It would have been nice if my first post-hiatus restaurant had been a little bit better than this, but then my pre-hiatus restaurant wasn’t great either. So I guess there’s a symmetry there.
And I won’t say that Moldova Restaurant was flat-out bad. The meal had its moments.
It started out uniquely enough — the bread basket came with a side of some kind of sweet, intensely garlicky salsa. It was interesting.
I started with the zamma — a Moldovan take on chicken noodle soup. Aside from the pronounced dill flavour, this tasted like it could have come out of a can. The hearty chunks of chicken and potato added some substance, but the flavour was just generic saltiness.
Next up was the chebureki, which the menu describes as a “fried meat pie.” This was fine. The thin pie shell was nice and crispy, and the sausagey filling was mild, but satisfying. I feel like it was missing something, but it was enjoyable enough.
Finally there was the mamaliga, which is essentially a Moldovan polenta. I like polenta, but I wasn’t crazy about this version. It was pretty tasteless (hence the sour cream and the feta cheese), and the texture was overly thick and gluey.
Around the World in 196 Plates 