Sage Bistro — Restaurant in Cluj Metropolitan Area

Cozy little bistro with a nice menu. By nice, I mean the menu is well designed, with a few interesting dishes. I ordered the papardelle with bolete mushrooms and truffle sauce. The pasta was perfectly cooked al dente, the mushrooms were good, but the sauce was watery and lacking flavor (other than the strong mushroom flavor, but no real truffle flavour). For such a simple dish, with just a few ingredients, was wondering what could have gone wrong. Perhaps they've rinsed the pasta after boiling, preventing the sauce to cling to it? The 3 of us who ordered this dish asked for extra parmesan to help thicken and flavour the sauce, and this helped save the dish. But we've been charged 4 lei each for it, which is a bit ungracious for a 44 lei pasta. Hoping the chef will keep an eye on the preparation, as everything else was well thought out and this faux pas seemed out of character...

Short version: waited around 45 minutes for an order for two, the food was horrendous, the service was okay, but lacking etiquette.

Pollo parmigiana: the schnitzel looked like roadkill because of the splattered tomato sauce, no seasoning at all, soggy on the bottom, overcooked and dry, microgreens on top were yellow/dried and looked expired. The side of baked potatoes was undercooked and also without any seasoning - a touch of salt and butter would have done wonders.

Grilled pork chops: the meat was really dry, not tasting of anything, not seasoned and seemed a little bit old. The side of mashed potatoes had a strange taste of sour milk, full of lumps, just horrible.

Overall overpriced for the bad quality, I would advise...

I recently visited Sage Bistro and overall, I had a mixed experience. The ambiance was quite pleasant, especially the cozy terrace, which made for a relaxing setting. The food was decent—not the best I’ve had, but certainly not the worst either.

However, my experience was marred by the service. The waiter was not friendly, which took away from the overall enjoyment of the meal. Towards the end, I mentioned that the mussels in my pasta with seafood had a strange taste, though the rest of the dish was fine. His only response was a curt “ok” before walking away, which I found disappointing.

Sage Bistro has potential, but the service could definitely use some...