The first Romanian edition of the international guide Gault&Millau will be officially launched on May 14 this year, when the Gault&Millau Romania awards and the official 2018 restaurant rating will also be announced.

A total of 90 restaurants and 51 POPs in Bucharest, Cluj, Timisoara, Oradea, Brasov and Sibiu have been selected for the first edition of the Gault&Millau Romania guide. The selection process took place between November and mid-April and involved a mixed team of 14 Romanian and international evaluators.

“The launch of the first local edition of the Gault&Millau guide in May will be a multiple premiere. For the first time, an international restaurant rating has been carried out in Romania, following the same principles and the same system that applies throughout the Gault&Millau network, whether it is France, Poland, Australia, Canada or Japan. Restaurants in Romania will become more visible and connected to what is happening today in the gourmet world,” said Stefan Mortici, co-CEO Gault&Millau Romania.

Gault&Millau rates restaurants on a scale of 1 to 20, with 20 highest, and only the restaurants receiving at least 10 points are listed in the guide. The restaurants also get chef hats, based on their scores. The maximum of chef hats a restaurant can get is 5.

The evaluation of restaurants is based on several criteria to reflect the concept of complete experience where the central elements are the vision and technique of the chef. The highest share (of about 70%) in the evaluation of a restaurant is the one strictly related to the menu, while the service, the atmosphere, the design, the quality-price ratio, and other criteria represent the difference of about 30%.

The guide will also include POPs, which are places that offer a more relaxed and/or more accessible atmosphere than restaurants. These places are also evaluated but do not receive points or chef hats, being a separate category from the restaurants in the guide.

Food journalists Henri Gault and Christian Millau established the guide 50 years ago in France. Nowadays, the Gault&Millau guide is present in over 30 countries on six continents.

International restaurant guide to launch Romanian edition

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com