Le Bab Downtown — Restaurant in Bucharest

Le Bap has all the ingredients to be a top-tier restaurant, but sadly, the service and attention to detail let the experience fall flat.

Let’s start with the positives: the food and wine, especially the starters, were genuinely impressive. We tried a selection of appetisers including the houmous, potato skins, and padron peppers. Each dish was beautifully flavoured and well-prepared, setting high expectations for the rest of the meal. The wine, particularly the rosé (offered 2-for-1 during happy hour), was a standout. A bold and unexpected blend of Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot, this rosé had an intense, almost caramelised finish that was both surprising and memorable.

But that’s where the praise ends.

Unfortunately, the service was frustratingly slow and inattentive. Waiting over 10 minutes with an empty glass and having to chase staff around the restaurant to get a refill isn’t acceptable. The team seemed disengaged, and when we gave constructive feedback, it wasn’t handled well.

The biggest letdown was the mains. The lamb chops arrived stone cold, served on a room-temperature aubergine purée. It seemed obvious they’d been sitting on the pass waiting for the accompanying chicken dish to be ready. When we flagged the temperature issue, the initial response was promising, they said they’d replace the dish. But instead of resolving the issue, a manager came out to dismiss our concern, insisting the lamb was meant to be cold due to the purée. I tasted it myself, it wasn’t cold by design, it was just plain cold.

Even the chicken, was only lukewarm. A real shame, as the flavours were there, but everything from temperature to timing and basic customer care felt off.

Le Bap could be a 5-star experience. The food has promise, the wine list is intriguing, and the setting is lovely. But until the service and kitchen execution match the quality of the ingredients, it remains stuck at a...

We are brunch lovers and when we saw this location we had high expectations. Unfortunately, even though the place is cool, very hipster-like and the service was good, the food was disappointing. We ordered Eggs Royale with a side of Cheesy Tater Tots, the Spicy Pork Kimchi Burger, Orange Juice, as for dessert we had the Banana and Cinnamon French Toast and Sticky Toffee Pudding. The menu states that the Eggs Royale have Hollandaise sauce but there was no such thing, just a watered-down sauce made with yogurt, the food was too sour, the poached eggs were a bit undercooked and there was a variety of greens as garnish that made the dish very confusing in terms of flavour, not to mention the broccoli addition that, in our opinion, was not a good pairing. Regarding the burger, it had a foul smell, the meat was also a bit undercooked with a runny egg white. The Tater Tots had a hint of fish, although, in my opinion I like these ones the best, paired with the garlic-mayonnaise sauce. Now, for dessert, the French Toast also smelled a bit strange and the taste was very weird, we had one bite and that was enough. The Toffee Pudding was decent, the only inconvenient was the clumps of unbaked flour. The orange juice was watered-down with water and ice and the size was too small regarding the price they charge for it. We paid the equivalent of 50€ for the whole meal and considering the food quality, it's pricy. We won't...

I had so many expectations of this place, but I was so disappointed!

The service is really bad: the waiters are not kind, they do not smile and they are arogant!

When it comes to food, the taste is good, but I was served raw food.

I ordered hummus, which had an ok taste, nothing out of ordinary, but it had too much oil in it. I ordered potato skins with parmesan cheese, which were good. Unfortunately, I ordered Butter Chicken, and even though the sauce was tasty and the rice was good, the chicken was raw. It came in pink. It was hard to slice and eat. I told the waiter about my problem, and he took the chicken away with an arrogant attitude and went to the so-called chef. Later on, the chef came by the table and told me that the chicken was perfectly cooked because his cooking technique was perfect and started arguing with me: no apologies, and 0 customer service abilities. It was clear he didn't have experience. Unfortunately, it was clear with the bare eyes that it was pink.

In the end, they gave me a dessert on the house, but I still paid for the chicken I did not eat. This is the only reason I gave 2 stars for the service.

Bad experience, and I would not recommend it! But, if you go there, just pick something...