Casa Ardeleneasca
- Posted by Sara on January 14th, 2007 filed in Food and beverage
Opporunity: open region-specific restaurants
On New Year’s day, I spent some time in Cluj with some friends - mostly looking for a restaurant that was open on January 1! When we finally found “Casa Ardeleneasca” - the “Transylvania Home” - we were pleasantly surprised to see that it was a very nicely-designed traditional restaurant - from the hand-painted old wooden tables and crockery, to the costumes the waiters were wearing, and even down to the most interesting Christmas tree decorations I’ve ever seen - pretzels, walnuts and hand-made figurines. (Unfortunately, I only had a camera phone available, so the pictures are very poor.) The menu offered a nice variety of transylvanian recipes.
The restaurant was filled to capacity, so it seems that this recipe of traditional environment and area-specific food pays off. Cristian was talking earlier about opportunities in opening up traditional restaurants, and this example confirms that it is a very good business if done right. Perhaps this is a business for a Transylvanian in Bucharest!
Written by Sara
January 15th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
“Casa Ardeleneasca” is indeed one of the best restaurants in Cluj-Napoca. I recommend you all to eat there if you ever go in Cluj-Napoca. I think that this type of restaurant would be a success if opened in Bucharest. However the main challenge would be not to find the right decoration but to find the right cooker. The people from Ardeal have a special way to cook and the food has a special taste that I have not found yet elsewhere (not even within the “traditional” restaurants from Bucharest).
January 16th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
sounds great. I always like visiting restaurants that offer the “total immersion” experience in the local culture.
January 16th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
[...] Building off of Sara and Cristian’s posts on traditional restaurants… This is an excellent opportunity to give the tourists exactly what they want. Take them back to the early days of various time periods – before “Marboro†was plastered on everything or the omnipresent Coca Cola promotional umbrellas. I mean REALLY take them back by designing restaurants to be a complete time warp of an experience in a different era. [...]
January 17th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Maybe someone will open a chain of such restaurants across Romania
March 2nd, 2009 at 9:41 am
Jenant. Plecand de la meniul jerpelit pana la lipsa de informatii/recomandari despre felurile de mancare. Nu il recomand nimanui.despre cel din Bucuresti str. Sofia.