Traditional Romanian Dinner at Traditional Romanian Restaurant (for Tourists)

Inside the Caru' cu Bere Romanian restaurant in the Old Town

Third (and final) night in Bucharest and I've yet to eat supper in a restaurant serving Romanian cuisine. Greek and then Turkish the last two nights. Both of which were gyros sandwiches with french fries stuffed into the pita along with the meat and onions and tzaziki sauce. Sort of an Ottoman Primanti's.

I did not want crepes from a food cart:

The sun had come out and Old Town was lively in the early evening.

But before I supper-blog, let's have one last look at one of the grand old buildings on Calea Victoriei from my walk back to the hotel:

Keep your bloody urban renewal-ing hands off this beautiful ornate hotel building, Ceaușescu.

Back to the street life of the Old Town. And then on to the restaurant, the Caru' cu Bere.

The building exterior was, and you will find this shocking, undergoing renovation. The interior, however, was its unrenovated, un-urban-renewal-ed beautiful grand glorious self:

I was seated in the balcony:

Plenty of room.

With a view of the bar:

Kind of constant blur of activity there.

And every 15 minutes or so a "traditional" dance would erupt in the downstairs.

You know you're in a tourist restaurant when there is "traditional" dancing and "traditional" music in "traditional" costumes while you eat your "traditional" local cuisine. But you don't judge a tourist restaurant by its "traditional" dance or even by its beautiful space.

You judge it by the food. How was it? The waiter recommended the meatball soup over the sour tripe soup (thank you thank you thank you, or as we say here in Romania, mutlumesc!). It was an OK vegetable soup with a few meatballs in it. Good. Not great.

The sausages were awesome. Kasekrainer sausages filled with melted cheese. So they're German and not Romanian. They were awesome. I opted for a relatively lighter dinner in anticipation of the dessert course. But, first, a dance break:

Now I'm ready for dessert:

But first a pre-dessert. A Romanian palinka. This is the traditional plum flavor. You actually could taste the fruit. Despite the blindingly high alcohol content. And here was dessert:

Papanasi. It's a Romanian donut. Two Romanian donuts, actually, for reasons I don't understand. Once is heavy enough. Topped with sweetened cheese, a syrup, and jam. I chose the more traditional sour cherry over the blueberry option. It was delicious. But not finishable. I finished one donut and about three quarters of the second.

I was stuffed. And tired.

Time to end my Saturday in Party Central, Old Town Bucharest.