Name: Mititei (Chișinău style)
Prep time: 25 min
Total time: 12 h
Yield: 20
Cuisine: Moldovan
Ingredients: 500g minced beef (80/20); 300g minced lamb shoulder; 200g minced pork belly; 8 garlic cloves, mashed to a paste with 1 tsp salt; 1.5 tsp ground black pepper; 1 tsp dried thyme; 1 tsp ground coriander; 0.5 tsp ground caraway; 0.5 tsp ground allspice; 0.5 tsp baking soda; 150 ml cold beef broth; 2 tbsp sunflower oil, for the grill

Grilled minced meat rolls, finger-sized and thumb-thick, seasoned with garlic, black pepper, thyme and a touch of baking soda for the springy bite that defines the dish.

Mititei trace through the Balkans (Serbia, Greece and Turkey) into 19th-century Bucharest, where the dish is first documented in 1870 by Ulysse de Marsillac and named in 1872 by N. T. Orășanu. A popular Romanian legend credits Iordache Ionescu's tavern on Strada Covaci in Bucharest, where Uncle Iordache supposedly ran out of sausage casings and grilled the seasoned meat directly on the grates. The name means little ones, from Romanian mic, and the dish crossed the Prut into Bessarabia where it became the standard summer-grill order at Moldovan beer gardens. In Chișinău it lands on every grill from Pegas to the Beer Mania festival.

4 editor picks for Mititei in Chișinău, ranked by editorial score. All Chișinău signature dishes · Mititei across every city.

La Taifas ★ 4.4

Moldovan Traditional

centru · Strada București 67, Chișinău, Moldova

La Taifas in Chișinău is the old village house with porch on Strada București, serving rustic Moldovan cooking and live folk music in a clay-pottery room.

Pegas Terrace & Restaurant ★ 4.3

Modern European

centru · Strada Albișoara 20/1, Chișinău, Moldova

Pegas in Chișinău is the long-running two-storey European fusion room on Strada Albișoara, with a wide summer terrace and a Moldovan wine list.

Sălcioara ★ 4.3

Moldovan Traditional

botanica · Strada Decebal 99/6, Chișinău, Moldova

Sălcioara in downtown Chișinău is the traditional Moldovan dining room with carved-wood interiors, evening live music and a kitchen built on village recipes.

Beer House ★ 4.2

German

centru · Bulevardul Constantin Negruzzi 6/2, Chișinău, Moldova

Beer House in Chișinău is the German-themed brewpub on Bulevardul Negruzzi, brewing on-site and serving grill-heavy pub food with a daily 12-hour run.

Learn to cook it, or eat it with a guide

Mititei makes more sense with someone from Chișinău explaining it. These are the classes and tours we have checked, with booking links.

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