8 Amazing Restaurants in Bucharest | Where to Eat in Bucharest, Romania

Bucharest is a charming city with plenty to offer, but how much do you know about Romanian food? In this article, I go over the best restaurants in Bucharest sharing my absolute favorite meals.

Bucharest, the capital of Romania, is a surprisingly delicious city. A common thought on food blogs was the lack of great food in the city, apart from the notable traditional restaurants. Those who dared to return in recent years noticed a change for the better and left the country knowing they found a delicious city. 

My wife, Tiarra, and I explored Bucharest for two weeks and these were our favorite restaurants. 

Zexe

Strada Icoanei 80, București 030167, Romania

Zexe first caught my attention with the uniqueness of the menu, showcasing specialties such as turkey jelly with quail eggs, pike roe, calf brain, and veal spinal marrow.

Although the restaurant’s tables are lined with white cloths and proper silverware, it’s still a casual eatery for every occasion. 

We opted to try a variety of small meat portions, sampling the veal sweetbread (the thymus gland), pizdulice (a unique cut of pork from the inner thigh), and mititei (a grilled meatball made from a special house blend of meats and spices). All three were great options, each having their own notable characteristics. 

For the main course, we ordered the calf jaws (beef cheeks) in red wine sauce. The menu boasts a 10 hour cook time, promising fork-tender perfection, and served with a unique side of fried mashed potatoes and onion.

The beef cheeks were amazing with getting deep flavors from the braising process with fork-tender texture and a killer sauce to mix with the mashed potatoes. Although you may not opt for the strange items on the menu, there are plenty of great options such as duck confit, cabbage rolls, veal stew, sausages, and lamb fillet to fit most palates. 

Beca’s Kitchen

Strada Mihai Eminescu 80, București 020081, Romania

Nestled in a small neighborhood close to Zexe is Beca’s Kitchen, a modern bistro serving up contemporary fare, giving visitors a break from the usual Romanian cuisine. The cozy atmosphere is accompanied by helpful staff, displaying the menu on a handwritten, mini chalkboard placed at the table. 

We started off with the hummus. Chickpea hummus mixed with pine nuts and sumac hits the table with crispy, homemade bread lining the edges of the bowl. Such a great starter! The hummus was smooth with surprising pops from the pine nuts, and the bread gave each bite a crispy crunch. We gobbled through the first portion of bread but were happily given more upon request. 

For the mains, we ordered the shrimp pasta and duck breast with carrot purée and broccoli. 

The shrimp pasta was cooked with a white wine sauce, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic, lemon juice, and arugula. Plenty of acid to accompany the shrimp. 

The duck skin was excellently crispy with an earthiness coming from the carrot purée. I’ve never had carrot puree served with duck breast, but what a flavor combo!

If you need a break from the Romanian food, look no further than Beca’s kitchen. 

Bernschutz & Co.

Strada Ion Nistor 6, București 030042, Romania

I love tea, and upon walking into Bernschutz & Co., I knew this was a special place. With about a hundred black jars lining the wall, I imagine there is a tea for everyone. The employees were super informative, knowing the components of each tea blend with flavor notes and plenty of suggestions on which tea to try. My wife opted for the Butter Truffle tea, which is a no-brainer since those are two of her most favorite things. I stuck with my classic, Earl Grey, but theirs are made with a distinct Darjeeling. Both are black teas are served with milk and sugar, and we ordered a few shortbread cookies to go along. 

At Bernschutz & Co. they brew the tea for you in 400ml (13.5oz) cups, big enough that only one cup of tea was necessary for us both. 

The Butter Truffle certainly is unique with pistachios, cumin, sliced almonds, coriander, and peppercorns giving the smooth black tea a creamy buttery aroma with an umami finish. Tiarra loved it. 

The Earl Grey Darjeeling was smooth, delicious with a distinct bergamot citrus finish. I couldn’t have asked for a better black tea. 

Not a bad way to spend an afternoon in the Old Town area. I recommend bring a book, and enjoy the wonderful tea aromas all afternoon long. 

Nomad Skybar

Etaj 2, Strada Smârdan 30, București 030167, Romania

In the center of Old Town is the fantastic Nomad Skybar. Take the elevator up two floors to the rooftop where specialty cocktails await. 

We started off with a stellar amaretto sour shaken with egg white and their house-made gin and tonic made with Tanqueray gin, fresh lime, fresh cucumber, and lemon peel, finished with fresh rosemary and spring mint. 

The food here is expensive, so come before or after hitting dinner to avoid an exorbitant bill. With that said, we did opt for two snacks, the hummus and cheese plate, to hold our hunger cravings over. They were inexpensive compared to the rest of the menu at about $19 USD for both. 

Lacrimi și Sfinți

Strada Șepcari 16, București 030167, Romania

Located on the edge of Old Town, Lacrimi și Sfinți is a modern Romanian restaurant serving up classic dishes, showing a menu of sustainability, innovation, and tradition. Every component of each dish takes into account the necessity to be local and support the Romanian suppliers all while focusing on the seasonality of ingredients with a modern take on traditional recipes. 

Yup. This caught my eye.

We opted for outdoor seating, but their interior is enormous with a downstairs seating area in the brick cellar next to the bar. 

We ordered two common dishes found on most Romanian menus: grilled lamb chops and lamb pastrami with polenta. 

The grilled lamb chops speak for themselves with beautiful cuts of lamb with wonderfully rendered fat. Easy to eat right off the bone! 

Pastrami actually originated in Romania before finding its way around the world. Doesn’t get more traditional than that! This was deceptively good. Like I want to eat it again and again good. Long chunks of lamb were cooked to crispy perfection with every bite bursting with lamb flavor. This is unlike any other type of lamb I’ve eaten before. The polenta, also a super common side in Bucharest, was creamy and perfectly cooked. A match made in heaven. This is an exceptional restaurant I would recommend in Old Town. 

Caru’ cu bere

Strada Stavropoleos 5, București 030081, Romania

Few restaurants are as picturesque as Caru’ cu bere. A gem of classic Romanian food built in the Neo-Gothic style, Caru’ cu bere is a beer house that had me wonderfully distracted looking at the decorated stained glass, mosaics, and carved panelings.

We started with the Peasant’s Platter a large plate of cured meats containing smoked pork collar, smoked pork fillet, Pleșcoi sausages, hatchet pork sausages, pork fat with garlic, tomatoes, cucumber, and red onion. This is a “charcuterie” board that will make any pork lover blush. Everything was delicious with all the smokey and fatty bits of meat. With this being a brewery, we had beers to accompany the porky goodness. 

Tiarra ordered the Traditional Dish from Bucovina: pork confit and smoked sausages with polenta and braised cabbage. The pork was fork-tender and the sausage well seasoned with delicious chunks of fat sprinkled throughout. This is a decadent dish, so be prepared. 

I ordered the Lad’s Feast: oven-baked veal fillet glazed with butter and aromatic herbs, beef tongue cooked in brown sauce, served with mashed potatoes, and baked vegetables with butter and garlic. I can see this dish at a super fancy Michelin starred restaurant. The beef tongue was my favorite, perfectly tender then seared to a crispy delight. That brown sauce though! Packed with deep, beefy deliciousness, the sauce made the whole dish come together. 

For dessert, we ordered the Papanasi a Romanian-style doughnut made with sweet cheese and topped with sour cream and cherry compote. For Americans reading this, I had a similar reaction: confusion from a cheese donut. Trust me. This is it. This is the dessert I didn’t know I needed. I crave this donut all the time and it’s the one food I miss from Romania. Crispy, sweet, and sour, this is the perfect dessert. 

Costelaria

Calea Rahovei 147-153, București 050892, Romania

Meat lovers must visit Costelaria. With ribs served on almost every tourist and traditional Romanian restaurant, Costelaria claims the crown as the best in Bucharest. 

We ordered the Costelaria Plateau for two which is a generous 1000 grams of pork ribs, veal ribs, and lamb chops with fried potatoes and house sauces for right around $20 USD and a 1000ml carafe of their house red wine. 

These are not American-style, slow-smoked ribs, so come with the right expectations. They are baked and grilled with enough tenderness to rip the meat off the bone. The marinade gives a distinct and unique taste with every morsel of meat packed with flavor. 

Oh, and the wine was awesome. For less than $9USD, 1000ml of delicious wine was a perfect pair. 

Come hungry to Costelaria and eat to your heart’s content. We left happy especially with the quality and the price. 

Vatra Restaurant

Strada Ion Brezoianu 19, București 010131, Romania

Situated off a quiet street north of Old Town, Vatra is a traditional Romanian restaurant giving its food a notable reputation in Bucharest. Everything on the menu looked amazing so we ordered a few things. 

We started off with the pork and beef cabbage rolls served with polenta, which also came with a side of more cooked cabbage with crispy pieces of pork. The tender cabbage rolls had a great accent of spices that made the cabbage shine, even over the filling. I would order these again when we go back to Bucharest. 

Next, we ordered the white bean ragout with homemade sausages and the fried chicken with garlic sauce and french fries. 

The white bean ragout is my kind of dish. The white beans were perfectly tender and they were cooking in a mystery pork sauce that gave me delicious food dreams for weeks afterward. The sausage was the best I’ve had in a long time, with the right amount of fat to meat to spice ratio. What’s not to love here?

The fried chicken was fresh out of the oil and piping hot. Although not American southern style, Vatra put out a great fried chicken with super crispy skin and juicy meat. The garlic sauce was peculiar with a watery consistency. We think they literally juiced the garlic and the sauce was the resulting liquid. This was too strong for my taste, but Tiarra, being the garlic fiend she is, sucked it down like I was trying to steal it. 

We finished with Papanasi, the Romanian fried donuts, and they were the best we tried in the city. If I had a restaurant, I would buy their recipe and put it on the menu immediately. It was that good. 

Vatra is a traditional restaurant I would recommend every visitor to Bucharest check out for themselves. 

Bucharest is a great city with a reputation for parties and mediocre food. From our experience, the food scene is developing but with plenty of delicious restaurants to keep us coming back in the future. I am excited to see how much changes in the next few years as more chefs begin to create and expand their culinary horizons.