Kavkaz Restaurant — Restaurant in North Miami

I have read about Georgian food for years but until last night had never taken the plunge. I'm go glad I did. I went with my girlfriend and an old friend from college who I hadn't seen since 1987. She was in town visiting relatives in Aventura and we wanted to take her out to something she wasn't familiar with. Since Aventura has so many people from Eastern Europe I thought now was the time to try Georgian cuisine at Kavkaz.

Kavkaz sits at the south end of an otherwise typically nondescript strip mall on Biscayne Blvd. Upon entering we got blasted by the live music. It's not a large space and the result is that the music was just to loud for comfort much less conversation. We were considering leaving when they showed us the tables outside which we took.

At that point, our server, Nana, immediately came over and welcomed us. We explained we really didn't know anything about the cuisine. She immediately smiled, grabbed a chair and sat down with us to explain what was typical and what else there was to consider. We took all her recommendations and waited for the goods.

We started off with the Khachapuri Adjarski: cheesebread with egg. This is akin to a pizza but the bread and cheese are richer than in a pizza, busting with flavor after the fresh egg was swirled into the cheese.

We followed with a plate of small apps which included a walnut stuffed eggplant, mixed beet with Georgian spices, a lightly mashed bean ball, and a spinach and spices mix. I didn't get the names of them but again, all were fantastic and perfectly spiced with what I understand is the typical Georgian spice mix. It was a new flavor for this somewhat experienced palate.

For mains we had Chicken Tabaka which is a pressed Cornish game hen in spices and then swimming in a rich garlic cream sauce that we eventually needed much bread to soak up. Last we had a chicken kabob that my friend said was the best chicken she's had in her life. And like myself, she ain't no spring chicken. The chicken was tender, smoky, fragrant, mild yet well-spiced.

We thought the prices reasonable, and though I've seen a bunch of reviews knocking the service, Nana was absolutely perfect so if you go, ask for her. I hope she sees this review, and I hope the boss sees it too. She represents the restaurant and the food in the best of all the ways. She's worth her weight in marigold leaves (which I discovered later is the secret ingredient to the Georgian spice mix). I wish we could have sat inside with the music at a tolerable volume. That's the only drawback to the entire experience. Regardless, I would definitely go again to Kavkaz to introduce more friends to the wonderful cuisine of the...

Sep 30. 6 pm. Our two-top was the only table in the dining room. There was literally no one else, yet the service was so bad, it would be funny if it wasn’t embarrassing.

I brought a friend to try Georgian food.

The waitress:

Does not say hello Looks annoyed we entered the restaurant Does not refill water Does not check on out table after dropping off food, disappears Does not clear the table of the dirty dishes Drops off fresh plates and utensils before the second course (I had to request that, otherwise she wasn’t going to do that), leaves utensils INSIDE our plates - I’ve never seen that before in a restaurant Tells me the dish is good after I got her attention to say our chiken dish had an odd smell and we would like to return it (usually that chiken dish is amazing) Drops off the check mid-meal, right after I ordered another dish After I asked for the check she….drumroll….automatically adds 18% gratuity!! Lmao. WHAT? For what service, exactly?

Fine. Whatever. Many places where staff struggles to get the tips the “honest” way do it nowadays. You can have it, even if you don’t deserve it, but please - give us SOME service, because I start feeling embarrassing that I hyped up this place to my friend.

Dear Owner - a sincere question - why do you continue to employ wait staff member that is incompetent, doesn’t want to be there and clearly does not care? Like, at all.

Also, since the gratuity is included, there is no incentive for her to show any kind of effort.

I come here all the time. Your other 2 waitresses and the waiter are always so nice and accommodating!

Anyway. Enough about that. Food here is consistently good, decor is nice on the eyes, especially after the resent changes: new wall design, colorful mural, new arrangement of the furniture, green napkins and other small details. Music can be unreasonably loud. We couldn’t hear each other sometimes because your YouTube video sound was so loud. Who is that for?? That’s obnoxious.

To everyone interested in trying this restaurant - come here for the food: khinkali - the best in South Florida imo, khachapuri adjaruli, chiken kebab, have a glass of semi sweet white Georgian wine, delicious! Don’t have any expectations for service and you will have a great time.

Food for thought: if there was another Georgian restaurant with khinkali that are this good AND professional wait staff, I would not be...

Went there for the first and last time. We came in around 4pm, there were very few people. The lighting seemed odd for this time and the vibe was immediately off. The waitress didn’t come to us for about 10 min so we all went to use the bathroom. Upon walking in, there was a large hole in the wall and obviously I couldn’t flush. No signage on the wall that it’s out of order, nothing. Floors in bathroom were filthy. Waitress finally came out and just kept quiet, no hello, no nothing . Didn’t even introduce herself, made zero suggestions, nothings as if she is doing us a favour. I asked her few questions, she mumbled something quietly and left. We order bunch of diff things to try and literally every item that came out looked worse than the previous one. Stuffed eggplants were tiny, and not fresh. Cheese with egg dish was so salty, we barely ate it. Kabobs were made from really cheap quality meat chicken thighs, horrible marinated. Lamb was so hard we couldn’t eat it. Liver had a really bad weird smell to it. It left really bad after taste it was not edible. She didn’t tell us it was cooked liver not fried, she didn’t explain one item to us. I wish I liked one item but we didn’t. If you’re looking for good food don’t waste your money on this place plus it’s overpriced for what you get. Tips are also included which is ridiculous, I wouldn’t leave her a cent after the horrible service we received. One word of advice for the owner, if you’re going to charge the prices you’re charging please buy good quality produce and not save money on quality. Some people understand quality. I don’t mind paying $500 on dinner but the quality of food, service, atmosphere must match the price tag. Fix your bathroom hole, get good quality meat and produce, hire a chef that actually understands Georgian food, get better waitresses and maybe you’ll pick up your ratings, regardless, you lost...