Since the fireplace in the large back room was unlit this evening, I sat up front, where a couple of regulars added their own commentary to the day's soccer highlights. I started off with mamaliga cu brinza si smintina ($3.99), a soft, slightly grainy yellow polenta smothered with very salty grated cheese and dressed with chilled dollops of sour cream. It's a very heavy appetizer, best split four ways, or more.
I wasn't expecting a platter, let alone such a pretty spread, when I ordered ostropel de pui ($8.99), chicken stew with red garlic sauce. The chicken is very tender; the sauce, mild, though I expect the kitchen would accommodate special requests from garlic lovers. For a side, my friendly server suggested mashed potatoes to sop up the sauce; as for the sliced white bread on the table, I gave it a pass.
For a group lunch on another occasion, we ordered an appetizer platter of drob, an Eastertime meat loaf dotted with greens, lamb liver and heart (bland, to my taste); fasole batuta, a bean spread enlivened with fried onions; salata de vinete, an eggplant salad with raw, chopped onions; and cirnaciori oltenesti, crisp pork sausages also offered as a (surely popular) entrée.
My entrée that day was another Easter specialty, a hefty hunk of lamb ($12) braised in a savory sauce, perhaps with red wine. Typically for Romanian Garden, it was straightforward, even workmanlike, but also very gratifying.
Romanian Garden (a.k.a. Cornel's Garden Restaurant)
46-04 Skillman Ave., Sunnyside, Queens
718-786-7894
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