Restaurants in Romania
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Bistro de l'Arte
In the bottom of a cosy 15th-century building, the Bistro is the place for sit-back wine sessions, breakfasts with wi-fi for your laptop, or lively dinners with mingling Romanian couples (who sometimes come for plays). The menu drifts from French and includes daily fish dishes, big salads and pasta.
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Grand Plaza
Not far from the train station, this simple and busy Romanian restaurant passes on the gimmicks and focuses on tasty Romanian food, which the locals file in for.
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Roata
Housed in a back-alley building, with tasty traditional Romanian dishes served in clay plates, this joint is best for sitting on the small terrace and vying for space amidst potted plants and moss-covered stones. Traditional music puts a little bounce into the air. People know it's good, and it's almost always busy.
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Pizza Hut
Fast-food outlets serving kebabs, burgers and hot dogs are dotted all over town. There are some inside the modern Galeriile Comerciale Voicules , and 24-hour joints can be found in the colourfully seedy section of B-dul Tomis south of Str Traian. Pizza Hut delivers.
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Trattoria Il Calcio
Run by 'Romania's George Best' (football legend Gino Lorgucescu), this pasta/pizza place looks Tuscan, if not for the framed Futbol journals from the 1960s on the walls. The food's great, with hearty meals and good salads. It gets busy at lunch.
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Crama Sibiul Vechi
This popular, evocative brick-cellar spot off the main crawl reels in locals for its tasty Transylvanian armoury of mutton, sausages and beef and fish. There's live music most nights.
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Don Taco
Romania's only 'Mexican' restaurant (um, half the menu sticks with Romanian fare) does an inventive but pretty good take on burritos, enchiladas and carnitas (stewed pork).
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Grand Cafe Galleron
A block east of Piaţa Revoluţiei, this stylish cafe has indoor nooks and outdoor seats for ice-cream, sandwiches, drinks and all-day breakfast.
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Speed/Alcatraz
Busy fast-food option with good seating options, including an outdoor deck and an enigmatic Alcatraz basement with seating in Al Capone-style cages.
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Café International & Family Centre
This two-room café, with chairs spilling onto the square in summer, is the perfect lunch spot, with daily made, mostly vegetarian fare, including quiche or lasagne or lemon meringue pie. No alcohol is served but you can bring beer to the outside tables. It also doubles as a tourist office in summer (only); knows a lot about the city, can arrange 1½-hour walking tours, hire bikes and can point you to an organic apple orchard in the hills outside town. Sales of local crafts go to help local homeless children and the elderly. The basement is a good spot for internet access.
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Trei Sarmale
Revel in your touristness! This traditional Romanian restaurant embraces kitsch with its folkier-than-thou décor and live music, but the food is mouthwatering. Set inside a 17th-century inn about 5km south of the town centre, this could be a fun place for a small group if you get into the mood. The Bucium winery outlet shed is across the road. Call before you head out there as it is often booked by tour groups.
Take a taxi or bus 30 or 46 from Piaţa Mihai Eminescu and ask the driver for Trei Sarmale.
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Family Pizza
Family Pizza With the rest of Europe gaily butchering pizza – Italy notwithstanding, obviously – you might not expect Romania to be home to some of the best pizza in the world. Family Pizza stands out, offering 25 types of pizza and an adjoining pastry shop. The terrace is the perfect summertime hangout, while waitresses in dangerously short skirts serve up pizza heaven to a backdrop of Romanian pop music. Delivery service available.
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Casa Tărănească
Casa Tărănească This traditional restaurant stays open day and night, offering such Romanian comfort food as sarmale, ciorbă, mămăligă, knuckle of pork and, um, 'bear with wild sauce' (we dare you). Tourists and locals alike flock here for group outings or post-clubbing detox meals where the pictorial menu satisfactorily serves both non-Romanians and those too drunk to read.
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Marco Polo
Marco Polo This splendid Italian restaurant is cosily nestled in the back of the park near the Drama Theatre. On the terrace, each table is in its own foliage-encased nook. Tables are separated from each other by plants, making you feel like you're in a private garden, only one with doting waiters! The pizza, pasta, meat, fish and veggie dishes are delicious and the dessert menu irresistible. No credit cards.
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Casa Pogor
Where to sit? In the insanely cosy (if damp) basement that used to house the famed Junimea wine cellar; the elegant main dining hall furnished with antiques; or on the multi-tiered terrace overlooking a quiet square? Focus on the great atmosphere and ignore the dreadful service. While not extraordinary, the food is good and the menu (with some veggie meals) unexpectedly varied.
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Casa Lavric
Up the hill from Casa Bolta Rece is one of Iaşi's newest dining options, owned by singer-musician Laura Lavric and decorated in classic musical instruments. The menu – including a short vegetarian page – is devoid of English, but the staff's language skills more than make up for this. Reservations required on weekends.
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Casa Doina
Off the grand avenue, this casawas an ornate 1892 villa, with almost Raj-style rooms complementing its high-quality Romanian fare. The best option is to sit outside near the fountains in the inviting courtyard (too bad about the Carlsberg banners). Try the beef carpaccio with olive oil and lemon juice (around €10).
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Balthazar
On a strip of embassies (US and Austrian included - so no Schwarzenegger jokes), Balthazar is among Bucharest's classiest restaurants, filling the ground floor and front courtyard of a superbly maintained old villa. Snazzy locals and business lunchers come for Thai/French fusion, lots of seafood and filet mignon.
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Tokyo
If you've been in Romania for a while, you'll want to come to this non-Romanian, non-Italian eatery. It's hard to miss, with its red Shinto gate façade west of the Botanical Gardens. Japanese pop on the stereo is a refreshing touch, as is the pretty good sushi, warm hand towels and imported green tea.
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Galeriile Comerciale Voicules
Fast-food outlets serving kebabs, burgers and hot dogs are dotted all over town. There are some inside the modern Galeriile Comerciale Voicules , and 24-hour joints can be found in the colourfully seedy section of B-dul Tomis south of Str Traian. Pizza Hut delivers.
reviewed
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La Casa Veche
This lovely three-room place serves Romanian fare and it feels like stepping back a stack of centuries. It has silver platters and rustic wooden floors inside, and outside seats on brick courtyard face the nice backyard. It's best for steaks, but - this is Romania - there are a few pasta choices.
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Restaurant Select
Treat yourself to a top-notch meal here; the cuisine is excellent and prices very reasonable. From its varied menu, choose from fish, frog legs, pizza and the local speciality, tochitură Dobrogeana . The dining room is archly formal, but the best seating area is on the terrace.
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Caraffa
The menu offers Italian and Mexican, but you should aim for the Romanian dishes and the salads, which are startlingly fresh. Try the Tochitura Moldovenesca - roughly 'Moldovan Heart Attack' - with pork, traditional cheese, polenta, eggs, bacon and sausage. Time of death…
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Irish House
Guinness is on tap, ceilings are green, and the menu squeezes in a few token Irish dishes, but everything else in the two-room rustic spot is pretty much Romanian or Italian. Everyone looks little, as the tables are too high for the chairs. Irish House also has a guestroom upstairs.
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Mediterraneo
This great little corner restaurant on the cobbled back lanes draws expats and locals for Turkified Mediterranean fare. Sunday brunch (around €10) is a big deal - with sausage, eggs, olives, French toast and fresh OJ. Fresh fish fillets join a posse of kebabs and pastas.
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