Restaurant review: It's bistro time, again!

Bistro David Contant, Mihai Eminescu 80, 021 310 4765

The number of French bistros in Bucharest is growing, and thank God for that! I am now at the latest one, which opened its doors only one month ago. It bears the name of the owner who is no stranger to aficionados of real French cuisine in this town.

He was imported to Bucharest as the first French chef at the ill-fated and overpriced Heritage nine years ago. Sadly, neither Heritage nor Romania was ready for his high level of talent, so he moved on to Moxa and Bon Ton Palace, and finally to his own bistro on Eminescu.

He is both taking a risk and simultaneously showing his confidence in his ability to succeed by naming the bistro after himself. Let’s face it, throughout the world most French chefs have egos the size of Herastrau Park, so if his venture didn’t succeed, his hurt pride at seeing his name come down would be unbearable. So he has an added incentive to keep us, the customers, happy! But if he keeps on as he has started he will have nothing to worry about, for it will be a success.

There are no hard rules which define what a bistro is, rather it is easier to say what it is not. It is not an ‘haute cuisine’ hi-camp restaurant with starched tablecloths and starched waiters selling food at the price of a week’s salary. None of that bullshit, for a bistro keeps the décor low, the prices low, the overheads low, and the food does the talking. So, let’s have a chat with it!

The House has made a clever move, for they have a fixed-price three-course lunch menu at the superb cost of RON 39. Just look at that price again, and remember you are eating the creations of a top chef. There is no point in me telling you what I had on my lunch visit, because the menu changes daily. Suffice it to say, it was excellent.

Now let us away to the a la carte menu. It is small and chalked up on a blackboard. When the kitchen has exhausted its supplies for any dish, that name is simply wiped off the board. This is a French bistro tradition and it makes sense.

So for soup there were two French classics, Vegetable Velute and Onion Soup, but surprisingly the French connection ended there and it then went international. I had no complaints as the House told me it was their intention to include dishes from Italy (no thanks, we have too many of them), Mexico,

Europe and Asia. Bravo! The nationality of these dishes will change on a weekly basis.

I could not resist a starter of Tartine de Foies, an open toasted sandwich layered with lettuce, hot chicken livers, mushrooms, vegetables and a rich vinaigrette dressing. The selection of main courses was small, no more than six. But again in the tradition of a bistro, this is perfectly correct.

So we had a Salmon Fillet, perfectly grilled on a bed of rice. This was topped with a herb butter sauce. Meat dishes such as our Steak Roquefort were accompanied with potatoes sautéed with tomatoes, a daily selection of vegetables and herbs. Each dish on the menu is complete with vegetables or rice or pasta (all included in the price), so it is honest and without frills. OK, this is not culinary rocket science – rather it is good, fun, filling, comfort food.

We passed on Pork Fillet Mignon with a mustard sauce and a Thai Chicken. However, we simply could not resist a Duck Confit, which is a leg preserved in its own melted fat for a lengthy period in a refrigerator, and then cooked for ten hours. It was tender and absolutely correct.

But the House still had some surprises for us. Being a Frenchie, the boss would not compromise on the quality of the wines. But we were pleasantly shocked when we drank one of the few Romanian wines on offer, Ecological Feteasca Neagrea. Whooooa there, hold the horses for a minute. What the hell is Eco wine? Does it mean that they grow the grapes with a certain kind of ‘natural manure’, duly accompanied by mushed up soft absorbent paper? I hope not. But beyond all belief, it was rather good stuff. That means the wine, not the ‘natural’ fertilizer.

And as a most pleasant alternative to the usual suspects of coffee on the menu, there was an amazing and exciting range of sexily flavoured teas, such as: Wild Cherry, Plum and Cinnamon, Green Apple, Mint, Amaretto, Wild Orange and Lemon Love. These were all imported from Germany, and if they gain a foothold with the beautiful people, they will hit the coffee brands hard.

So to get there, you should drive half way up Dacia, and turn left onto Eminescu. Then return down Eminescu in the opposite direction and you will see it on the right.

mab.media@dnt.ro

Michael Barclay

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