We are hardly what you would call fashionistas here at Bucharest Life. To be perfectly honest, our idea of fashion is Man at C&A, while high fashion would be the Angelo Littrio Collection at C&A.

So it was with a mix of surprise and dread that we found ourselves in a front-row seat at the presentation of a new collection by a top Romanian designer last night, held at the now achingly-trendy but-can’t-they-think-of-anywhere-else Ark, on Calea Rahovei.

(By the way, outside the Ark is Bucharest’s biggest flower market, apparently open all day and all night. It is some sight and worth a look if you are around. Find it here).

Predictably, it all started about 45 minutes late, but our attention was immediately bought by the opening ‘act’: a fella in trousers and a woman in a dress that failed to cover her underwear rolling around on the stage in front of us. To see women on stage in their underwear is something we are usually happy to pay good money for.

Anyway, while the clothes were not as ridiculous as we had hoped for – some were perfectly wearable – the gathered press pack did not appear to leave all that impressed with the collection. ‘Underwhelming’ was the reaction of the two or three fashion types whose opinions we gathered.

What appeared to have put most people off however was the music: heavy German metal from a band called Rammstein played at a volume so loud that at one moment we thought our fillings would fall out of our teeth.

Anyway, to recover we went to New Amsterdam: also known as the Grand Cafe Van Gogh, opposite the National Bank. Very nice it is too: a simple daily menu of mildly adventurous Indonesian food alongside toasted sandwiches and baguettes.

We had the green curry, which was terrific, and the rather vague Asian chicken, which was fair.

It is a wonderful place though, dare we say better than the original Amsterdam. Full with Dutch expats on a Thursday night, it appears to be something of an instant winner.