Atra Doftana — Hotel in Valea Doftanei

Atra Doftana came as recommendation from multiple friends for its gastronomical experience. That was the main reason why we chose this place. First of all the place has a refreshing architecture that is different from classical Romanian architecture. The reception and staff are generally nice and helpful. The food is for most part tasty and the wine selection is vast. The manager is helpful and client oriented. He did manage to iron out a lot of problems but it seemed like something was not working in the team. Unfortunate the experience was not all good mainly do to bad interactions with the staff, miscommunication inside their team and kitchen and overall subpar experience. Mind you this is a 5 star (margarete) restaurant and hotel. There is a high bar that you as a restaurant and hotel are not allowed to fall under. As far as the facilites go the rooms were spacious, well decorated and clean however they lack air conditioning and minibar. This is indeed mentioned on the website. Unfortunately staying outside later 11AM was not really a pleasant experience due to a constant running generator that could be heard everywhere except inside the room. Reception was good but none of the possible activates were well presented (canoeing, biking, hiking). The main problems were the inexperience staff (staff arguing between themselves creating a bad atmosphere, not paying much attention to diners) and the bad meniu translation. We ordered "colțunași cu vita" (beef dumpling) and we received ricotta ravioli (not even agnolotti). When pointing this out the first waiter just said sorry and that she doesn't know the difference. Later a more experienced waiter apologized and removed the item from the bill. The problem with this situation is the meniu translation since on the romanian meniu it is "colțunași" while on the english meniu contains the correct term "ravioli". For desert the "Éclair" is not really an eclair it is actually a simple choux with a cream filling (not vanilla as it was mentioned in the meniu). And at 44RON it is unjustifiably expensive. An ecler is defined by it's oblong shape and toped with flavored icing. This had none. The pheasant breast was good but the breast was a bit on the dry side however the beef cheek was excelent. The deer stew was good but specificity mentioned that it has truffles and mushrooms. In the romanian meniu it also mentions what mushrooms (gălbiori, hribi, zbârciogi, trufe) however the only mushrooms I found were champignon. This is another clear example of bad meniu translation. I didn't get the deer stew with mushrooms for the lack of mushrooms. The cocktails have classical names yet they are reinterpretations on the classics. This is not a bad thing but you need to mention this in the meniu otherwise it will create false expectation; the excuse that "that's how we do them here" is not good enough of a reason for a 5 start restaurant. Main problems to solve are the staff. They need proper training and how to speak to a client as well as how they present themselves on the dinning room and kitchen. Any internal conflicts need to be resolved in the back, not in earshot of diners. The menu needs proper translation and romanian and english translations need to match. The hotel reception was lacking clear information about what activities they can provide (canoeing, biking, hiking). Clients should be informed of what activities and schedule they can attempt. This can be done very fast and cheap using a brochure. Overall the place is over hyped. It is definitely not a 5 star restaurant and needs to raise their quality standards before having the right to call itself...

I don't usually write reviews, especially negative ones. But this one was one of the worst experience I had with the Hospitality that was run in Romania.

For people who wants to book to MIRA: Please do yourself a favor and DO NOT book for the Bungalo/Cuib rooms they offer, pictures were extremely misleading. It basically is a changing locker room cramped up and turned into a "so called" 4 persons room. The room not only is cramped and distrubingly placed, there is also no ventilation, the lights were extremly dim and barely functional (applies in the bathroom as well), the windows had no nets so we couldn't even keep the windows open to get some air without mosquitos getting in. The pool, which was promised, was dirty and not in usable condition. We had people that were not guests, trying to come in and get access to our rooms. Someone that worked there also left their belongings inside when we moved in and had to awkwardly walk in. The dining area was 10 minute away by car which means I could not enjoy a beverage even though I came here for holiday. Overall, for 600-800 RON per Night, this just felt extremly unsafe and unprofessional. Not worth it at all.

For people who wants to book to ATRA: After the dissapointment mentioned above, we decided that we were better off spending our holiday back home regretting for ever coming here. We called and let them know that we did not feel comfortable staying there. They replied on the phone that if we wanted, we could stay at ATRA not tonight or the next but the day after that, with the same price and no extra charge (even though they cost exactly the same and they won't cover for the days missed). And so foolishly we believed and decided to give them a second try. As we arrived on the third day, they said that it seems that there was a miscommunication... and that there will be a private event happening and that it wont be possible. Bare in mind that it took us 4 hours to go there and come back. We drove there TWICE and recieved dissapointing feedback, saying that there was some kind of misscomunnication even though we CLEARLY said to them on the first day when we left that we would only consider to stay if they had extra spots in ATRA as it is too far away from the dining place and the living conditions here in MIRA was below minimal. Sure, the place might have a nice view, the food might be good but it is covered by filthy bad management skills and poor to almost non existent communication skills, I felt like I was playing telephone charades with them and that my precious holidays were on the line. Even after all the dissapointments, they spoke to us like some kind of salesmen and ignored all of our concerns and fruststration. It was so hurtful and offensive.

Overall: Just like anybody who works a normal 9-5 job. After 4 years of work with no holidays, this was our only opportunity to rest and I just wanted a nice vacation, away from trouble and problems. Somewhere I could relax with my partner and just forget about work. But they managed to ruin it with our hard earned money. There was no compenstation nor did they give us any proper verbal apology. Just a text message "sorry to hear that". Sure, you might have a nice view or good food... but you lack integrity, professionalism, and decency. I am discussted by the way you treat your customers..You showed no humility or willingness to do something about it.

So to anybody who is thinking of going here: please consider someplace else. Your money and time is worth it and you don't deserve to be treated like the...

I was planning to spent a few days together with my wife during the week(begining with Monday) in a beautifull spot so I choose Doftana Valley with Arta Doftanei "cottage".I ve made a market research before to choose the place to sit and after a few places I ve choosen this guest house as with all I ve found that the road from the village to it is a "little" hard. So I ve gone Monday morning to Doftana Valley Prahova from Bucharest.The road till I ve reached Campina was ok after that the one to Doftana Valley was under ok but the one(1,4 km) to the guest house was teriblle as my picture will demonstrate, verry shallow earth road( 2,5m) on the right side with erodated coast hlll full of unstable roks(lots of them allready fallen on the road so I had to stop the carr and clean the road) and on the left side a BIG genune(the "road" dosen t have a safey rail).On short if you don t have a strong SUV and you really want "to live" better to avoid it(the earth road actually is almost sliping into the genune is not consolidated...) OK we have arrived at Atra nobody at the desk we ve phoned at the web site telephone number and a lady told us that someone ll come in a few minutes(the lady was in Bucharest so the number from the website is not a number of someone from the "cottage").A nice guy presented the room and he told us not to touch the heating bottons.The room is pretty nice new modern furniture, good quality mattress,TV(with a bunch of unknowun channels and the nice ones were blocked).Bathroom two persons one bathgown nice!!! no slippers I didn t brought from home any because I thought that at a 5 daisies-stars hotel this items ll be provided, I searched the soap or something like shower gel and I ve found some small quantity of liquid "strange" soap nice....The bathsink was losing water from the bottom, the shower basement(the sides of it made from metal probably iron) were rusty so you can easily cut your feet into it,also the toilet paper "inox" suport was rusty so when you want to take some you can cut into it, no rubber carpet in front of the mirror so you can fall down easily after you get out the shower. That is the room let s talk about services: in the dinning room downstaires the heat sistem was not working when I ve asked why the guy replied that the heat sistem is working but he dosen t know why is not generating heat.....nice(actually me and my wife were the only guest there so I assumed that they are doing economy on our health my wife during the 24 h got seek because of the cold)This problem was in the afternoon during lunch , in the evening during dinner and morning during breakfast.......so take care is damm frezing in there. the menu is not the one from the website on the web has a lot dishes but on the place is .... the same dish you order in the afternoon dosen t have the same quality with the one order in the evening..... and so on... We ve planned to stay 2 days but after less than 24 h ve packed,paid and go with a bad taste: 5 daisies(stars) are not 5 maybe 4 or less.Conclusions: try to make a better research before choosing a trip destination that s why now I m...