Yesterday I shared my experience during my visit to the Red Lake. If you missed it, you can still read about it here -> One Wet Day At Lacul Rosu And Bicaz George. I wanted to cover our restaurant visit as well, but the post got too long and did not want to make it longer. So today is the day to share my review of the Oxygen Resto.
The address of the restaurant is Dn 12C, Gheorgheni 535500 Romania. It is on the road between Gheorgheni and Lacul Roșu. The only way to get there is by car.
There's a big parking lot available in front of the restaurant, so no worries.
The truth is, we planned to have late lunch or dinner at the Basa Fogadó at Borzont, because we knew the food is excellent, but I spoke to them on the phone and was told, tables will only be available after 7pm, which was too late for us. This is why we stopped at the Oxygen Resto, which was on our way, next to the road.
The restaurant is quite spacious, it's a modern construction taking advantage of the gorgeous view of the valley, through the huge glass windows. There are individual tables of six and long tables for groups as well. There's a terrace in front of the restaurant, where you can admire the view while eating, if the weather permits.
Serving is done by the customers. It's kind of self serving, except for the drinks. You get a tray, go to the food counter, pick what you want and pay. There's a QR code in the table as well, which leads you to the online menu of the restaurant, so you can see what's on the menu and how much the menu costs.
What was interesting was this tray cover. It's a paper with reviews left by customers. There was one in English, from a guy from Martinique, but there was a Spanish review as well.) Also has the contact details of the restaurant, along with a space for your review if you like to leave one for them. It's a good idea, original I suppose, but at the end of the day, the choice of which one to print on the paper is the owner's or of the management, so ... you know.
We got there Saturday at around 5pm and even though the food looked good at first glance, the offer was kind of weak, compared to their online menu, which leads me to believe, the rest was already sold out.
There were 4 traditional soups available, with sour cream and hot pepper, if you wanted.
What you see on this tray is tripe soup, beef shank with French fries and cabbage salad.
Same soup, ribs and French fries, plus hot pepper for the soup.
This was mine, tripe soup, sour cream, grilled chicken with French fries and cabbage salad. At first glance it looked good and was really hungry, but the soup was not so great. I wasn't the only one who did not like the soup, the other two had the same opinion. It wasn't bad but it wasn't what I was hoping for either.
I said, never mind, I still have the main course. It's just that the French fries were cold (everyone's French fries was cold by the way), and the chicken was undercooked, or rare, not even medium, which would have not been ideal either, as it should have been well done. There was blood coming out of the meat when I got close to the bone.
At that point I had enough, stood up, picked the plate up and took it back. After 5 minutes, i got an apology and a new dish. This time the French fries were hot and the chicken was well done. It was good but I already lost my appetite.
Now you can say I'm picky (which is not true by the way), but the truth is, half of the team was not satisfied with the food.
There were some desserts too, among which the famous tiramisu and the local favorite, the Somlói galuska. Translate to English would mean Somlói dumplings, where Somló is a 431 meter high volcanic mountain. What you see here is tiramisu. I did not order dessert as these are not my favorites.
All in all, the place is nice, the view is gorgeous (I did not take more photos as it was raining), but the food was not what I was expecting, so next time we well definitely pick a different place.
If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides:
