evening. We were seated on the corner and, while our waiter was kind enough to request the dancer to come around the corner to our section, we were unable to view most of the performance. I could tell she was disappointed, as we arrived well ahead of time and she was really looking forward to enjoying the full experience of having dinner with live entertainment.

There appeared to be plenty of seating in the section where the performance was held and we specifically mentioned our desire to view the performance, yet we were not given the option of being seated within eyesight. We shrugged it off to the fact that we had a couple of small children with us, until we began to see high chairs and booster seats being carried into the other section.

They also forgot to bring my aunt’s dessert until very last and after most of us had just about finished ours. We waited a bit, reminded the waiter, then shared some of ours with her until hers arrived. Although the presentation with sparklers kind of made up for it, the slight was noted and put a brief damper on the mood.

As far as the food was concerned… It was quite mediocre. I have Turkish friends and have eaten at Turkish restaurants at least a couple of times before to know what is a reasonable expectation of Turkish cuisine. The adana kebab was a bit dry and my friend stated that her lamb three ways was not very tender.

The most alarming concern we have with this place is the fact that several members of our party experienced bouts of abdominal cramping and diarrhea that same night, which has lasted into today (Monday). At first, we thought it might have been either the cheese or yoghurt. But when it persisted and was accompanied by chills, we knew that it was not due to lactose intolerance. These symptoms were more on par with food poisoning.

The baby has had several major blowouts already and a couple of us adults, along with a preschooler, found ourselves running to the toilet also. I am currently waiting at the gate to catch my second flight back home and praying for traveling mercy while chewing ginger candy like someone addicted to snuff…

Reading all of the other one star reviews really puts things into perspective. It seems that food handling and food safety guidelines need to be reviewed asap. Had we read the complainants ahead of time, I doubt we would have chosen to take a chance on having a birthday celebration here. The food was way overpriced for such a lackluster dining experience paired with poor...

My wife and I have visited Cazbar 5-6 times over the last 12 months. The food is always good and the atmosphere is nice. However, the service we received this past visit from "Reber I" was atrocious. When we were seated, we noticed a server going to the table to our immediate right 4x then to our immediate left 2x while we waited for 13 minutes before he finally came over (we were shocked that he was our server since he never even glanced at our table). He walked up and asked to take our drink order (did not apologize for making us wait to long). We were ready to give him our entire order since we had so long to look at the menu, but he informed us he was not ready to take our order. Eventually he returned to take our order. He read back our order, but STILL got it wrong when the food came out (how can that be?). We did not complain and just ate what came out. He never came over to check on us while still continuing to check on the table to our right and then to our left. It appeared he only had 3 tables while we were there until the very end when a 4th table was added. At one point, my son went up to the greeting area asking if our server could stop by our table. We hated that our son had to do that, but all of our quiet attempts to grab our server's attention failed as he continued to go to the tables to our left and right. He then came over and asked if we were ready for our check to which we replied "We were hoping to order dessert." He took our order (both of my children wanted dessert and placed their order). He then walked away without taking my or my wife's dessert order. Once again, he got the order wrong. Even though we ordered two desserts, he brought out one. The humorous part of the evening was when he finally brought our check over so I could pay and asked if we liked our dinner. We shared we liked the food and the atmosphere is always great, but his service was horrible. He actually acted surprised. I guess this is the service he provides everyone so he thought it was "normal"? It did seem he provided better service to our right and to our left. We abstained from alcohol on this visit while his other tables were drinking. So, maybe he wanted a bigger tip from them? Either that or he was racially motivated not to provide us with even average service since we were a...

Overpriced and overhyped, rude manager! that’s all I can say. Food was average at best but we have been here a few times so the bad review isn’t necessary for the food or the wait staff being bad but it is about the manager that was present on 02/23/25 around 1pm. It was thr worst restaurant experience of my life. We were a party of 4 with 2 kids. I’ll admit that our kids did make a little bit of a noise while sitting at the table but nothing out of the ordinary for a restaurant of this level .i.e an average non fine dining place that was pretty much empty with just 3-4 more tables with people during peak lunch hours on a weekend so it isn’t some very prestigious place by any means. And yet this is what happened: As soon as we sat down and placed an order the manager just came to our table to tell us that we should ask our kids to be quiet as they are disturbing others. We had placed a big order and i regret not walking out at that moment simply because I did acknowledge that okay maybe the kids are being loud so I apologized and we tried to keep the kids quiet but it was so embarrassing and stressful that we didn’t even eat our food had to rush and get boxes for everything. When we were leaving, the friend I was with, she stopped at the table to talk to the guy to tell him that this was our experience thanks to his comments and here is the part that bothers me and the reason why I think this place is disgusting. The guy was rude and instead of apologizing or in anyway trying to be respectful about it said oh your kids are crazy and rude my job is to keep customers comfortable. Wow! We were customers too! This is unacceptable! These two kids were 5 year old boys that were meeting after a long time so they were exciting telling each other stories etc. nothing so out of the ordinary that this guy had to be this nasty. I haven’t been a fan of cazbar because of how below average and overpriced their food is but I went anyway and this experience will not haunt me forever! I absolutely hate it.

I have been to too many Turkish restaurants and haven’t felt this way but this guy maybe just an awful person who definitely shouldn’t be in...