LAZY Friday afternoons were meant to be whiled away in places like Personi.

We ducked into this small Irish pub-like restaurant on our way to a movie and told the waitress we were in a hurry - a concept that Bulgarians have never really warmed up to. It was too bad, though, that she made good on her promise to serve us before anybody else, because we actually could have relaxed there all day.

It could take you almost an afternoon just to get through the Personi menu. It's several pages thick, with easily a couple of hundred choices that range from elegant-sounding entrees for the evening to good bar standards like Irish beer, fish fingers and crinkled French fries. There's also a staggering variety of meat and fish: You have your pick of the animal kingdom, from lamb and doe to rabbit and roe.

First, we greedily devoured the complimentary hors d'oeuvres: three red pepper-spiced balls of white cheese with yoghurt. Though we craved in vain for some crackers to go with them (Bulgarians have never really warmed up to the dip-and-crackers concept either, have they?), we made sure to order an extra ball to smother our finger foods in later.

The appetisers here are interesting and filling. The Acapulco salad with roasted peppers, red beans, corn and tabasco sauce, was fresh but overpowered by garlic. It was a surprise to see breaded fried broccoli on the menu (Bulgarians haven't really warmed up to this vegetable, either) and it didn't disappoint.

Since Personi is a laid-back, put-your-elbows-on-the-table sort of place at lunchtime, we weren't ashamed to throw down our forks, roll up our sleeves and let the dipping begin - some of us slathered the broccoli in the yoghurt-cheese paste, others in ketchup. We had no such fun, though, with the fried cheese with sesame, which amounted to about a half-dozen triangles of processed-tasting cheese with just a whiff of sesame. You'd find better stuff in a mousetrap.

The more sophisticated dishes suggested that Personi isn't just for casual dining. The chicken fillet with cream, olives and pickles arrived hot, tender and perfect. Our salt pancake, a pocket of sweet onions, carrots, pickles and some kind of melted French cheese, was a good choice, too.

You easily could run up your dinner tab here with the exotic meat entrees, but our noontime party of three kept the damage to 21 leva. That would seem like the kind of deal that could put Murphy's, probably Sofia's most well-known pub, out of business - except Bulgaria's expats wouldn't warm up to the idea of even one less Irish pub...