MIAGuide
Where To Eat Georgian Food In Miami
Miami's best spots for khachapuri, khinkali, kebabs, and lots more.
Georgian food does not come up a lot in conversations about eating in Miami. But when you’re around the northeasternmost part of Dade County, getting Georgian food is just as viable an option as finding terrible sushi in South Beach. Georgian food—and the foods of its neighbors, Armenia and Azerbaijan—include some wonderful things like kebabs, herbaceous stews and soups, garlicky walnut dip, enormous dumplings, cheese-stuffed bread, and incredible wine. Below is our guide to Miami’s best Georgian restaurants (featuring one Broward spot just over the county line). And hopefully, by the time you’re done reading this, khachapuri, lula, and khinkali will become part of your Miami food rotation right alongside empanadas, cafecito, and stone crabs.
THE SPOTS
This is our favorite Georgian restaurant in South Florida, partly because of the lovely waterfront view, which you can enjoy from both the outdoor tables and the indoor ones thanks to a liberal amount of windows. Gem is located in a condo on a Sunny Isles side street. The adjaruli khachapuri here is phenomenal and the servers perfectly stir the cheesy filling with the butter and egg yolk at the table. Almost everything that comes out of the kitchen is a winner, but you should definitely order the chakapuli: a light stew of fork-tender veal and a garden’s worth of herbs that includes tarragon and plenty of dill. This place also has the best lula kebab in Miami—springy yet tender, moist, herbaceous, garlicky, and just a little tangy. You should definitely come here with a group so you can order everything, but if you’re on your own, get the Georgian burger. It’s basically the lula kebab on fresh Georgian lavash with Georgian cheese, veggies, and a side of really crispy fries.
The only thing that we don’t like about this North Miami spot is the harsh LED lighting that reminds us of that moment when they turn the house lights on in a club. So if you’re sensitive to lighting, ask to sit on the cute patio with a trellis and fake vines. The food here is very solid—and we like the pkhali dip platter (order some homemade bread for it), lula kebab, khinkali dumplings, and excellent adjaruli khachapuri that they mix tableside for you. But the one dish that stands out the most here is the kharcho, a beefy tomato and rice soup with a complex mixture of spices and herbs. Together with a cheesy khachapuri, it tastes like a more satisfying (and flavorful) grilled cheese and tomato soup. You should absolutely finish with the Kavkaz dessert: thin slices of sponge holding together globs of whipped cream, caramelized condensed milk, meringue, and walnuts.
Sign up for our newsletter.
Be the first to get expert restaurant recommendations for every situation right in your inbox.
This Hallandale Beach restaurant is an absolute blast. Even on a random Wednesday, it feels like a party. Most of the festivities happen outside on the lush patio, where there’s a DJ, bar, and grill. But even if you sit inside, the staff may come in to serenade you with Russian ballads they’ve remixed with lyrics about their restaurant. If that doesn’t make you smile, go see a doctor. The food here is solid. The khinkali—big dumplings filled with juicy ground meat—are some of our favorite dumplings in Miami and are flavored with caraway. The adjaruli khachapuri is decent but not as mind-blowing as the other versions on this guide. The same can be said about the kharcho. However, their lobio—a spicy kidney bean stew—is one of our favorite legume dishes in town.
This restaurant is the reason why we almost called this a guide to the best Caucasian restaurants and not just the best Georgian ones. This Sunny Isles spot specializes in the food of Armenia, which borders Georgia. There is some overlap between what you’ll find here and the other restaurants on this list. But stick to the Armenian specialties. We found out the hard way that cheesy breads are more of a Georgian thing. Nonetheless, you should definitely order the lahmajun—a ground meat flatbread that you finish with a squeeze of lemon juice before rolling up and devouring it. The tolma (stuffed grape leaves) are the best we’ve tried in South Florida: warm, meaty, and full of dill flavor. The lula kebab here is good but not what you should be ordering. Instead, get the excellent osetra sturgeon kebab. It’s the wagyu of the Caspian Sea.
