Timisoara Restaurants

Don't get fooled by the italian name, most of the dishes are Romanian.

The owner worked a few years in Italy, hence the name. The owner and her daughter are serving in the restuarant.

It's small, nice, most of its customers are regulars.

I'd say it has the best cook in town, even if there are other, larger, restaurants, which look better and serve more ellaborate dishes.

The recipes are nothing out of this world, but taste great.

Every day, there are a few extra dishes, which you cannot find on the menu, which the cook does for the sheer pleasure of cooking. Don't foget to ask about them, in the unlikely event that the waiter forgets to tell you.

It may be full during weekends, especially at the end of the summer and in autumn, so it may pay to make a reservation.

They're experts on food, but not on wine. You can freely leave the waiter to choose the food for you, but don't expect too much advice on wine.

They also have traditional drinks on stock which aren't on the menu, and the waiter won't tell you about them: plum brandy (single and double distilled) and home-made sour cherry and blue berry licquor - these last two are very sweet (we call them women's drinks), and are intended for desert.

I can't recommend one special thing. I'll put up two menus:

First, the one for professional eaters:
Starter: Aubergine cream (don't miss this, you can't get it anywhere else in the world)

Soup: Pork belly soup (Germans call it Kuttelsuppe)

Main dish: Sarmale (sour cabbage leafs filled with a mixture of meat, rice and spice)

Desert: you have to ask for what's not on the menu - the usual suspects are an excelent, very aromatic apple pie, sour cherry pie, chocolate cake, all prepared in-house

Drinks:
You may have a beer before the soup.

Get a "Feteasca neagra" for the main dish. Take care to finish it before desert.

Then ask for a "vishinata" or "afinata", or a coffee, to accompany desert.

Second, a lighter menu - but you don't get most of it in winter:

Starter: a plate with
"cash" - a sort of fresh cheese, very milky and soft in its taste, also very soft in its texture - they don't have this all the time, it's available only fresh, and it doesn't get made in winter

traditional fumed bacon - it has very little fat

tomatoes - these are a must, their very good taste is what makes the whole combination exquisite.

Soup: a simple chicken soup with noodles

Main dish (well more of a fast food, if you ask me): mici (pronounced "mitch" - minced meat mixed with spice, formed into little, sausage-like dumplings, and grilled), ideally with horseradish and bread, no other side dish - IMO any side dish takes away some of its taste. If there _has_ to be a side dish, ask for french fries

Desert: same as above

Dinks:
ask for a "tsuica" (plum brandy) right after the starter, drink it up in one gulp right before you start eating the soup (you may not want to do this if the weather is too hot)

You may have a beer with the mici, but a red wine (for instance a Shiraz - it's pretty new in Romania) also goes well

For Desert: same as above

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Timisoara Restaurants

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