46
restaUrants
restaUrants
place serves possibly the best lunchtime deal in Bucharest: a set menu for just 19 lei. Even in the evening the standard off the menu prices are far from high for what is some very good food indeed. A welcome bargain.
Q
Open 09:00 - 04:00, Mon, Tue, Wed 09:00 - 01:00. €. PLESWModigliani Pasta/ Carne
C-5, Str. Batistei 9 (Hotel InterContinental), MUniversitate, tel. (+4) 0730 64 48 06. The InterContinental’s showpiece restaurant is gem.Boasting top chef Alfonso Salvaggio in the kitchen, the Italian stakes continue to get ratcheted up another notch, and it is all to the benefit of us diners. All the pasta here is made fresh, the steaks are of the finest Argentine beef or Romanian pork, and the wine is a selection of the best the world has to offer. Prices are high-ish, but reflect quality, and by no means reach the levels of a few other places we could mention.
Q
Open 18:00 - 24:00. Closed Sun. €€€. PLWRistorante Il Calcio
A-3, Str. Clucerului 7, tel. (+4) 0729 57 48 02, www.trattoriailcalcio.ro. As opposed to TrattoriaIl Calcio? Yes. For this is a ristorante, a notch up from trattoria.
Expect a more refined menu and surroundings, but the same warm, friendly service and great value (if pricier) food you’ve come to expect from the Il Calcio boys. This first Il Calcio restaurant is in a lovely house on Strada Clucerului, quickly becoming something of a magnet for great places to eat.
Q
Open 12:00 - 24:00, Fri, Sat 12:00 - 01:00. €€€. PLEBSWRoberto’s
C-5, Str. Episcopiei 1-3 (Athenee Palace Hil- ton), tel. (+4) 021 303 37 77, fax (+4) 021 315 21 21.It’s back. After a complete refit Roberto’s is bigger and better than ever. It now boasts an open kitchen, three distinct dining areas and a private dining room. The food is simple, classical, with the menu boasting the best dishes from a number of
Italian regions. The Gualtiero Machesi risotto with gold leaf
is amazing, and the baccala’ with mash sensational. It’s not cheap, but prices reflect the high quality. In a nutshell, it’s worth every penny: this is one of the top five restaurants in the land.
Q
Open 06:00 - 11:00, 12:00 - 15:00, 18:30 - 24:00. Sunday Brunch from 12:00, 185 lei/pers, 92 lei/children between six and 18, free for children under six. €€€€. PTGSWTrattoria Don Vito Ristorante
C-4, Str. Mendeleev 1, tel. (+4) 0735 33 30 21, www.trattoriadonvito.ro. Theyget a lot right here, not least the bean soup that is a meal in itself. Excellent salads, and the seafood-packed signature
Don Vito pasta was memorable. There is pizza too, the
sweets are delicious and the place itself is decked out well without ever overdoing it. Well worth a look.
Q
Open 12:00 - 24:00, Fri, Sat 12:00 - 01:00. €€€. PLSWTrattoria Il Calcio
C-5, Str. Benjamin Franklin 1-3, tel. (+4) 0732 52 81 40, www.trattoriailcalcio.ro. What wehave here is the best use of perhaps the best location in the city. As with the original Il Calcio, service can be a bit hit and
miss but the good - if not outstanding - Italian food at fantastic prices makes this a good default choice for dinner. Stick to the pizzas, salads, have a little patience and you will love the place.
Q
Open 12:00 - 24:00, Fri, Sat 12:00 - 01:00. Also at (C-4) Str. Mendeleev 14, (+4) 0722 13 42 99;(I-4) Str. Delea Veche 36, tel. (+4) 0726 01 03 83; (C-3) Calea Floreasca 118-120, tel (+4) 0728 63 99 06. €€. PEGBSWTrattoria Roma
D-4, Str. Mihai Eminescu 114-116, tel. (+4) 021 210 81 57/(+4) 0722 32 37 34, www.trattoria- roma.ro. Brilliant, truly brilliant, and we rarely give praise thathigh. It might nominally be an Italian but what people come to this place for is the seafood. The huge plates of steaming mussels
restaUrants
restaUrants
47
December 2011 - January 2012
bucharest.inyourpocket.com
Few visitors to Bucharest will leave without seeing the
enormous horseback statue of Carol I - the first king
of modern Romania - which appeared in front of the University Library in (B/C-5) Piata Revolutiei at the end of 2010. Looking directly at the former Royal Palace (now the National Art Museum, see left), the statue is one
of the largest in the city and unquestionably the most prominently positioned. But who was this Carol chap?
Born Karl Eitel Friedrich Zephyrinus Ludwig of
Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen in Sigmaringen in southern
Germany in 1839, Karl was an officer in the Prussian army until being invited by Romanian politician Ion Brătianu in 1866 to become the nascent country’s king. Romania’s own royal, the authoritarian Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, had been exiled after falling out with the country’s politi- cians and most powerful families earlier in 1866. Scour- ing Europe for a suitable (non-Romanian) replacement, Brătianu sought the advice of Napoleon III, a relative by marriage of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen family. It was - allegedly - on Napoleon III’s recommendation that the young Karl was approached. Though reluctant, Karl was encouraged by his family to accept the offer, and Bratianu returned to Romania to make preparations.
Karl’s trip to Romania the next month was as bizarre as his somewhat random selection as the country’s king. Due to ongoing conflict between Prussia and the Austrian Empire, Karl travelled incognito by railroad from Düs- seldorf to Budapest, under the name of Karl Hettingen. From Budapest he travelled by carriage, as there was no railroad to Romania. As he walked across the border onto Romanian soil, he was met by Brătianu, who bowed before him and asked Karl to join him in a carriage.
On 10 May 1866, Karl entered Bucharest. The news of his arrival had been transmitted through telegraph and he was welcomed by a huge crowd eager to see the new ruler. In Băneasa he was given the key to the city. That day, rain fell, ending a long period of drought – a favour- able sign. As he was crowned, Karl swore ‘to guard the laws of Romania, to maintain its rights and the integrity of its territory.’ Not yet able to speak Romanian, he took the oath in French, but adopted the Romanian version of his name, Carol.
In his 48 years on the throne, Carol can be considered to have done rather well. He greatly assisted the cause of Romanian independence from the Ottoman Empire - which came in 1878 - raised the country’s prestige (not least at the 1906 Grand Exhibition, held in the Bucharest park which now carries his name), and - in the main - allowed politicians to run the economy without interference. He never forgot he was German, however, and his pet project, the Peles Castle, Sinaia, was quite deliberately built in German style, as a reminder of the king’s origin. Carol’s German roots also caused much tension at the outbreak of World War I: his subjects were by and large sympathetic to the French. As a result, Romania kept out of the war until Carol died, in 1916.