Isoletta — Restaurant in Bucharest

The restaurant is situated in the "expensive" part of Bucharest. Most people that come to live and eat in this area are super rich, but wealth doesn't necessarily equal good taste or sophistication.

The location is not bad, situated on the shore of lake Herăstrău, it gives a nice view with a refreshing breeze. It's better than other places, but it's not amazing. Apart from that, the parking is filled with cars usually costing around 80k - 100k euros. Giving you a hint as to who usually eats here.

The décor is nothing special. The entrance gives a good impression, with lots of plants and a small artificial creek, but beyond that it's more or less a normal restaurant.

The service personnel is well trained, but their attitude was pretty unprofessional. The way they looked and talked to us seemed as if they were annoyed by us at times. I guess we didn't look like the kind of customers who would leave a big tip. However, professionals should never differentiate with they attitude between customers.

The food definitely had good produce at its source. It's clear they use expensive ingredients. However, its cooking definitely didn't live up to the price tag. Other restaurants in the area are much more imaginative with their food.

Overall, it's not a bad place. They do have higher standards of food, location and service than the average Bucharest restaurant, but definitely not at the level of their price tag. You could get the same type of restaurant quality or higher for noticeably less in other places. Or, for the same price, you could get much better service and food in others places located not far...

We hosted a friend of ours for dinner here and the food was okay. Charcuterie platter to start with and we had a main each along with a few side dishes.

The atmosphere was good but the service was a bit let down to be honest; we were served with our main dishes whilst we were still enjoying the platter and my partner's main plate was cleared while our guest and myself were still having our main dishes.

My red wine glass had a chipped on the rim and I had kindly asked the waiter to change it. The duck main dish was a bit overcooked for my liking and I only had 2 slices of it.

Overall, I finished everything from the side dishes as I was craving for vegetables and salad. You can't simply mess up too much with a simple broccoli and spinach salad I guess.

I'm not a fussy eater and we've been to most of the fine dining restaurants worldwide, but I don't think I'm rushing to be back in this restaurant...

Disclaimer: we did not eat and so I cannot comment on the quality of the food. We're tourists and entered the restaurant just because it was in our way and because we felt in the mood for Italian food. An employee told us that we can sit at a table, but it must be somewhere at the very edge in full sun (the joint was 25% full) because our son (14 years old) was wearing flip-flops. He has a blister the size of a kidney bean on his left foot and he literally cannot wear regular shoes. I guess the so-called business men cannot stand the sight of flip flops. Absolutely disgusting behavior from a place not worth 2 pennies and were they appear to be very confused about what customer service means. They believe high-class (from which they're MILES away) is equivalent to arrogance and rudeness. Everything was in very bad taste. Do yourselves a favor and literally go...