Tonights restaurant in Sharkia, attached to the Radisson Park hotel, itself attached to the Radisson Blu. it is a lot smaller than I would have expected.






The restaurant is two floors down from the pool which, it turns out, is street level for this side of the hotel, highly confusing . Entrance poolside leads into the rather nice looking breakfast area. A glass elevator and glass stairs lead down to the Radisson park entrance and the restaurant just off of the reception area.



I’m a huge fan of the art installation…. fan.. geddit?



The menus are extensive and readily available online so I will not photograph and post them here.

A very palatable Chardonnay and the first course is here, the Sharkia Kebab. If a restaurant puts its name to a dish it’s always worth a try. This is actually listed as a main course but as I’m taking a bit of a risk on the second dish I’m playing the long game of not going to bed hangry










Menu section with todays two dishes



worth noting that this restaurant is #15 in Bucharest at the moment

The first dish has been and gone and I have to say that it was a very clever dish for something so apparently simple. On opening the pita crust there is a billowing of steam that promises the enclosed kofta are going to be moist, which indeed they were. The first couple of mouthfuls were disappointingly bland and there was an oh dear moment until I dug further into the bowl to the sauce hiding all around.

The pita lid quickly hardened to the point where you had to submerge it i to the sauce before eating. I am assuming this is by design because after a short dunk soaking up sauce it was an excellent accompaniment to the koftas.

Now armed with a glass of local Sauvignon Blanc the second course has arrived, the beef and pomegranate with jasmine rice. This is a risk for me as I’m told its a very sweet dish but nothing ventured, nothing gained!

The second dish was delicious, nowhere near as sweet as the server had led me to believe, or he underestimated my sweet tooth! For desert I’ve gone for the Knafe with Kadaif noodles as I cannot remember the last time I had it. Back to the original Bogdan Chardonnay to accompany it as there are no real sweet wine offerings by the glass.

Whilst dining I’ve had the unmitigated pleasure of listening to two American grand dames on the table behind me who have been hilarious. Impossible to recount all of it but a flavour.. a thirty minute conversation around a hot green Chinese mustard resulting in asking the server of this Mediterranean restaurant if he had any. When he replied in the negative and suggested they meant wasabi the answer was - oh no, this mustard is green. A later discussion was around the value of the local dollar and whether a dollar, geographic location of said dollar unspecified, was sufficient as a tip, this went on for a good 20 minutes. I was really struggling by this point and they finally broke me with the extended discussion of the benefits of flying back to new yoik on BA upper deck, first class, and the “reclining seats” I had to go outside to release my laughter.

Absolutely huge and a total sugar overload, I had to throw in the towel less than half way through!

And with that its time to head back to the lounge for a nightcap or two. Dentists at 10am, 3 hour pre-sales phone-call tomorrow afternoon, so not going to be many updates tomorrow,

Hope you won't be out of it after the dentists for the call.

Your mention of local wine made me realize I don't think I've had any, expect one glass of house wine in a small bistro in Oradea earlier this year, which was quite nice. I barely ever thought about Romanian winemaking, though the country is well positioned to be making some excellent wine, both in the north, but especially in the south.

On the other hand, I am a big fan of another grape product of theirs - if you have a chance to give a try to the Alexandrion brandy (the 7*) or Br�ncoveanu, do take it. They represent a very good product especially for the price.

Brancoveanu I have had a few times but I have never heard of, or seen, Alexandrion, or if I have then it has passed me by, I shall keep an eye open for it.

Other fermented products are growing on me, but I’m yet to develop any tolerance to them as evidenced by a very messy food tour on my last trip where everyone decided to sample each and every tuica and palinca in the restaurant. A great time was had by one and all but the end result was not pretty!

Good luck with the dentist. You've just reminded me I once woke in SGN at 0400 Christmas morning with raging tooth ache. That led to a root canal a week or so later.

A slow and lazy start to the day, The hotel was still in night mode as I wandered up to the lounge for coffee and pastries and here is a rather blurry photo of all the illuminated balconies around this 8 storey atrium.



I did promise a full tour around the hotel but over the weekend all of the public areas have been packed. I am bound to wake up at stupid o’clock one morning and I’ll take a stroll around before everyone is on the move. Breakfast was exactly the same as yesterday, I don’t think it really varies day to day although I have recollections of fried onion and pepper mix appearing once on a previous trip.

It has been heavily raining overnight but looks like it is easing off which is good news, means I can enjoy the 40 minute walk to the surgery rather than having to grab a Bolt.

9am and time for a final wash and brush up before heading off to the dental surgery. I have just realised I didn’t ask how long todays session is! Hopefully not so long that it overruns the planned conference call, but that’s not beyond the realms of possibility, there have been some really long sessions along the way.

The streets were surreally quiet for 9:30am on a Monday, so quiet that I had to check the date and time




And with a damp and dreary thirty minute I�m back in the pink palace for the next few hours.





Not sure exactly how many hours I have spent in this chair but suffice to say MANY

didn�t take any pictures of the sights along the walk as it was so damp, hopefully will have cleared by the time I walk back

A little bump in the road has made for a very long day at the dentist, in fact the day has basically gone, it is rapidly approaching 5pm local time. My dentist did a superb job of attaching the temporary crowns I have been wearing for the past months. Such a superb job in fact that no amount of banging, hammering, or leveraging would get any of them to move! Having tried every tool in the toolbox, and some from elsewhere, in the end she had to admit defeat and drill out and destroy all of them which meant that they all had to be remade on the fly to cover for the next two weeks. This also means that I need to go in on Wednesday morning as well as Thursday afternoon so my planned trip to Bran and Peles castles is scuppered and some replanning is required. It may actually work to my advantage as I now need to do a whole series of work calls over the next few days so I’ll ultimately be able to reclaim a couple of holiday days.

I’ve a call at 5pm and then it will be off to the lounge. Stomach is growling mightily as its had nothing since 8am’s coffee and pastries.

A few snaps on the wander back to the hotel



Jurassic Bucharest

Not the sort of birds you want to find at the end of your garden

A giraffe, obviously, because, why not?

Crazy enormouse road junction, goes all the way back to the trees. At least 20 lanes join the huge expanse and it always has a few carloads of whistle happy police managing it

Fascinating little park full of heads


The route from the hotel to dental clinic and back is very green and leafy, and the streets are spotlessly clean, but the graffiti and tagging is relentless! Everywhere you look high, low, or underfoot, some spraycan happy joker has been there before. Its such a shame.

Work call completed and its time to head to the lounge. The now obligatory glass of fizz to commence proceedings lest I be chastised by my friend




Then a tasting of the local white available in the lounge which was not really for me




By which time the food had made an appearance and was somewhat more cohesive this time with a turkey in gravy, potato wedges/chips, and salmon





I chose a small plate of the turkey and potatoes which served two purposes. Firstly it stopped my stomach from growling like a psychopathic guard dog, and secondly I still intend to visit the sushi restaurant and so this small meal will ensure I don’t ravage the menu like the starving barbarian I would have been, allowing a more measured approach, and a far lighter wallet hit . The local rose went remarkably well with the turkey, probably as the sauce was on the sweeter side. The turkey and potatoes were exactly OK, greatly helped by a liberal application of salt and pepper.





And finally, a trio of desert bites, a goats cheese amuse bouche (sue me) and a glass of the very potable fizz to close off the first part of the evening, all accompanied by a double espresso - not something I drink often but as a caffeine addict I suspect the headache I’m currently enduring has as much to do with withdrawal as dental hammerings.




Update: That innocent looking dark chocolate bite hid an immense amount tongue tingling chilli. It was so hot that I had to request a second one just to be sure

Dup post

Time for sushi

Ginger sushi bar and lounge entrance is at the back of the hotel, beside the pool area entrance. The restaurant features a live cooking station which you are welcome to sit at but I was not prepared to horrify the chefs in the way I treat their creations and so I chose a table towards the rear of the restaurant






These cloths are always fun


on the way to the table I passed the shelf of many dangers




I ended up in a brain freeze, unable to decide whether to have the beef as tataki or with noodles. Server to the rescue and the order of play is the Gyu Tataki, Volcano Maki, and Tori Yaki Noodles.

continuing the exploration of the local wines I�ve picked a glass of the Valahorum Feteasca Alba which is light and refreshing and will make a good foil to the early dishes.

The first two dishes have been and gone and were absolutely delicious.





The tiny balsamic pearls on the beef were stunningly good once I remembered to break them, the whole thing was superb.

Now ordered a glass of the Regno Recas Sauvignon Blanc to accompany the noodles