I would not recommend you to come this place. The surprise will come once you got the bill. We had things which we don't order and the quantities where wrong. At the end we couldn't do anything other than pay it.
Be careful, the prices are for 100g, not the whole dish!
London, United Kingdom
This was my first restaurant in Romania. All I had were American dollars, and after some discussion between the staff, it was agreed that they would accept my money. That was nice, I guess, but the service after that was a little less than mediocre. The desserts were best skipped, but I judge a restaurant on main courses, and pastry shops on desserts. We were seated at a small table next to a lot of foot traffic, so I always felt like we were in the way, or being observed from above by many patrons and staff. The place had lots of little nooks and crannies where we might have had more intimacy, but we didn't get reservations, so we got what we got.
The food was very good, and my first realization that Romanian "crap" has nothing to do with poop, but rather how they spell "carp". Unlike many Romanian restaurants that possess interesting ambience, the food here was better than mediocre.
We only went to this place to have a coffee at the bar and paid it 2.50 € each (other coffees in Paris costed 0.95 - 1.20 €). They said it's the price written in the carte but we didn't see it, and anyway they made us pay as we had table service but we didn't! I think it's not honest from them and I'm happy we didn't have dinner there.
The worst part was not that they added 13,50€ to the bill of a lunch for 2, but how terribly they treated us when we complained about it. We ordered a dish of calamaris to share, spaghetti with clams and risotto with seafood. When we asked for the bill, we saw that the price of each of the main dishes had been increased in 2€ and that there were 2 dishes of calamaris instead of the single starter we had ordered, so double of the price indicated in the menu. The waiter accepted without apologising that the price of the main dishes was incorrect but refused to let us pay just the starter we had ordered because we had already eaten it. This after having tried to convince us, with no success, that in fact they had already discounted one of the portions because the whole price of the calamaris would have been 36€. The menu clearly indicated "calamari fritti 9.50." No comments. Then the waiter invited me to go to the hall to meet "il direttore" if I still was not happy with the amount to pay. It was later when I understood how this allowed the director to shout at me and insult me without disturbing the rest of the clients. However, I'm sure everybody heard how he called me "stronza maleducata" while he yelled "when I travel in Spain, I pay what they ask me to" (I'm Spanish.) I decided then to ask for the complaints book. This only made things even worse, with the director holding one of my arms, his other hand raised and shouting at me if I was trying to eat for free. The waiter was also extremely disrespectful to us, saying lovely things as "who do you think you are to complain" and "if you don't have enough money to pay just leave." The funny thing is that before we could even imagine the terrible scene we would have to suffer, we had already regretted having chosen this place for lunch as the food was too salty to be enjoyed and the decoration really tacky, with pictures of old fashion landscapes and plastic flowers among other beautiful details.
My worst experience so far in a restaurant and the only bad incident I had in my, apart from this disturbing episode, wonderful holidays in Sardinia.
Since Friday night, the leading team, which includes Briton Nick Gracie, has been setting a strong pace, despite the varied and difficult terrain.
At the Paso de las Nieves, recent snowfall created some interesting trekking conditions, to go with cool temperatures at up to 2,000 metres, while El Turbal, a spectacular wild peat bog which glows bright orange, is equally challenging. Firm and well structured to the touch, it appears to be safe ground until you step on it – if the ground is wet, you'll find yourself sinking fast. American racer Chelsey Gribbon is so short she admitted concerns about drowning in El Turbal when she took on her first race two years ago.
Not only is it filled with muddy river water that smells faintly of methane, but the surface is broken every few minutes by a gargantuan fish. "It's a paiche," says Victor Coelho, one of four naturalist guides on board, leaping into the Jacuzzi in his shorts to wrestle with the prehistoric leviathan and to present it for a photo opportunity. "The paiche is at the top of the food chain and has a bony tongue to rake in smaller fish. Like a mammal, it has to surface every five or 10 minutes for oxygen. A large fish could feed a family for a week."
One day they might release baby turtles back into the wild, the next they might visit a sanctuary for manatees, seal-like river mammals. They arrive back in time for a rain shower in their air-conditioned, Italian-styled suite, followed by a pisco sour (grape brandy, lime juice, sugar, egg white), elegantly mixed by Robinson the bartender, and a sumptuous Peruvian feast.
In the mornings and afternoons, passengers set out on motorised skiffs with the Aria's naturalist guides – all local – to fish for piranhas and spot pink river-dolphins, caimans, iguanas, monkeys, bats, sloths and a bewildering variety of birds in the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve west of Iquitos, the main city in the Peruvian rainforest.
So what had brought us there? A few weeks earlier, Major had won a general election victory against the odds and what better way to celebrate than to play the role of statesman far from the trials and tribulations of domestic politics? Prime ministers are, by nature, a suspicious bunch and tend not to like being out of the country for long in case their colleagues start plotting. But this trip was a glorious exception: it would last seven days and take in the United States, Colombia and, finally, Brazil, where Major was to attend the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
Clare and I have been trundling across India for 10 days. We started at the most westerly station on the regular passenger network – Okha in the state of Gujarat, 100 miles down the coast from Pakistan – and will soon be pulling into Ledo, the network’s most easterly station, a tiny Assamese town of tea gardens and coal mines. We could have done the bulk of this journey on one train, the Dwarka Express, but it runs only on Fridays. It sets off from Okha at just before noon and, 2,000 miles later, pulls into Guwahati, the capital of Assam, on Monday morning. Sixty-seven hours at an average speed of 30mph. We love Indian trains, but not that much.
Victoria is also Australia’s most compact state, which means the Great Ocean Road, the Yarra Valley and Phillip Island with its fairy penguins are right on the doorstep. So, after decades of playing second fiddle to Sydney, “Marvellous Melbourne” is recovering its lustre, with a thrusting city skyline, a new entertainment precinct and a pulsating Docklands area.
Stuffy? Old-fashioned? Nonsense. Caffeine-fuelled, sports-mad and outward looking, Melbourne is unquestionably Australia’s most exciting and diverse metropolis. Go now.
When to go?
Most live in rural areas, growing rice, practising slash-and-burn farming, keeping animals, making handicrafts, worshipping their ancestors and believing in spirits. Many still wear their distinctive, traditional dress – or at least the women do; men tend to go for the easy option and wear Western clothes these days – and this is part of what makes them especially intriguing and attractive to foreigners. Market days, when different groups come together in a throng of colour and noise, are thrilling spectacles.
With 122 rooms and suites, La Résidence prides itself on being a boutique hotel. Rooms feature dark wood, silks, Art Deco features and Wi-Fi, and most have views across the river to the Citadel. The Resident Suite, on the top floor of the old governor's house, has a wonderful rooftop terrace with river views and isn't extortionate, at £235 per night.Food & drink 7/10
“In Vietnam itself most people travel from one end of the country to the other, taking in all the different highlights along the way. With these new flights it will be possible to fly into Hanoi and out of Ho Chi Minh City – or vice versa.”
“For travellers wanting to explore south-east Asia, this new route will make things much easier and should mean one less flight at each end of the journey,” said Natalie Lewis of Audley Travel, a company that began as a south-east Asia specialist 15 years ago.
I had last visited Vietnam more than a decade before, and as the SE1 raced the frenetic road traffic through the Hanoi suburbs, it seemed that every cyclist then now owned a motorbike, and every motorcyclist a car. Tourism has also boomed, and I was travelling in one of two privately run Livitrans sleeping-cars aimed at visitors, a cut above the SE1's regular "soft sleepers" but still only $59 (£38) for the 494 miles to Da Nang.
David Cameron is to make an historic visit to Burma on Friday. He will become the first western leader in a generation to visit the country. His decision comes after the National League for Democracy, the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, won 43 seats in parliament in the first democratic elections for more than 50 years.
You can walk across Oxford’s medieval heart in less than 20 minutes, though on your way don’t be surprised to find a famous face crossing your path, or to catch yourself eavesdropping on snatches of conversation that range from philosophy to politics to physics. Yet despite its lofty, intellectual air there’s a modern dynamism about the city, which bustles with small businesses, intriguing cafes, quirky shops and, nowadays, some of the best hotels and restaurants in the country.
When to go?
London in your lunch break: London Eye
Take your lunch break at...
The London Eye at the South Bank. Hardly an unheard of destination, but this popular viewing point over London has recently launched an interactive guide to about 50 of the many attractions visible from its heights.
Often described as Britain's last wilderness, the remote and rugged Knoydart Peninsula is cut off by road from the rest of the Scottish mainland by a ring of forbidding mountains. Those who do make the sea crossing from Mallaig to get there will be rewarded by pristine highland scenery in all its glory. There are walks to suit all fitness levels, ranging from gentle coastal meanders with views across to Skye to more challenging ascents of munros and corbetts such as Ladhar Bheinn and Sgurr Coire Choinnichean.
This journey through their homelands will start at their southern land defence, the Danevirke, and will explore the evidence for their towns, their burial monuments and, perhaps most importantly, the remains of their ships, including the chance to sail in a replica at Roskilde. John Hines is particularly knowledgeable about the Viking legends and sagas, and he will weave these into the archaeological journey.Whilst the focus of the tour is the Vikings, it would be hard to pass by some impressive discoveries dating to earlier periods, such as the famous Iron Age bog bodies, preserved by the wet terrain, and the richly decorated Gundestrup cauldron of the 1st century BC (in the National Museum).
We also see fine examples of more recent traditional architecture, such as Roskilde’s lovely cathedal.
We finish in Athens, and now spend two days here seeing not only the National Museum, but also the new Acropolis Museum, both with incomparable collections which illustrate all aspects of life and death in Ancient Greece.
The Dordogne Prehistoric Cave Art
From the fierce debate which raged during the 19th century about the age and authenticity of decorated caves, to the most recent scientific research, the Dordogne has been at the centre of study of prehistory for many years.
Across the mountains lies the World Heritage site of Hierapolis, splendid spa city established by the Attalids, where the limestone formations made by the hot medicinal springs have been named Pamukkale - ‘cotton castle’ - by the Turks. From here we continue to the Lycian coast, and the ruined cities of Xanthos, Patara and Telmessos.
This route continued in importance in later eras. It was the delicate jugular vein that linked together the last vestiges of Roman Italy following the Barbarian invasions, and when the Popes seized power in central Italy at the time of the Emperor Charlemagne in the 8th century it held together the Papal States, the so-called Republic of St. Peter.The road finally descends to the Adriatic, and the coastal city of Ravenna where the final western Emperors, Ostrogothic Kings and Byzantine governors built splendid mosaic-filled churches and palaces behind the impenetrable dykes and marshes. The cities were minor centres of the Renaissance too. The Dukes of Urbino were major patrons of artists like Piero della Francesca.
Scholars today have attempted to classify these into groups on stylistic grounds, to date them using science and what is known of environmental conditions at various times, and to guess at their meaning/
