This week I am touring around Bucharest. It has been a tradition to visit Lebanese restaurants around the world while I am in a new city. I like to give them a try for support and to check how our flavors are doing around the world. Karamna is one of Bucharest's famous Lebanese restaurants of the Romania capital.
An individual house welcomes you for lunch and dinner. At least, they put Arabic music. You’ll find a main dining area, a terrace and a roof. A clean space, white colors, tables covered with tablecloth, wooden tables and a fridge display of desserts. I felt like I was actually in Lebanon, the place feels Lebanese and has some Lebanese vibes.
Meeting the owner he insisted we taste everything. The table was covered to the last inch with almost everything they have on the menu.
A menu with more than 122 items listed with their pictures showcase the Lebanese cuisine from the four corners of our country. They even have eggs with kawarma.
The food is good, the ambiance is enjoyable, and the service is good. The staff is Romanian and understands the Lebanese hospitality... And the chef knows what he's doing.
Dinner is served:
- It's cheese rolls made of local pastry dough. Chewy, lightly sweet the roles are filled with salted cheese. It's different than the ones we have in Lebanon but one can't deny it's good.
- The hummus is good, you can taste the tahini, the lightly lemony taste and an after note that's stays.
- Sambousik is made with the ingredients available in this country. A light dough and salty white cheese. A good one.
- Mouhammara sandwiches, spicy and intense sprinkled with sesame.
- Lahme beajine with real flavors of meat, light tomato, lemon and spices.
- Labneh, good homemade Labneh.
- Chicken rolls, juicy and flavorful.
- Stuffed grapevine leaves using tender grapevines, a tender heart, and rice cooked to perfection and a lemon ending.
- A good tabbouleh. A really good tabbouleh far from home.
- Mouhammara: that's the only thing I'll change. It's mashed a bit too much and needs more olive oil.
- Ras Asfour is proper in size, the flavors but the meat is a bit chewy.
- Kebbeh: a lift crunchy envelope, a generous stuffed heart of juicy meat, light onions and equilibrated spices.
- Makanek, as good as they should be.
- Wait until you've tried their mixed grill. Amazing juicy and tender meat with fine marination, tender chicken and superb kafta. Two thumbs up.
Lebanese coffee followed and then desserts. Homemade mafroukeh, homemade kashta and homemade baklava. Oh wow! That's the least that can be said.
Here’s a Lebanese restaurant that’s trying to recreate Lebanese flavors with what products available in Romania. That's my recommendation for a Lebanese meal in Bucharest.
