My dad is a self-proclaimed foodie, and I have to say he really does enjoy good food and wine, and importantly is able to distinguish good quality from the mediocre. Of course, I had to take him to good restaurants, but also wanted to show him a few typical Romanian and touristy ones. I was very glad that he had done his own research also, because he contributed a couple of first class fish restaurants in an area that still has much culinary delight left to discover in the future.
I had been to Lugo before, an Italian restaurant in the Piața Romană area, and I knew they had excellent food. The difficulty was that my dad has celiac disease and has to eat gluten-free. While there is some awareness in Bucharest that gluten is an allergen, it is not as commonplace in restaurants as, for example, in Vancouver. The staff from Lugo were very apprehensive to serve him anything after reading his note from the celiac association, which outlined the disease and potential consequences if he eats gluten-containing food (i.e. the need to call the ambulance) in the Romanian language. We still received very good quality food; however, he was served the simple basics with no sauces or spices at all. He still enjoyed it and confirmed that it was cooked to perfection. At the end of the evening, the waiter started chatting with us and told us that the restaurant is changing to Romanian cuisine with traditional dances etc. as he was pointing to a newly painted mural at the entrance with Bran castle. I hope they’ll maintain their excellent quality of food when focusing more on tourists.
The next two days, I brought him to touristy Romanian restaurants for the experience, first Hanul cu Manuc for the lovely courtyard, and next Caru’ cu Bere with Romanian dance presentations. Both were interesting experiences, but food-wise, while decent, maybe not quite in my dad’s usual league.
I also found a little restaurant that served breakfast close to his hotel, Beautyfood. The food was good, any gluten-containing food components could be left out. The service was a little rough; I had the feeling that the waiter didn’t really want to serve us. At the end, we’d been to his place three times, and he started to slightly warm to us. Funny enough, we ordered the same breakfast every time, and each time we received something slightly different. Everything was very good, no complaints.
Dad contributed Bistromar, which is in the Calea Floreasca area, where you can find many good restaurants. Bistromar is actually a fish monger in a nice little market hall, and they have tables inside and outside for their restaurant service. We were able to choose the fish we wanted to eat at the display on ice, and it was cooked the way of our choosing for us. The food was excellent, and when we were almost done, we watched the neighbour table receive a large order of food, each of the men having a giant fish, risotto and salad, each side on its own heaped plate. My dad was excited, and we returned to this place two more times. The young man who served us and cooked our meals remembered what the two gentlemen at the other table had when my dad asked him—a sea bream with butterfly cut. So, we had the same and shared a large fish. It was excellent.
The pinnacle of fish restaurants was the Fish-House, just a few steps from Bistromar. White tablecloths, fine service, excellent fish. For the first time, I had fish in salt-crust. The fish is packed and cooked in a thick layer of salt and comes to the table with the crust still intact. We watch the skillful waiter knock the salt crust open and take off the top in one piece, then filet the fish and serve it on our plates… we were so impressed, and neither of us had even one fish bone on our plates. My dad said, this was the best fish prepared in this way he’s ever had—that’s extremely high praise.
Overall, I’m glad he had a good time and enjoyed the food (and wine) here, and in the process, I had some fantastic fish cuisine that I would never have experienced without him.
Fish!! Glad your dad came to meet you and you both had a good time!
C
Yeah, that’s the truth!! The time in Bucharest was a great experience. Mostly ppl here don’t speak friendly about Romania and Romanians. To be honest I was a little doubtfully. But the wish to meet Dee told me don’t care about. I was really really surprised about country and people. I revised my opinion totally. This says all: I booked again Bucharest in October this year. And the food and wine? Simply excellent.
Looking forward to October in the same hotel Rosetti. A.
❤️
A food post! Excellent! Interesting the salted fish and how the waiter was serving it. Weird to hear English music in the background while he did that! Glad that your father found the best fish of his life. So how does the fish ceviche compare in Romania to that of Mexico? I love this post all about food… Food really does enrich the experiences and say a lot about the culture and area. 🙂
The shrimp ceviche here was outstanding; my mouth is watering right now just thinking about it. In Mexico, the food was merely edible… No contest 🙂