Authentic Georgian food is a delight at this Pasadena restaurant

For those who may be a tad befuddled, in this review I am not speaking of the cooking of the Southern state bordered by the Carolinas, Tennessee, Alabama and Florida. Rather, this is the former Soviet Republic in the Caucasus, bounded by Russia, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan, along with the Black Sea. It sits at the cusp of Europe and Asia.

And, as is found at the wildly popular, massively proportioned new restaurant on Lake Avenue in Pasadena called Deda , it’s a cuisine that is all that — and more. These are dishes with roots in the surrounding lands, and roots only in Georgia as well. To dine at Deda is to travel to Tbilisi, conveniently freeway-adjacent.

There’s a sizable section on the menu headed “For the table” (followed, as are all the headings, with the same words in Georgian