Samsara Foodhouse - Cluj restaurant plant-based — Restaurant in Cluj Metropolitan Area

I arrived here after noon and got a table inside on request because of the heat. It took the waiter alreafy a long time to come to me. I ordered a water melon soup and pasta with artischocke,dried tomatoes,tofu and a cashewcreme. It sounded all good on the menu. And then I waited...and waited..and waited..nothing happened. After over an hour I caught a waiter and asked where my food was. My soup arrived 10min later. The watermelon soup was nice but at this point I was so hangry. After about another 30min after finishing my soup I spoke with another waiter. I said it is not normal that the food takes so long (the restaurant was only half full). He then started with an arrogant attitude saying the food is fresh he doesn't know where I am from but this is not Mc Donnalds good food takes it's time. Well I am from the industry so no good food can be prepared fast and the food is obviously not fresh. I have been to a restaurant where the food was harvested from a nearby field after ordering and they were faster.Every restaurant orders their veggies in the morning this is normal. Then when my food arrived I couldn't believe it. The antischocke was not fresh but from the glass and the dried tomatoes had a strong taste of old oil (how do you even manage this in a restaurant?). They used yeast flakes as vegan cheese which was not just stupid but also disgusting since the whole food had a strong taste and smell of yeast. Honestly this was the worst meal I had in a vegetarian restaurant ever!And I am a vegan for 13 years,vegetarian since my childhood.

So much to being fresh. Also the dish itself was blend,boring,the texture was weird. When I paid the waiter already typed the money into the card reader. I paid and he said service is not included.

That's right service was not included in this restaurant.. Maybe the other food is better. The water melon soup was good. But for this price,time etc it was all not worth it for me.

While I was waiting I had time to read Google reviews. I should have read...

From my point of view, this restaurant should be closer to 4 stars rather than 5. It is good, but definitely not at the level of its reputation and the recommendations I got. The dishes are a bit of a hit and miss: some are great, while others are bland or even quite bad.

What I tried:

Avocado tartar: bland and almost tasteless, it lacked some salt and acidity to make it stand out. Eggplant salad: tiny portion, but it had a good taste of a traditional eggplant salad. Potato and leek soup: one of the highlights om the menu, it was an amazing comfort dish. Tom Yum soup: quite good, but the size of the noodles and mushrooms were a bit too large to handle with the spoon and I spilled droplets on me. A different varza a la Cluj: amazing first bites, but then the dish gets overwhelming due to the cabbage being way too smoky and unbalanced by any other element. The sweetness from the plums don't improve it either. Roasted cauliflower with panko: my favourite dish, delicate, crunchy with an amazing sauce. Spinach lasagna: good lasagna, but it would have been better with a bit more tomato sauce and a larger portion. Pad Thai: very good combination, until the end when it got a bit too salty...so, I would have preferred it a little more balance in this dish for it to be perfect. Raw cake trio: one of the best desserts I had, but split it with somebody as the portion size makes it too sweet to eat it alone until the end. Goat cheese cheesecake with pumpkin: a bit more like a decomposed, reinterpreted cheesecake. Interesting dish, I kind of liked it, but I am not sure if I would have it again. Kudos for trying something different.

Overall, a good experience but with some disappointment. I really had high hopes and I really expected each dish to be well thought with good combinations of taste...especially when considering the prices are the...

I’m always excited to try an all-veg restaurant, even though a number of review sites had many complaints about wait time & service. I came in for lunch without a reservation. The hostess said she had a table available in the smoking section. I asked if non-smoking would be feasible & she said as long as I finished in just over an hour when the table was reserved. I replied that I could eat that fast as long as the service allowed it. My server took several minutes to come over, and I couldn’t look at the English menu until then. He then took several more minutes to return for my order. I explained that the table was reserved at the specific time that I was told, and he said an appetizer and a main course should be no problem in that time frame. I ordered the pumpkin boulette with horseradish sauce. I then tried to order the jackfruit curry but he said it wasn’t available so I ordered the veggie bolognese pasta. I also ordered a cherry lemonade. The lemonade took several minutes but was very good. The starter took several more and the dish’s taste was completely dominated by the horseradish sauce. It then took several more minutes for my plate to be cleared, and several more for the bolognese to arrive. It was blander than the pasta sauce I make at home. I sincerely have no idea why it was even called bolognese as it just tasted like a bland marinara. But most importantly, it had taken so long to arrive I couldn’t finish eating it before I had to vacate the table. The server (who had barely stopped by) tried to insist there was “no rush” for me to leave the table when I asked for the bill despite what the hostess had specifically told me, which I guess explains his cavalier attitude about my service. The server responsible for the next section walked by my table a dozen times for every time my own server stopped to...