About us

The Nastasies needed a lot of courage and a burning desire to fulfill their dream in London. Bogdan Năstasie, from Craiova, worked for four years until he was able to have his shop, in the south area of ​​London, in Croydon. When they came to London in 2014, the Nastasies were going to open a restaurant. They had some money, but not enough. So they set to work to raise the money they needed.

"The wife was four months pregnant," recalls Bogdan Năstasie. "He started working in a coffee shop, but the pay was very low, just under £1,000 a month," he says. Bogdan got a job at the subway as a painter/painter: "I worked day and night, I slept two hours in the morning and rested for a few hours in the evening, just because I wanted to raise money. I knew it was a huge sacrifice and that I couldn't do this forever," he said about the experience of working in London. In parallel, he took private jobs and also earned commissions recruiting for an employment agency. But, in a short time, the Nastasies started to collect money, and their dream was starting to take shape. They wanted to have a Romanian restaurant. They had the necessary experience: "We had a restaurant in the country, in Craiova, in the center. But we had problems in the last two years because an overpass was built on the main boulevard. They blocked us, they cut us off from the big institutions. The number of customers has decreased. So we decided to close and come to England." From the sale of the business in Romania came the money with which they could go on the road. Only they came to the conclusion that a store is easier to open. And so Terra House in Croydon was born

"Terra House" is not an ordinary Romanian store. In addition to the traditional products taken from distributors, here you can find bread and pastries fresh from the oven, cakes made in our own laboratory, cakes, but also home-cooked food. Those who enter here say that it is not a typical Romanian store, it is a supermarket. That's also because it's not small and cramped and easily seen on the shelves.

The menu of the day was the idea of ​​Bogdan's wife. He made ribs in the oven with polenta, and a young Romanian who worked in a nearby office bought some during his lunch break. Then, he also brought his English colleagues, who were impressed by the Romanian dishes. That's how the first customers appeared. Now, Terra House offers the menu of the day at very good prices. From Monday to Friday, you can find sarmalutze with polenta, tochitura, rice pilaf with oven-baked chicken and many other dishes freshly cooked like at home.

Bogdan Năstasie says that he wants everything sold in the store to be as fresh as possible. That's why Terra House is recognized as one of the few Romanian stores that prefers quality, not quantity! And the quality of the goods is the best, because Terra House has its own bakery and confectionery laboratory. At the same time, the smoked meats come from a renowned Romanian butchery in London. There, the meat is smoked with beech wood and is of the best quality. Bogdan says that in England he found a healthy system that encourages you to do business. He is absolutely not thinking about returning to the system in Romania, where there is not a bit of FairPlay. We also avoid watching Romanian channels on TV: "Football and that's it". "For everything I have achieved at the moment, I want to thank first of all my wife who was by my side regardless of the circumstances, my brother, my uncle, my parents, my grandparents who showed me the right path in life and last but not least, to all those who didn't believe in me!", Bogdan Năstasie wanted to mention.

Our Croydon store address is:

206 High Street, CR0 1NE
Phone: 07472137779

And if you're just passing through the area, at least pop in for an Italian coffee and an apple strudel. Deserve! ✌️

Source: Ziarul Românesc interview