Restaurant Review - Tiboaa‚¬a„¢s No 1 Covaci (Lipscani)

Last year there was not one real restaurant in Lipscani. How things change. With 100 bars in this tiny area, it desperately needed some quality chophouses, and now it has another, bringing the total to four.

So proudly step forward Tibo. It boasts the title “Italian Steak House”, so let’s see how justified this moniker really is. The Italian side is authentic enough as the owner is half Italian and half Scottish. A dreadful provenance I agree, but despite this handicap he has run two successful chophouses in town for the last 12 years. Right, come

with me and look over his latest venture.

The location is perfect. In case you don’t know this city, Lipscani is the only place to be. It is the hottest, buzziest, sexiest street and meat market in Romania. Tibo is a brand new conversion and thankfully the House wisely made it open plan. Conversely had they chosen the pseudo-communist style of multiple rooms, it would have been a recipe for ruin. I cannot think of one multi-room villa conversion in this city which has not crashed.

They have an open kitchen, which is always a sign of a clean, hygienic and confident House. The décor is red and white walls, with matching red and terracotta chairs. Add to this cleverly designed mood lighting, and you have a warm glowing interior. But it is still summer, so we are eating on their terrace.

As befits a steak house, the menu contains a superb list of high quality cuts. But what comes as a pleasant surprise is that they have chosen only Italian Tuscan beef and Scottish Aberdeen Angus as their two sources of meat. Bravo House, Tibo is the second quality restaurant (after the Radisson Steak House which uses Irish beef) to reject the dreadful Argentinean crap which has dominated the local restaurant scene for the last five years.

The Aberdeen Angus comes in two varieties, namely: T bone and rib eye. At 500 grams and 400 grams respectively you would be well advised to share it amongst two persons. This would help to ease the bill, for it is not cheap. But to be fair to the House, you would be paying for one of the world’s finest types of beef, and Angus is expensive everywhere on the planet.

Far easier on your wallet is the Italian beef selection. They have the same huge sized T bone and rib eye cuts, but at half the price of the Angus. So I dived into a sirloin which was superb. There is not much you can say about a steak house presentation, other than it comes with two dips. What you are paying for is quality meat with no frills. We passed on their fillet and

fillet mignon and tried their fish offering.

Yes, steak houses invariably have fish as it is too much of a temptation for the chef to ignore his huge grill, which could equally cook fish. So we gorged on their grilled tiger prawns which were simple, unpretentious and good. Other offerings were those which predictably lend themselves to a grill, such as salmon, tuna and calamari.

Happy with what we ate, we extended our meal with a home-doggie bag for my doggie Annamaria. So we took home an excellent antipasto of: sliced beef Carpaccio, two mussels wrapped in bacon, two slices of pear topped with Gorgonzola, Parma ham with melon and on a mean tiny slice of Caprese lettuce. A great starter at RON 35.

There were three pasta dishes, which I have no doubt would be good, but I came for meat instead, and I am glad that I did. There were veggie spring rolls on offer, and tomato and gorgonzola soup, There was a House salad and Waldorf salad as I am told that Waldorfs are in season now!!!

Lipscani is here to stay, and so is Tibo’s. If you have not been to Lipscani lately, you should go now to catch the buzz, as I am sure that winter will not be so much fun.

Michael Barclay

mab.media@dnt.ro

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