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Chinese Food in Bucharest

With what might appear as over one hundred restaurants in Bucharest offering Chinese it’s surprising that the quality is so consistently poor. You will find the same-same sticky sauce on 60% of the food, a lack of any of your favorite Chinese vegetables and a complete miss on any inspiration or passion. It is a unanimous offering of yuck. Our expat clients here in Bucharest all bemoan the lack of just one good (forget about excellent) restaurant serving something even familiar and tasty. I once, in a fit of desperation, took my favorite Chinese cook-book into a restaurant here and asked if they could make anything I had highlighted for an extra fee. They could not! So, ignore any positive on-line review you might catch as it the opinion of a rascal or the simply uninformed and accept for now that this line of enquiry is a dead end. Want a great Chinese, fly to London! However, there are times when desperate people do desperate things and unless you’re fortunate enough to get into London every so often for a quick fix, there will be days when your body will force you to abandon your better instinct and head out for something savory and spicy. In those difficult moments we can only recommend two places. The first came to us through a Chinese friend when we asked him for a recommendation. He suggested – through an embarrassed giggle - Beijing Garden. Located in a Pipera strip mall, it might just do the trick if you can overlook the unfriendly service (as I do when desperate) and just concentrate on the goods. It was, I thought, correctly described by him as not good, but almost good.” The other rather skittish recommendation we can make would be the Chinese restaurant Nan Jing located in the Minerva Hotel near Piata Victoriei. It’s the longest serving Chinese restaurant in Bucharest and while the food is acceptable, the restaurant clean and the service friendly it isn’t something you will be very passionate about recommending. We sincerely hope we could be proven wrong on this point and do wish someone in the know would call us out, but after six years of living in China I think we’re somewhat qualified to have an opinion on the matter and so far after ten years of living in Bucharest the same sameness on offer is disappointing. Please, somebody with some passion and knowledge, we implore you to come to Bucharest and open up an inspiring Chinese restaurant. Bucharest Homes will find you a home!