Restaurant Review #4

B and I are starting to realize that our weekend activities are starting to sound the same from one weekend to the next, but it is true that we went to yet another Indian restaurant this past Friday.

This particular restaurant, Barka Saffron, is in an area of the city I have never been before and we definitely had to take a taxi. The restaurant is intended to be a place welcoming of the arts community and a relaxed, homey environment. On these fronts, it certainly lives up to its hype. The decor is reminiscent of a coffee house or less smokey version of a pub. The restaurant is near the University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, so their were several student/professor types there and frankly of all the Indian restaurants we have been to it was the busiest. In addition to their Indian menu, they also have a Tapas menu and some Thai offerings. B and I chose to stick with the Indian menu and ordered as appetizers the lamb samosas for B and vegetable pakoras for me. The appetizers were quite good and the portions large (still no tamarind chutney, though). The story changed when it came to the entrees however. For starters, the breads we ordered, puri and roti, were awful! The puri were so fried the outsides were crispy and the roti literally had no taste. Furthermore, my entree of aloo ghobi was very boring. Indian food should be a lot of things, but boring is not one of them and B's spicy lamb was certainly not spicy. The food was what you would imagine a home cook's first attempt at making Indian food without a specific recipe might be. Fair but missing on spices. This would be fine if we were, in fact, at someone's home, but as we paid for the food, it was disappointing. In addition, the portion sizes were pretty small, which is disappointing as well. Barka Saffron is a great place to go to be with friends, have a drink (their red wine by the glass was pretty nice) and a snack and have a nice evening, but if it's great Indian food you are craving, there are other places in Bucharest to go. I initially wanted to give Barka Saffron 5.5 samosas and B, as always more generous, said 6 so make of it what you will. The tour of Bucharest's Indian restaurants will continue. One more to go! -S