Bucharest Trip – Day 3 : Excalibur

I have a lot of good ideas. This visit to a medieval restaurant in Bucharest was another one of those great decisions. There was some initial scepticism from the others, but the whole thing looked like an adventure to me and I like those.

Nothing wrong with a themed restaurant!

The restaurant doesn’t use forks, it’s knives and fingers only, with a finger bowl provided to clean hands. It’s obviously what they did in the medieval times and although I was aware of this rule in advance, I didn’t tell the others that they wouldn’t be allowed the usual cutlery. I didn’t want the chance to go here sabotaged by that sort of news.

The beer was the Bucur which was drinkable, although I wouldn’t actively go looking for another bottle of it. Bev, not unfairly, wondered why there wasn’t mead, although I was happy with the beer.

Steve takes great care posting photos which he’s thought about the composition and lighting, but then finds out he gets over 50 likes on Facebook for this rather fetching photograph of me that he took.

Steve had asked earlier on if I’d get a whole chicken as the menu didn’t detail that, but I said that was hardly likely given the meal was only about £11. To my surprise and delight, they come out with a whole chicken. There was a note on the menu that I could keep the wooden sword, but I willingly handed that over to Thim as I didn’t fancy taking that through airport security.

I ploughed through nearly all of the chicken, most of the potatoes and all of the cabbage and salad. The chicken was tender and moist, the potatoes were a bit nondescript and the heap of cabbage added texture. The quality here was high, but I would have rather that the potatoes were a bit more flavoursome and seasoned. The others also had too much food and everyone was very brave. Bev muttered something about she had too many sausages, but I didn’t see that was something to be negative about.

The service was generally very good, although it took a little time to pay the bill and they struggled to split the bill. They weren’t the only restaurant struggling with that, it shouldn’t really be as hard as some venues make it. However, I always felt comfortable in the venue and the team member who served us seemed competent and keen to help. Given that we went on a Monday evening and thought it might be nearly empty, we found the large venue to actually be nearly full. I can imagine that reservations are essential at weekends, as this appears to be a venue that’s popular with groups.

Personally, I would have come back here for every meal, but that idea was swiftly rejected. But, highly recommended, and somewhere that I think my friends Liam and Ross would have enjoyed. I mean, the surprise of a whole chicken isn’t something that you get every day of the week….. Definitely one of my highlights of the week.