Romanian Garden

The food is decent. Price fair, so you can’t complain. Definitely is not a restaurant to go on the date.

My boyfriend brought me here to introduce me to Romanian cuisine, and it was way better than what I had imagined.
We ordered the Fasole Batuta (mashed beans spread) to start. It was delicious, and the fried onions on top made it perfect!
For main course I ordered the Tochitura (Stew with chicken, pork, sausage, mushrooms) with polenta and it was really good. The warm stew with the polenta = perfect for a cold winter evening. I couldn’t finish it, so I had to pack it to go.
My boyfriend ordered the grilled pork with fries, and it was really well balanced in terms of texture and taste.
To top off the evening, there was a live band! Not sure if that’s normal, but it was awesome. Would have been better if there were more people. Nonetheless, a great cultural experience.
In summary:
Delicious food, really friendly staff, and fair prices. .
I wish I could try their entire menu. So I will have to make a trip here again soon.

I went to this place on January 2^nd when it was mostly empty, however the food was great and I was able to introduce my girlfriend not only to Romanian food, but also live Romanian entertainment. Good show but I’m not sure that’s a regular thing.

Food is delicious here. I recommend the mitite which is a sausage and momaliga which is polenta. The icra is also good. You also get some nice old school live music. Overall good place just needs to update the décor.

The food is ok, however the prices are fair.“i love «the waiters service «
If you have no imagination you can eat here

Really good authentic Romanian food with a few hiccups. One waitress is servicing the entire place, thus making the service very slow and inattentive. Inside it’s very warm which makes the stay less desirable. The popanasi is not fresh, but reheated and served. Also it’s cash only business…

Nice spot.
1) It is one of the few Romanian restaurant in East coast.
2) I got the Chicken Stew and polenta and mititei sausage. Both dishes were excellent.
3) Service was also good.

Sunday afternoon…
Place was busy and buzzing. Service was good, the place is clean and tidy.
This missing star is because the way to the restroom is dark. No lights on… And i had the stuffed peppers, which they had the veins with seeds still inside. That’s a big no no in my book of stuffed peppers… For the Romanian recipe too.

Excellent! Probably the best Romanian restaurant in New York.
Good vinete, good mititei, good ciorba.
Noisy and crowded on weekends, the music is too loud.

Lunch at the RG was great! All the good eats of my childhood and young adult years, done just right. Or, as we would say: «ca la mama acasa!» (like mother made it at home) We ordered a bunch of appetizers: polenta with sharp cheese and sour cream, eggplant (vinete), breaded and fried aged cheese (cascaval pane), mixed pickles (the gogonele or green tomatoes were outstanding!), and white bean dip (fasole batuta), all served with fresh crusty bread, beer for my friend and a nice Romanian Riesling for me. I was stuffed after just sampling them all and skipped straight to dessert. We ordered crepes (clatite) with jam and fried papanasi, the equivalent of cheese doughnuts, along with strong Turkish coffee. This lunch was a real treat and I can’t wait to try dinner there.

The food was excellent, authentic, and quite inexpensive. Both the appetizers and the entrees are quite big. Downside for vegetarians: you’ll have to stick to the (delicious) appetizers and sides; there are no vegetarian entrees.
We had the roe salad (salată de icre), the babaganoush-​like eggplant salad (salată de vinete), the meatballs (chiftelue), and the eggplant spread (zacuscă) for appetizers, and the mititei sausages with fries and with beans (iahnie de fasole), and the tochitură. My vegetarian girlfriend got the fried cheese (cacaval pane) appetizer and the cooked sauerkraut (varză călită) side. All the food was great, and there was so much the four of us could barely finish it, and had no room left for dessert.

Great food!!! and my fave fried donuts as alway super tasty!!! Service is very nice and price is cheap — therefore I’m here regular! I think this place have best deal on food in Sunnyside!

I’ve passed this place by, too many times. Finally, I decided to give this sunnyside local dish a spoon-​n-​swirl!
Folks, Romanian Garden is authentic! The food was splendid, to the D. Here’s how we rolled:
Appetizer: polenta (mamaliga) with cheese and sour cream, Butterrrzz!
Strait to the main, therefrom!
Main Course: Romanian skinless sausages (mititei) w fries, we added mujdei (a garlic sauce) highly recommended to top over the fries.
Lastly, the stuffed peppers with sour cream, melts in your mouth with a slight pop at its final displacement.
The service:
We had a lovely waitress, who was friendly, kind and sweet. She brought over a welcoming bread basket and asked how we were. Her presentation was neat, clean and organised. I would recommend her to others, because she was courtiers and professional.
Overall score: 10 for 10. If this place doesn’t get romanian, there wouldn’t be anywhere else that would.

Would «My Big Fat Romanian Wedding» be too obscure?
Completed a culinary tour of the Danube with a trek up Queens Blvd with a native. A Romanian, that is. Started with the meatball soup, which was borscht-​light in nature, with a few rather reasonable meatballs.
Fireworks began with a contrast of sausages — smoky red-​skinned sausages vs the mititei, a savory but delicate skinless delight. Definitely a winner. Might have had something similar at specialty Bavarian places.
Unfortunately, the vaunted stuffed pepper paled in comparison. What makes these peppers unique (compared to the Hamburger Helper + bell pepper concoctions at home) is that they somehow maintain a very distinctive pepper taste. Worth a try, but just doesn’t have the fireworks of the sausages.
Bizarre aesthetics, which include modern art, some art deco, an Asian bamboo-​backed stage, and a private downstairs room. Perfect for an Orthodox baptisim party, which certainly happened after our lunch.
Cash only. Definitely do NOT take plastic. This prevented a review of desserts, as we flat out ran out of money.

As a Romanian, I can attest that this is an authentic Romanian restaurant. The food is wonderfully cooked in true Romanian fashion. The «ardei umplui» (stuffed peppers) were exceptional and it’d be worth trying them out if you’re looking for typical Romanian food. For the braver, you should give «creier de vaca» (calf brain) a try, it is very delicious.
The atmosphere inside is pleasant. It’s quite, clean, and has nice background music. I recommend getting a «cafea turcească» (Turkish coffee) after lunch, it’s quite good but make sure to not stir it for it’s made without a filter and the coffee grains remain at the bottom.
The service wasn’t bad. Our hostess wasn’t particularly enthusiastic, but was on point. I assume the behavior would be the same towards non-​Romanians. Credit cards ARE accepted (except for American Express).
The most unpleasant experience was speaking to the manager, who was the major factor in reducing a star. He spoke offhandedly and was rather dull.
All in all though, our lunch was a good experience and I will certainly stop by again when coming to New York.

Great service. The food was really good and the sampler platter was awesome and enough for 6 people. I had the pork snitel and it was a bit under-​seasoned. I like a little more salt, but that could be just me.
Sad that they only take cash.
I do think I would go back and give it another try.

Was feeling brave and wanted to try something new. Romanian Garden did not let me down. I was feeling very brave, so I got the Fried Calf Brains (Creier Pane) and was plesantly surprised.
When you first walk in, this place stands out as just being different. A lot of the staff at Romanian Garden speak with heavy accents, which for me is a plus. The menu is in English and Romanian, and the smells coming from the kitchen are wonderful. My friend got the eggplant and the sausage. I tried both and had to admit they were very good. My dish, the calf brains, was very large portions and very good. The outside was crispy and the inside was soft. The falvor was quite good, but the fries on the side were a little weird. (I think that may have been a misunderanding while ordering… but the fries weren’t bad.)
I would absolutely go back whenever I had a craving for Romanian food.

This place is a little out of the way from my usual haunts but I’m glad I came. For dinner on a rainy Friday night there wasn’t a lot of patrons so there was no need for reservations. We got the eggplant salad spread (Salata De Vinete) for an appetizer and I have to say, it was really yummy! The appetizer was a purée of eggplant and tomato and the latter ingredient added a little kick to the overall taste.
For the entrée I got the meat stuffed peppers (Ardei Umpluti) which is a traditional Romanian dish. This came with two small bell peppers stuffed with minced meat, smothered with tomato sauce, and encircled by three dollops of sour cream. The tomato sauce was really tasty and helped balance out the meat. I think I had too much of the appetizer and complimentary bread because I could only finish one pepper.
This is a cute place with lots of seating — I’m not sure why there weren’t that many people here.

This place was packed solid when we went there on a Saturday night — you could tell a lot of Romanian families go there dressed up for a night out.
The appetizers (salad and fried cheese) were ok, and they basically gave you a whole loaf of bread for the table. The entrees looked amazing when they came out — my mother-​in-​law got a stewed chicken leg with polenta, my husband got a skinless sausage with fries, and I got the Romanian stew with polenta (one side had cheese topping and the other had a fried egg).
Unfortunately, just like several other previous reviews, my Romanian stew was cold. Not just «it got cold» from sitting out — it was obviously from frozen/​refrigerated and heated up by microwave. The flavor was actually REALLY good, but after 3 – 4 steaming hot bites, the meat in the middle was literally ice cold. I had them bring it back to reheat. They obviously just put the whole plate in the microwave, as when it came back, the cheese was totally melted/​rubberized on the polenta and the egg was practically hard boiled/​rubberized as well. I took another few bites and it was the same thing: one bite was piping hot, and the next was lukewarm at best. I gave up and just ate the polenta and egg — and the egg had an egg shell in it!
At this point I just had to stop altogether… I’m just glad I didn’t get sick. I really wish I could have given this place a better review, as everyone else had a great entrée. The service was ok and they were apologetic about the cold stew, but this is obviously an ongoing problem and food poisoning waiting to happen. As an experienced microwaver, all I have to say is this: stir the food around halfway through microwaving and it will be fine.
Otherwise, it was decently priced for a good selection of food. Also, they don’t take AMEX.

Seems to be a good neighborhood spot, lots of regulars it seems.
Not sure how authentic calamari is in a Romanian setting but I the marinara sauce was straight out of the fridge. Calamari itself was lightly fried and very good texture.
I was really looking forward to my entrée, which was prime rib served with white beans. It seemed like the beans were microwaved in a the giant bowl it was served in (scorching hot on the outside, still cold in the middle) — nothing a good stirring couldn’t fix, but still a bit disappointing. The prime rib was overcooked (well done rather than medium) but I like the flame-​grilled taste.