Ciorbă rădăuțeană is the chicken version of Romanian sour soup, originally a Rădăuți specialty: chicken breast in lemon-and-cream soured broth with garlic and parsley, the lighter cousin of ciorbă de burtă.
Where to eat it: 5 restaurants across 1 city.
Created in the 1970s by chef Cornel Pătrăuceanu of the Hotel Nordic restaurant in Rădăuți (north Romania), as a chicken-based alternative for diners squeamish about tripe. The dish spread south through restaurant menus and became a national Romanian sour-soup classic, with Bucharest restaurants picking it up by the 1990s.
Common allergens: Chicken, Garlic, Egg yolk
Tip from the editors. Add the lemon juice at the end, off the heat: boiling will turn the cream-and-egg-yolk thickener into curds. Garlic puree gives more even flavour than chopped garlic.
The 1879 Caru' cu bere on Stavropoleos serves the soul of Bucharest dining, where mici were recorded in a 1920 chef's letter to the Academy.
Signature: Mici, Sarmale, Papanași
Order: Mici with mustard and ciorbă de burtă, then papanași for dessert.
Tip: Walk-up queues from 12:30 onward; the upstairs hall has the live folk band.
Vatra on Brezoianu cooks traditional Romanian on bakestones and in tin kettles, in a 1920s Transylvanian interior next to Cișmigiu Park in Bucharest.
Signature: Sarmale, Tochitură, Romanian cheese plate
Order: Sarmale with mămăligă; the cheese plate of Brașov sheep and Sibiu cow.
Tip: The veranda opens May through October; lunch fixed menu is 45 RON.
Crama Domnească sits in the cellar of the Princely Court on Șelari, the Princely Wine Cellar in Bucharest, with live folk and house wines by carafe.
Signature: Sarmale, Mămăligă, Ciorbă de burtă
Order: Mămăligă with brânză and smântână; a clay-pot tochitură.
Tip: Live taraf music every evening; cash and card both accepted.
Poet Mircea Dinescu's Lacrimi și Sfinți on Șepcari pours wines from his Cetate estate alongside modern Romanian classics in Bucharest Old Town today.
Signature: Sarmale, Mămăligă cu brânză, Slănină plate
Order: The signature sarmale; a glass of Cetate Riesling Italian.
Tip: The wine list is heavy on Dinescu's own bottlings; ask the room for the day's house pour.
La Mama on Lipscani is the Bucharest chain doing Romanian home cooking at scale: oversized sarmale, ciorbă bowls, big-portion papanași for dessert.
Signature: Sarmale, Ciorbă rădăuțeană, Papanași
Order: Ciorbă rădăuțeană; the cabbage sarmale; papanași.
Tip: Multi-branch chain; walk-in works on most weekdays.
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