Lacrimi și Sfinți — Restaurant in Bucharest

Awful service and disappointing food: This is the first bad meal (and bad service) I've had in Romania.

I ordered the lamb and romemary potatoes with a side of red cabbage. The potatoes were pre-cooked (I assume large bath in the oven which is fair enough) and then reheated (not fried, there was no char) in way too much vegetable oil. They were underseasoned (I think they used rosemary salt, instead of rosemary + salt, and only added a sprinkle at the end because most were unsalted and had no rosemary flavour). The lamb wasn't well trimmed, was cooked on too low a heat (also no char and swimming in vegetable oil) and wasn't rested. They served it without a steak knife which made it almost impossible to eat because the meat was in such a sorry state. They forgot the cabbage, when I asked if it was still coming the waitress looked confused (so I explained I'd ordered it with the waiter along with everything else) and she stomped off and avoided me until the kitchen had prepared it (someone clearly had forgotten). I was almost done with my main when it arrived but the cabbage was very nice (however it was a cold side and not made to order so perhaps a different chef was responsible for it).

I actually wanted to order a starter if I was still hungry (I was) and a dessert but no one came near me to ask how the food was and somehow they managed to avoid eye contact when clearing my plates and said nothing to me (although by that point I'd decided to cut my losses and ask for the bill). Very very odd. I was then left alone for 30minutes (glad I had a book) even though I wanted the bill. It was very strange.

General other comment (didn't affect the review): I wish they'd had black pepper in the mill instead of white. I never understand why a restaurant would use a more expensive and more divisive product. White paper has a place but (imo) that isn't in a mill as the only choice (it just isn't as a replacement for black pepper and when you're sending out underseasoned dishes you need to have something available to add flavour).

Note: there's a photo of the same dish I ordered in another review. Mine didn't look like this. (In the photo the lamb and potatoes look appropriatly cooked.) I should have taken a photo but it was such a miserable meal it didn't...

This place supposed to be emblematic for romanian traditional food. We chose it for a group dinner, taking into consideration that we had some international guests. What a nightmare… the waitress was absolutely a disaster: she took wrong orders, she was slow as a snail, she knew nothing about the wine! However the wine list is so short that you make up your choice quite easily. Finally we chose the only Romanian bottled wine available. I’ve just asked if I can taste it - a normal demand in ALL correct restaurants all over the world, especially for a 30€ bottle.. She said that if she opens the bottle, we need to pay for it… What a “good image” about this restaurant. Luckily it was a quite good wine. Even if we needed to wait 30 min to provide us the wine glasses, finally we drank a couple of bottles as we needed to “replace the food”… speaking about the food… the order was taken after 1,5h of waiting… the main dish was served after 3h!!! The food was below average. My tartar was just awful! I love tartar, I eat it often, but I think it was one of the worst in my life — see the photo. Still thinking if the “red liquid” in my plate was the blood or the dressing. Even if it is raw meat, the tartar should not be floating in the blood..I want to live with the impression that it was just a bit “too much” dressing… I admit that the head of waiters tryed to take over the service as I flagged up the poor service. Unfortunately it was too late… our guests remained disappointed. What a loss…’cause the Romanian food should be a wonderful experience… and definitely it was not the case!...

Food was undoubtedly good as like as the place which is warm and nice. You have a view on the kitchen and all. But the service seems a bit unprofessional, and not from the youngest of them, but from the older ones, especially considering that the restaurant wasn't at all full. First you bring the beverages and AFTER you bring the food, then you should explain a bit what you are serving: if you have a plate with 4 cheeses at least tell the customer what is what, if you bring a dish which is composed of 3 bowls then explain how the dish should be eaten. And also leave always a menu on the table, not that the customer has to ask for it all the time he wants to order something else. Finally be more present, I have been left alone for 15/20 minutes, with closed menù on the table (clearly I had finished to read it), before I asked if I could make my 1st order (as none asked me in that time what I wanted to have for dinner). Finally the prices are quite high, the tip is calculated within the bill by them and, if I have seen right, it's like 50lei... Which is quite a lot and more than 20% of the bill itself. Prices too aren't great in respect to similar places... Quite on the high side (I spent like a restaurant...