You cannot come to Bucharest and not taste the best sweets the city has to offer. Once renowned around Europe for the quality of the chocolate cakes – the Joffre Cake, a decadent, worthy of a heart attack, chocolate only extravaganza, it’s still as fabulous as when Capsa invented it around 1917 – during communist times, the quality and variety of the cakes diminished. There was a time when the pastry shops around the country had two or three types of cakes – the famous Amandina, Eclair and Potato Cake (Cartof) and one variety of soda – Brifcor, the Romanian Fanta; entering the shop was a depressing affair. You can still find communist era pastry shops, with cakes whose recipes did not changed in 40 years, the best being Cofetaria Maria.
Now, for the ones with sweet tooth, this is the best time to be alive. Great shops have opened, great recipes are tried, chocolate is flowing in luscious rivers, the eclairs are, my sweet god, forgive me, better than sex and the ice-cream is better than the one you think you remember from Italy.
French Revolution is an amazing place. They just opened 3 months ago near Romanian Atheneum and they serve Variations on Eclair theme in many parts. They change their recipes every now and then and vary between pistachio, lime and basil, salty caramel, black chocolate and who knows with what they’ll come up with next.
And the eclairs are, oh-my-god, i could write a poem about every one of them and win a Nobel prize. The jury would have no choice. The crown jewel, the lime and basil eclair – whose recipe was stolen, most probably, from the god’s kitchen – is something to talk about 10 years from now and still have tears in your eyes and a stupid smile on your face. Every now and then, somebody discovers them, writes ecstatically on Facebook and what follows is a huge rush to devour whatever the shop has to offer.
If you have bad luck, you’ll arrive in such a moment and you’ll find the desolate owners in an empty, licked clean, little shop. No eclairs for you.
If you have bad luck, you’ll arrive in such a moment and you’ll find the desolate owners in an empty, licked clean, little shop. No eclairs for you.
A well known presence in the Bucharest for high quality cakes, i love it for the ice-cream. There are no better ice-cream or sorbets in town (till French Revolution revolutionized the pastry market, i would have said the same about their cakes). Anyway, the Moelleux au Chocolat is great, Apoteoza is a a dream, the Creme Brûlée is the best. But of course… there is also French Revolution…
A decent restaurant which sometimes manages to hit jackpot with their tiramisu. But the Krantz Cake is constantly great (probably not done in-house).
Close to the Old Center is a greek pastry shop with great creamy cakes. You cannot go wrong there.
And the Joffre Cake? you may ask… My mother makes the best Joffre in town.
You can visit all of them (ZoomSerie is a stretch) in my Iconic Landmarks tour. Book now!