Spartan is coming to Brăila Plaza

Spartan has signed the lease for a restaurant at Brăila Plaza, the retail park NestPlus is developing on Strada Industriei in Brăila, and opens together with the park on 3 December 2026.

The restaurant will be in the park's food court, right next to Mesopotamia, and joins Burger King in the food offer at Brăila Plaza. Brăila is already on the Spartan map: the new unit extends the brand's presence in the city.

Spartan's story began in 2012 in Suceava, where Ștefan Mandachi, a law graduate and former lawyer, opened the first restaurant in Iulius Mall. By his own account, he started with second-hand equipment and an investment of around 25,000 euro. Less than two years later, Spartan granted its first franchise, in Timișoara — and franchising has driven the brand's growth ever since.

From the outset the concept was a modern fast-food format built on Greek-inspired recipes rather than a traditional taverna: gyros, rotisserie specialities and the house sauces — garlic, tzatziki, sweet-and-sour and vegetable — under the brand's motto that the sauce makes the difference.

The network grew from 18 restaurants at the end of 2015 to 31 in 2017 and 75 at the start of 2023. The latest public figures, from October 2026, put Spartan at 56 restaurants in 25 Romanian cities — 24 company-owned and 32 franchised — plus a restaurant in Castelló de la Plana, Spain.

In 2025 the whole network reported turnover of more than 270 million lei, served around 4.5 million customers and employed more than 1,000 people. CEO Gabriel Melniciuc described 2025 as a year of consolidation and development, with profits reinvested in the network, in modernising restaurants and in supporting franchise partners.

For 2026 the company budgeted more than 15 million lei in investment and at least 10 new restaurants, alongside a rebranding begun in December 2024 that is already visible in Suceava, Cluj-Napoca, Drobeta-Turnu Severin, Piatra Neamț, Craiova and Bucharest. This year's openings include Cluj-Napoca, Râmnicu Vâlcea and Satu Mare — and now Brăila Plaza.