Zeno Herăstrău — Restaurant in Bucharest

#honestreview Because everyone praised this restaurant, we decided to give it a try. The setting is beautiful, right on the bank of the lake. The atmosphere is very laid back & the staff is friendly. They are very kid friendly and the major plus is that right next dolr there's a kid's park with lots lf attractions. We had spinach ravioli, grilled octopus, beef tail and beef cutlet with celery purre & some appetizers. The spinach ravioli was good, too much dill for those of you who don't like it. The grilled octopus was decent. Cooked as it should. The beef tail resembled a lot like a specific dish with cow's tongue & olives, so it wasn't wow. The coffee is good and you have a widr variety of cakes to sweeten your experience. The down part for us was the service. We had a foreign waiter who wasn't really experienced and kept forgetting to bring us different items and when we asked for the dessert, he completely forgot and another waiter brought us the dessert 20 minuts later. Mind you, the dessert wad already made, he had to just put it on a plate and give it. Another waitet(or manager?) came to our table and said that the foreign waiter was there as help, and was surprised when we told him that he was the main waiter at our table. I will leave you to draw your own...

I expected something more from this location. It is clear that the owners did everything they could: they obtained a superb location on the banks of the Herestrau lake, which is impossible for an entrepreneur to obtain without relationships, they invested a lot in the interior design and you can see, the food is very good. The problem is a general problem in Romania: waiters. We had a sub-mediocre service. We had to pressurize to have our order taken away. I didn't feel during the meal that the waiter would care if we were at the table or not, I asked for a dessert menu for "my lady", my wife I was dining with and he asked me: "which lady?". I felt offended, I went over, he brought the dessert menu and I asked him: What is the cake called: "eden...". His answer was: read the menu. Such a thing is not possible in a pretentious restaurant. The owners must understand that even if they "resolved" with the municipality and were able to build the restaurant on the bank of the Herestrau lake, they paid a lot of money for the interior design, for the experience to be complete for the consumer, they need...

Though they offered us, in the end, the honour of not having to pay for the dish, still the attitude (and the dish) where appalling. Mangalita (wannabe) pork steak was nearly as chewable as my shoe sole and the entire experience was dull. Some live band was loudly disturbing the splendid sunny Sunday afternoon on the terase, while the waiters were not necessary paying attention to the new arriving guests. Though we waited some, the food came to the table little re heated almost cold. The steak couldn’t be eaten at all. Neither the greasy cold fries. No idea about the role of the pink stuff on the plate. Even when we mentioned the fact that the food was not quite as expected, the feeling that I got from the interaction with the waiter was that we were indulged in there. Not cheap either, and for their ridiculous pretentious attitude, they should provide infinite more. Such a pitty for the...