As spring taunts us for a few hours every day now, and we have the occasional warm evening, I figured it was high time we headed over for a “nice” comfortable evening walk around Lipscani. The street-side tables are beginning to blossom, as the national flower of “old town” seems to be the cafe umbrella… they’re planted everywhere. We parallel parked our car along the curbside on Calea Victoriei, which is a ten meter walk, if that into the “entry” of Valea Regilor, the unique (at least to us “new urban” minded Americans) covered alley-turned-cafe-tunnel that walks you directly in to old town Lipscani. So we meandered our way through the ordered chaos of partial renovations and jumping hot-spots to see “what’s new”. With a peak into some of the shops and a brief walk past the Irish Pubs and Sushi “bars” we wound up right back at Valea Regilor to sit down and relax at Egipt; the casual pseudo-arabic themed lounge/sheesha bar/cafe for a cheap Nargila and beer. It was more crowded than usual, and required reservations, but we were able to wrangle up a table. For the budget minded, this place is IT. I ordered an Ursus Black beer, half a liter, for 7 lei. Can’t beat that. Our nargila, that lasted longer than we could smoke, was 11 lei. With everyones drinks the total came to less than 40 lei, so cheaper than cheap for a group night out. So being that this was a monday night and the place was packed full, it may be becoming enough of a haven that reservations will become almost mandatory. Call ahead and book your table.

16-20 Calea Victoriei 
021-311 29 69

Here is an interesting map of Lipscani, courtesy of media9

…

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Related posts on cafanea
• Din seria greseli de filme,la Luna Noua s-au remarcat deja 22…

• Related posts on Calea Victoriei
• Câte ceva despre patimile legate de Casa Monteoru, sediu al USR …
• Povestiri de Calea Victoriei | CeiMaiFrumosiAni
• Stiri » Povestiri de Calea Victoriei, o conferinta interactiva cu …

• Related posts on coffee shop
• dedication « run boston
• After the Greek Riots › #228 | Carmen M. is not alone… (the …

Incoming search terms:

• adidas lipscani
• interesting map
• calea victoriei map
• la luna bistro
• shisha bar bucuresti
• order nargila in iasi
• nargile cafe bukarest
• map posts
• lipscani 7
• hookah bars in bucharest

Related posts:

1. The “New” Old Lipscani
2. La Motoare to close?
3. Cafenea Ramayana. Great Tea…

According to the sign on the door, Ramayana is open all hours. Great for us.. but what’s inside?

As it’s name may indicate, Ramayana is an specifically themed coffee shop where upon entering, one is greeted by a small foyer area that lets you walk either left or right into the cozy seating areas. Once seated on either the built-in style wrap-around seats, or stuffed circular ottomans, you’ll be able to comfortable look around, and up, at the multicolored fabric gathered and draped around the ceiling and walls. The stained glass windows add a touch of color to the candle-lit interior. We have returned for two reasons: the late night hours, as well as the best tea we’ve had so far in Bucharest. The tea we prefer as well as recommend is the “White Blueberry” which after it’s free “refill” or “rebrew” provides a grand total of around 18 cups ! There were three of us in our group and we were able to refill our teacups just about 6 times each through both brews. Wow. Not to mention it was only 15 Ron for the pot and that INCLUDED the re-brew. Of course, the secondary theme going on in this Arabesque cafe is the Nargila, or sheesha pipes.

Everyone at every table was participating in this growing pastime. While the sheesha was still some of the best in Bucharest, every flavor hinted of the prior flavor, as they seem to not clean the actual pipe part of the Narghelea. Happened to us four times in a row, so who knows. The finger-food is actually pretty decent by coffee-shop standards. It is frozen, so it stays reasonably fresh, then reheated in a convection oven. The baguette that I had stayed golden-crispy on the outside, while warm and chewy in the inside… bravo to that.

Str. Baldovin Parcalabul nr. 11

Reservations (recommended)

021-317-16-81

0788-595-595

A new update on the hookah trend: When a few of our expat group traveled to Romania for the first time, it was very “entertaining” for us to see a hookah pipe in “real life” for the first time. This had always been something we’d only seen in movies or reserved for the Caterpillar in Alice In Wonderland. When our first pipe was set down in front of us we really had zero clue as to what to do next. It looked fragile and scary. We starred uncomfortably as our minds were filled with unknown worry. What would happen when we took our first “draw”? Would we break the pipe? Would we break our lungs?? Would we be laughed at by everyone we felt was starring us down??? The stupid Americans that have no culture and really no clue are about to embarrass themselves! Not so fast – we tried it, we loved it, we tried it some more… And just like that the Americans were converted. This is culture and “class” all rolled up in a hubbly-bubbly vase. It has been years since this first hookah experience of ours. Since then we have traveled around a bit more, and noticed – over time – that a once shunned “fairytale only” pastime was now becoming more and more “acceptable”. No it is not pot. No it is not a harsh drug. No it is not something that should be looked upon with slanted eyes from the powers that be. On one of our visits back to the States we decided that we needed to place online orders for some hookah pipes and the sheesha tobacco. We ordered both flavoured tobacco and the “dried fruit” herbal sheesha as well. This combined with a variety of different pipes and vases made for a very nice “atmosphere” in our real estate office Stateside. At the point of bringing our sheesha experience home to the States, we lured some skeptical friends and associates in with the scent of fruity smoke. Some smoked, most didn’t. Fast forward the clock and hookah is catching on. Coffee shops around the world are incorporating this element at record pace. It is becoming the “hot” trend in many forward-thinking (or backward thinking depending on how you look at it) cities particularly in the US. Who would have thought? We would have!

Incoming search terms:

• nargila cafe interior
• arabesque cafe
• shisha pipe bucharest
• ramayana - bucharest
• nargile caffe interior design
• best hookah restaurant interior
• hookah constanta
• Cafenea Ramayana info
• cafenea
• ramayana caffe

Related posts:

1. High Heels Cafe At AFI Mall Has Live Sax!
2. Wifi & Parking & Coffee
3. A Not So Great Experience…

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Related posts on City Grill
• Gem city grill serves up some great food in Marietta!
• Well, Shucks . . . Fish City Grill Celebrates its First Oyster Fest

• Related posts on Lipscani
• Georgia (2), by Imperator: “pentru fumatori, Georgia este o …
• Tunele sub Bucure?ti « Superbadgirls
• Istodor » Blog Archive » Lipscani, razboaie neterminate. Basescu …

Related posts:

1. So What To Do Today?
2. Is There Variety In Food?