Shtastliveca Restaurant Sofia – Bulgaria

Atmospheric But…!

Shtastliveca Restaurant Sofia is located on the main pedestrianized street, ‘Vitosha’ and is quite popular. At first sight, it does not fill your eye. The interior style, pieces of furniture, the colours though are eye catchy! Pictures, posters, colourful wallpaper, floral fabrics and the baroque pieces of furniture blend harmoniously out here, making the interior very attractive.

All this got me excited the first moments and I was looking forward to seeing if all this nice atmosphere of the interior matched with what the cuisine had to offer.

Shtastliveca Restaurant Sofia is divided in two levels. The upper circular space and the ground floor where we chose to sit. The first drawback is that down by the ground floor, the tables by the centre are literally one on top of the other only to accommodate all their customers. This space gets extremely crowded especially during weekends.

Shtastliveca Restaurant Sofia

The menu is extensive with Steaks, Fish, Pizza, Salads, so you can be sure there will be something for everyone, with several Bulgarian national dishes and a few European, presented with a twist.

Salad

We started off with a Salad which was fine but the portion was extremely small. My own choice was not that bad even though I had higher expectations from such popular restaurant. The meat was tender and juicy but the overall taste did not excite me.

Service was slow with a waiter totally amateur. The worst of all was that our dishes were brought to the table at intervals. Imagine,I had almost finished my dish when the last person was just starting!

The second dish we had was totally unacceptable. Only some trace of meat hidden under all that greasy fat. Yuk! We even informed the waiter, showing her all the fat but she just nodded and left. The dish was left untouched. We requested to see somebody from the cuisine, but the waiter showed up much later only to give us the bill.  We expected at least an apology, perhaps have it replaced but this never happened.

Verdict

Actually what is impressive with this restaurant is just the interior and the atmosphere it evokes, inspired by the urban home style of the 30’s. The relaxing seating (if not crowded) the dominating chandelier and ceiling, the ‘mystery’ of the upper floor. The Bar and curtains, the lit candles and candlesticks and all the decorative elements and colourful fabrics …but that’s all. All positives stop here. The food at least what we had was average to very bad. Usually with so many customers, one expects the food to be really good. In the case of the Shtastliveca Restaurant Sofia, the popularity comes only from its atmospheric interior! So, if you decide to get to this restaurant have all the above in mind. Go for the atmosphere, with fewer expectations on food!

Phone and Book Your Table +359 2 4411 155

Have you tried the cuisine of Shtastliveca Restaurant Sofia ? What was your own experience like? Comments count a lot!