Trattoria Mezzaluna — Restaurant in Bucharest

I've been there with my wife on a Tuesday evening and I called in advance to book a table. The place was very busy even though according to the waiter it has been one of the slowest evening ever. We have received on the house, on arrival, olive oils and two pieces of focaccia. We have ordered "mozzarella di bufala" as appetizer with pizza and pasta as main dishes. As drinks we have had wine, beer and water.

The bad. All the food has been disappointing.

The olives were less than what one would expect from an Italian restaurant. Just supermarket quality. The focaccia was cold and very soft.

The bufala bought from Lidl was way better than the one served here. It felt dry and not creamy. Instead of rich olive oil on top of it, there were just a few tiny drops. So little that the taste of it was mostly missing. Some balsamic vinegar was used for plating.

The pizza dough was extremely disappointing. Very very soft.

While I haven't tasted the pasta my wife has been disappointed by it.

I had 3 slices of pizza left and I have asked the waiter to pack them for home. The packing was again disappointing. The slices were stuffed on a plastic casserole, two were face to face and the third was placed on top of the other two.

The good. The service has been one of the best ever and I think the guy in there is the reason why this restaurant is so highly rated. His service was that good that both me and my wife thought he's the owner of the place. It turned out he was not.

The topping of the pizza was great.

The spiced oil was very good. So good that I haven’t touched the spicy tomato sauce I ordered for the pizza. The flavor of the pizza worked perfectly with the spiced oil.

The place is welcoming and very cozy.

In the end, we have had a very nice evening there. Would I recommend the place to my friends? No. Would I go...

We were looking for a proper italian restaurant in Bucharest and we ended up with 2 places on our list. After last night we're so happy we went for Mezzaluna as the experience was really one of a kind. The place has a warm, cozy vibe to it. We were welcomed by a great host. Not only did he describe our dishes to the smallest detail but we had a small wine spill for which we felt horrible...he assured us things like that can happen and it helped with our overall mood, thanks laurențiu. Now the food was absolutely amazing. We went for a sharing starter: mixed bruschetta, black spaghetti with sea food, pizza mezzaluna (which was insanely good) and for dessert we went for tiramisu and lemon pie. The pasta was super good and rich in sea food. White pizza (mascarpone sauce + prosciutto, gorgonzola, mozzarella and rucola) was nicely made and it tasted amazing. Now for the piece of resistance, the tiramisu: they essentially bring all ingredients next to you and make it next to your table (takes about a minute) which we found as a super nice experience. Overall I would rate this place 5/5 on all aspects and will definitely come back once I'm back...

We went to this restaurant for lunch. Good thing we found a table fast. Or maybe not. We ordered tagliata di manzo and the burger, also a soup and a bottle of sparkling water (we had to ask again for the water, the waiter was quite surprised). Then the food came: disaster! Tagliata was not tagliata. Just 4 pieces of meat, unevenly cooked, thrown over a pile of old arugula leaves and a few cherry tomatoes. The worst was that the dish was not prepared from rib-eye stake but from some piece suitable for sausages or soup/slow cooking, impossible to cut even with the steak knife, impossible to chew. Totally disgusting for 17 euro. The burger was ever worse: the bun was a few days old and heated; it was crumbly like sand and tasting like sand. We asked for medium, the meat was overcooked, beyond well done, tasteless and, again, disgusting. Total bill 41 euro. Stay away if you want to pay for good food. I really wish they would have told us there’s no...