Transylvania Restaurant

Admit it – you've wandered by Transylvania Restaurant in downtown Hollywood but were always too scared to venture in.. Don't be – this throwback to Eastern Europe's yesteryear is the stage for super-nice owner John Baleanu, who might even tell you his tale of absconding over the Romanian border to Yugoslavia and finally to the U.S. The restaurant, which opened in 1996, looks like a Spartan Elks Lodge but occasionally spices things up with an evening show of Romanian dancers, who even show a little skin. Though the restaurant serves lunch and dinner from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, go Sundays for campy Romanian music and an all-you-can-eat buffet, which includes caviar, eggplant, mixed vegetable spread, polenta, stuffed mushrooms, and other delights from pickles to pork. It doesn't have to be Halloween time – all year ’round, it serves goulish offal offerings such as tripe soup, chicken livers, and veal brains.