Old Friends - Bistriţa

We went in Bistrita, Friday, 23th of October, this year. We looked for this restaurant because we wanted to eat here, but Friday evening the restaurant was empty, so we hadn't the "courage" to enter. We sought that the prices are very high, or the meat not so good.....Maybe I'm wrong :-??

During our trip in Romania, we stopped in Bistrita and were looking for diner. Although the restaurant was full, all has been done in order that we can stay and we have been installed in the garden with furnitures. We took a very good caesar salad as well as a typical desert tapanasi. We also took a good red wine and the manager of the restaurant offered us a very good white wine which was as good as french wines. We had a great personalized service and the waitresses were very nice. We keep a memorable souvenir of this dinner and our visit to Marcel the painter. The four Frenchs.

A very nice and cousy place.Excellent kitchen - the food you will select will be prepared exactly as you want it. Very professional and friendly service.Excellent selection of wine and an owner who really knows what he is talking about when talking about wine.i really recomend this place.

Finally somebody who cares about guests, has good taste, is very polit, you will feel at home and you will discover a lot of unknown Romanian wines for reasonable prizes.

Being a wine lover I was looking forward to try this restaurant after reading about it on Internet. We arrived on a Saturday evening and the place was empty and stayed this way through the evening except for one other table. That is never a good sign.I ordered Angus beef with wild mushrooms. The meat was hard and not tasty. The mushrooms were good, but for the price range of the restaurant it's not acceptable to serve the meat in that condition. Now on to the wine. First I had a glass of Chilean Carmenere. Camenere is not my favorite variety but event taking that into account the taste was quite flat and the alcohol was not well integrated. Next I wanted to have some Cabernet Sauvignon so i asked the waitress which ones are available by glass. She did not know, let alone being able to give some recommendation. Turns out they had just one Cabernet Savignon from a local vinery which was average. I finished with a glass of Davino Iacob which was the only good wine of the evening. I do realize that wine by glass can be not as good as wine from a bottle which was just opened/decanted, however the place prides itself with the fact that it offers you the choice of tasting many different wines by glass. Oh and at the end I asked another waitress if the had a sweet wine by glass for dessert. She did no know that either. In a wine bistro the waiter does not know if the have any sweet wine...