Patiseria Eugenia

The most-reviewed café in Craiova, and not really a café — it is a cofetărie, which is a different institution and one worth understanding before you order.

A *cofetărie* is a patisserie that serves coffee, rather than a coffee shop that serves cake. The coffee is usually unremarkable; the *prăjituri*, the *savarine* and the *amandine* are the point, and the rooms are often unchanged since the 1970s in a way that is now accidentally charming. Romanian cities have both institutions running in parallel, and specialty coffee has not replaced this one.

Its position is the other thing. Strada Mihai Viteazul 17 is thirty seconds from the stalls of the Christmas market in Piața Mihai Viteazul — and since an hour and a half outdoors is the realistic limit on a Craiova December evening, where the problem is damp rather than frost, this is exactly what it is for.

One honesty: the papanași every *cofetărie* here serves are Moldovan in origin, not Oltenian. They are excellent and you should eat them; just do not let anyone tell you they are a reason to come to Craiova. For coffee taken seriously rather than cake, Coffee Story, Harvest and Bad Habits are all within a seven-minute walk — specialty coffee in Craiova has the set.