Traditional food, Bucharest

Doamnei Terrace and Restaurant is a challenge more than a restaurant. On the terrace open in summer (the entrance through the passage), there are ducks by the entrance, then gooses nearby, hens and chicken running among the tables and on the roof and even a baby deer around the stage. Apart from that, they have nice live music (the “Traditional Romanian Restaurant Music” style), which is well worth, and satisfactory to average dishes (from EUR 12-15 and up for a menu).

Favorite Dish: The atmosphere is interesting, this place looks like an oasis in the heart of the city. Food is acceptable but nothing more; portions could be larger. The service leaves a lot (actually 10 times "a lot") to be desired and it cannot be compared to what there used to be. Oh, tempora...

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My friend and I ate lunch at Restaurant Ana Rustic on the first day of our stay in Bucharest in March 2008.

This traditional Romanian restaurant is located on Strada Bijuteria (Pasaj Macca), a café-lined alleyway behind Strada Lipscani and just off Calea Victoriei.

Pass through the large wooden door (with its wooden sign above the door and a menu board, completely in Romanian, standing outside), follow the signs through the passageway and you will arrive at a door that leads to the underground dining area.

True to its name, the dining room has a rustic feel to it with wooden floorboards, large chunky wooden tables and chairs and traditional rugs and pottery items decorating the walls. Romanian folk music plays in the background.

The menu is in Romanian only and while we were able to translate some of the dishes (those that had names similar to the English or French names), we were determined to try some genuine Romanian cuisine so we asked the friendly waiter to recommend a dish for us. His English was excellent, so he was able to describe in detail the Romanian pork stew dish that he recommended we try. This dish consisted of pieces of pork, liver and sliced sausage in a red wine sauce, with polenta (known in Romanian as Mămăligă), melted white cheese and a fried egg. It was tasty and filling, but the quality of the meat wasn’t particularly good.

We each had the pork stew, along with a side dish of pickled vegetables (a bowl of gherkins, pickles, pickled cauliflower and carrots). We had 2 bottles of Timisoreana beer (a Transylvanian brewed beer) each and an espresso coffee each.

I had pancakes with chocolate sauce (2 pancakes filled with Nutella chocolate spread and topped with chocolate sauce) and my friend had an apple and sultana pie for dessert.

The total cost of both our meals was 72 Lei / 15 GBP, so it was very good value for money.

Good value Romanian food in a rustic restaurant near Lipscani.

My VT friends from Romania reccommended this place. The food was good and the atmosphere was cozy. The tables and wall decorations are old style Romanian. Even the waitors wear traditional clothes.

This was a good place to have a VT meeting. Even as I was almost 2 hours late, the staff let us stay past closing.

Favorite Dish: I had some garlic and oil baked chicken as recommended by codrutz .

It was a big bowl of chicken and tasted great.

The sarmale here is good too. I didn't try it here, because before I left Prunisor, I ate alot of that there. Sarmale is one of my favorite Romanian foods.

Here you can find real traditional and typical Romanian food, even if I had only one salad there!

My friend Radu instead took a traditional dish consisting of Fried chicken, chicken soup and aubergette...

The portions are very big here, you can sit outside and the food is good!

This place is just great! Food is typical Romanian. Service is very good, meals come quite fast, they somehow taste excellent no matter what you order and the ambience is something else!

Favorite Dish: You simply must try their dessert pear boiled in red wine and served with vanilla icecream. It was just perfect! So delicious!

Terasa doamnei is set up like an oversized, traditional country Inn, complete with all kinds of fowl. The food is excellent and some of Romania's best traditional dance and music troupes perform here regularly.

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Restaurant Blanduziei is one of the nicest places in Bucharest to eat Romanian food. In summer you can eat outdoors on its attractive terrace. The menu includes all of the traditional dishes including Tochitura cu Mamaliga. Also, of course, they serve Romanian wine and beer.

Favorite Dish: The best dish to try, if you want to sample a cross-section of Romanian delicacies, unless you are a vegetarian, is the Gustare Calda, which is a mixed platter including Creier Pane (fried brain in egg) and Filatei de Pasare (fowl liver).

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The inn was built in 1808, and originally owned by a wealthy and flamboyant Armenian, Emanuel Marzaian, better known under his Turkish name Manuc-bei. The inn was the site of the preliminary talks for the Treaty of Bucharest, which put an end to the 1806–1812 Russo-Turkish war. In 1842 it briefly housed Bucharest's town hall. Around 1880 a hall at the inn as used as a theatre, and was the site of the first Romanian operetta performance.

The inn has a very nice restaurant and a nice bar and coffee shop. The food served here is very tasty. The prices are a little bit higher than in other restaurants, so if you are on a budget, stop here and get a drink or a coffee instead of a full meal.