Vegan in Romania

I haven’t been to Romania for a very long time and I didn’t know what to expect, in relation to food. I talked about vegan options with friends and family, but it was not clear how many options we had, as tourists in a way. The people I chatted about food prepared many of the dishes at home and, like all, made their shopping at big supermarkets where there is plenty of choice. But we were in Romania for a few days, travelling and changing hotels. We’ve been to Bucharest, of course, and to a small city which will remain nameless.

First of all, we’ve been to Hanul lui Manuc, this is one of the most important restaurants in Bucharest. This restaurant is, due to its prices, visited either for special occasions or by wealthy foreigners. To give some perspective, this is similar to the prices asked in mid-range British restaurants. It offers traditional food and has a “pub vibe”, being an inn [han means inn].
The service is great and the staff speaks English fluently.

The one who build this inn was called Manuc, hence the name of the place. As with many places in Eastern Europe, this has a dark history, as being the place where the Treaty of Bucharest of 1812 was signed when the russian empire seized Moldova [modern day territory of the Republic of Moldova]. At that point, the inn was only recently built.

On the ground floor there were shops, and rooms on the top floor, over 100 of them. After an earthquake in 1838, the inn was damaged, but Manuc’s son saved the building from being demolished. He had to sell it as it was too expensive to repair. The new owners held the inn for a bit over a decade before selling it on. The inn was transformed into an important complex where all sorts of events were taking place, after the 1860s.
Before WWI politicians would meet at Hanul Manuc to discuss topics like the union of the 3 principalities that are now constituent parts of Romania.

Now the place is so busy, that in a weekday in January we were taken to the underground part of the restaurant because we didn’t have a reservation for upstairs. It was quite busy in the cellars as well.

The restaurant has live music, with traditional clothes and songs. The lady was amazing, she talked with us a bit, asked if we are a couple before singing a beautiful love song.

She was accompanied by another singer with the pan flute, a very traditional Romanian musical instrument.

We had a vegan platter to share with some pretty amazing bread (picture below). It had 3 Romanian dishes – aubergine caviar with onions, mashed beans [similar to houmous in texture], and zacuscă [a spread with vegetables]. All these dishes are naturally vegan, but they were marked in the menu as vegan too.

We also had vișinată [sour cherry spirit] and caisată [apricot spirit].

A cat was walking around the cellar. She was so cute and friendly. I like that she was allowed there and it seemed that the guests were happy to see her.

We’ve also been twice to Sublimme, a restaurant close to where our second hotel was in Bucharest. They have different dishes – soup and main – each day. In a month only a few times it is repeated and that is impressive. I would gladly eat there again because the food was amazing without any doubt.

They also had an impressive array of raw vegan desserts and we did try a few of them, including by getting some to go. Look in the picture below how beautiful these desserts were. Also, the texture and taste was very different even if they were all raw. We were both impressed.

In the small city we’ve been to we had a night in a local hotel and they also offered us dinner and breakfast. For dinner we had Romanian borș, this is very different than the Ukrainian borscht because of how it is made, it is sour and borș is also an ingredient, which is fermented wheat or barley bran in water. Without this ingredient a soup is not a borș.
We also had potato stew with green tomatoes in brine and hot peppers. It was a very traditional meal, usually enjoyed during lent, but, obviously, suitable for vegans.

For breakfast we had fries with fresh tomato and grilled mushrooms. It was a bit unusual for breakfast, but it was filling and we didn’t want to create too much trouble for them. The staff at the hotel were helpful and very nice, so we went with their suggestion for breakfast.

Besides restaurants, we also had street food. Romanians love bread. Pretzels are very popular and there is a chain of shops (didn’t think of taking a picture of the shops) where they sell all kind of pretzels, including filled ones. Most are not vegan, but this cherry one was vegan [technically was marked “for lent”]. We had a couple of these, they were so good.

Scovergi is another Romanian street food option. It is fried bread dough. This is eaten with sugar on top, to be sweet, or can be served instead of bread for savoury dishes. We had some in the train, going back to Bucharest.

Lastly, what we found in a supermarket. This was a small supermarket, near the hotel we were in. There is houmous, vegetable falafels, and 2 types of mashed beans, one smooth and the other one topped with fried onions and tomato sauce. The beans were made after well-known traditional recipes. I’m glad we found these in the supermarket. It is also a sign of how things have changed. 15 years ago people would make these at home, not buy them from the shops.