After years of dedicated work, and by that I mean eating, I’ve finally found the very best restaurant in my beloved Romania. Being a travel lover and digital nomad, I decided to change the scenery of 2020, which mostly consisted of my home office and a few real office trips, and visit a few of my favourite cities in my country for a week or so. For fun, and for work.
Right after visiting Sibiu and the amazing ASTRA Village Museum, the largest outdoor museum in Europe, I’ve decided to do the same “work from home, away from home for a week” trip to Oradea. For those of you who’ve never heard of it, Oradea is a superb city in western Romania, right on the border with Hungary, with great architecture, perfect living conditions, and neat food.
Best restaurant in Romania
Piata 9, or Market 9 in English, is a restaurant in Oradea, right in the middle of an outdoor shopping mall. When I usually get to go to the mall, I’m not expecting much from the food. Well, I’m not expecting much from any other store, but I digress. Piata 9 though is different. When you go inside the place, you’re immediately hit by the beauty and the great compartmentation you see.
And then comes the menu. Simple, but sophisticated. Not too little, but not too much. In fact, if you were to order online, you’d get to choose between just a part of the actual menu, but the enough part of it. Complete with burgers, ribs, steaks, salads, roasted chicken, amazing sides, incredible sauces, pastries and cakes. Everything is well priced and extremely delicious.
What makes this Piata 9 the best restaurant that I’ve ever been to in the whole of Romania? The freshness and the homemade aspects of it. Everything they serve is prepared in the morning, and everything is made in house. The meats, the sauces, the bread and buns, the fries, the cheesecake and the cinnamon rolls. All of them are made 100% in house.
Meals and prices
Another incredible aspect of Piata 9 is the prices of the meals. For about $10 you get a 100% homemade Angus burger with parmesan-covered fries and a delicious baked garlic sauce. For a few bucks extra you can get a dessert that’s out of this world. Steaks go for a tad more, but the Josper grill gives them the taste that’s unmatchable. Coffee is reasonably priced and delicious.
The reason why they’ve called the place Piata 9, or Market 9, is because you can buy most of these ingredients from their meals by themselves. Burger patties, steaks, chicken, ready-to-cook meals, they’re all there for you to take home and cook by yourself. And they’re much cheaper if you’re willing to put in the work. About 35% cheaper! It’s a done deal.
And now, for the photos…
I’m here to tell you, I’m the first guy to jump on a plane and fly 1000 miles to Italy to try a new sweet burger. Been there, done that. But with Piata 9, their food is worth the trip! I’m not saying you should board a plane to Oradea during a pandemic for it, but you might just be very tempted to. The first two photos are my last dinner in Oradea.
The next is from their Instagram and Facebook. Don’t worry, that’s exactly what you’re getting once there!
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