Eating at a molecular gastronomy restaurant.

There's really only one molecular gastronomy restaurant in Bucharest and it is called - pretty much on point - THE ARTIST.
It's been a long time since I wanted to visit it but circumstance and bad timing seemed to go hand in hand and prevented me from doing that...until last weekend when somehow the stars aligned, a tabled has been booked and it was ON!

But first, for those of you who do not know, what exactly is this..."molecular gastronomy" thing?

Molecular Gastronomy blends physics and chemistry to transform the tastes and textures of food. The result? New and innovative dining experiences. The term Molecular Gastronomy is commonly used to describe a style of cuisine in which chefs explore culinary possibilities by borrowing tools from the science lab and ingredients from the food industry. Formally, the term molecular gastronomy refers to the scientific discipline that studies the physical and chemical processes that occur while cooking
source: http://www.molecularrecipes.com/molecular-gastronomy/

So I was ready to be dazzled, impressed and all my sense challenged.
I did my homework, already knew the the menu and what I wanted to order before I got there. Here's how it looks.

The appetizer menu. As you can see there's a "spoon tasting" option. This is basically how you try everything without going broke ( for the prices in $, divide all that by 4).
What's really cool is that they also bring a lot of extra between meals. For example, before the appetizer they brought bread, butter and some cheese. Only that it looked like that:

WTF, am I right?
VERY TASTY THOUGH!

So anyway, this is how the spoon tasting looked after the 10 minutes it took for the waiter to put all the spoons securely on the table.

Everything was pretty good and interesting but the Torched Beef Tartar was a star.

For the main course I went with Shrimp and Fries. Now, this was all very...traditional I guess I could say. I did not think it was too molecular. but the fires were fun :D

In the end, the dessert is what made this meal. This is the dessert menu. What would you have chosen? :)

I went for the Sorbet and it was a great choice :)
A cucumber sorbet is quite a playful idea nd the presentation was amazing. Very moleculary!

A bit of a DIY as you had to smash the sorbet into the frozen herbs at the bottom. Really cool!

All in all, a very fun experience if a tad expensive but the presentation, the location and the feel ( not to mention the chance to share it with friends! ) made up for it.

Put this in your bucket list :)