Trattoria Colosseum

Hmm. Our first night in Bucharest, we ended up eating Italian food. "Italian" food. Italian "food".

We didn't mean to. We honestly wanted a good, traditional Romanian meal. Figuring it would be the best way to get a recommendation, we asked the hostel staff where we should eat nearby. "Ooh, a great little Italian place just opened down the street!" they gushed. They watched my face fall, and grinned, remembering where I was coming from. However, they assured me that while it was the only place within a couple of kilometers, it did have a few Romanian dishes on the menu. Given how tired we were, we decided to risk it.

The restaurant was, as promised, very close by-- about 100 meters! There was no one there except for a few people out on the terrace having drinks, so at first we thought we were too early for food. By the end of the meal, we realized the real reason it was empty.

A portly waiter brought us a pair of menus, then stepped outside to smoke a cigarette. It soon became clear that the cigarette was a sort of timer for him: we had exactly until he finished to decide what to eat. Once the first cigarette was exhausted, Florence and I were still giggling over the menu (which did NOT have any easily identifiable Romanian dishes), so he came over, walked us through it ("Here are the pizzas," he says, pointing at the section labeled "Pizza"), and went back for a second. By the time he was done with this one and we still hadn't decided, he called for backup, who told us we should just get the "deli" option-- which included a starter, soup, main course, and dessert, all for 18 lei!-- and have done with it. Since they said there would be cabbage in the main course, something we hoped would be more Romanian than Italian, we ordered it and had done with it. Out came the courses, each interval carefully measured by the cigarette.

The appetizer was a lovely little crostata with olive spread. Yum! This was actually served in conjunction with the soup, which was... chicken noodle. With little bits of fennel chopped into it to make it seem fresh. Yum.

Florence was a fan of their mashed potatoes, and I of their cabbage (which was served like coleslaw, but without mayonnaise), and neither of the chicken. Dessert was a couple of crepes with chocolate syrup poured over them.

As for tomorrow, we will definitely be finding a true Romanian restaurant.