When Nazil Andreus returned from his medicine studied in Romania he decided that instead of being a physician he wanted to be a restaurateur. Andreus went to Romania to study medicine, however, in 1989 a revolution broke out in Romania wiping out the communist regime, and putting a stop to his medicine studies. When he returned to Israel he registered to chemistry, food and biotechnology studies; he worked in quality control for the Straus Concern and other factories; served as a youth coordinator in the Scouts youth movement and a sports coordinator in his village, Tarshiha, and only in 2005 became available to pursue his childhood dream and open a restaurant. He built his restaurant on the road going up to Tarshiha. “It is a Romanian restaurant and in Romania” says Andreus, “the restaurants there are simple, so I designed the restaurant with simplicity”.
And the restaurant is indeed rustic and simple. The food served in it is also unpretentious: it is simple, very tasty and true to the source. Andreus, says that he likes to cook and to entertain and that many of his guests are returning customers who have become personal friends. He cooks and serves in person the food that he came to love when he was a student in Romania, food that is so very different from the Arabic food he grew up on.
“The food in the Transylvania area” he says “is impacted greatly by Hungarian food and therefore I cook, in addition to classic Romanian dishes, Hungarian food as well”.
And to be sure, alongside the Romanian Kebab, the Mămăligă, the Ciorba soup, the smoked Kostiza, cherry soup, Romanian eggplant served with live onions and the Ikra salad, the menu also offers Hungarian dishes such as: stuffed cabbage, Gulash with dumplings, Goulash soup, beans and Paprikash – chicken breast in Paprika. In addition to these the restaurant serves old traditional Jewish food, as Andreus calls it, like chopped liver, calf’s foot jelly, Varnikes filled with potatoes. For diners who do not wish to eat Romanian or Hungarian food the menu offers pullet steak as well.
Desserts include among others: Papanaşi with ice cream and cherry cream and Hungarian Kurtosh.
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