Fish restaurants are popular and common near the Black Sea coast, but only a few offer good fish food.

Finding those that do is made more difficult by the dense foliage of garden plants and immense trees growing along the harbour that often camouflage their location.

Having found and climbed the stairs that lead to the Kirik restaurant, you are pleasantly greeted by a number of cute cats that prowl amongst the wild flowers. However, as the sky begins to darken into evening, the continuous catfights and grovelling for food loose their attraction. They soon become quite irritating.

The restaurant has an outdoor terrace and a few tables situated inside. Both overlook the port, the island in the bay and, of course, the summer sunset.

Framing this view are wonderful pink orthensias that reach up to the skies amongst huge trees covered in climbing ivy. The scene suggests A Midsum-mer Night's Dream, with the drapes of vines and flowers swinging in the wind uncovering the entrance to a garden with flowers full of life and vivid colours.

It is a pity, then, that the owners did not bother to furnish the restaurant a little better. The interior of the Kirik offers only lawn furniture and a red plastic olive oil and vinegar holder on the table to complement the scene outside.

Reality hits home when the background music is heard. Designed, no doubt, to provide a 'tranquil ambience', this seems to mean a choice of French songs from the 80s thrown in with "You're the One That I Want" from Grease, and "It's a Whole New World" from the Disney film Aladdin. But at least the Kirik is a long way from the main street with its non-stop techno music.

The menu provides little choice of either starters or main fish courses. What it does offer cost about three leva for the appetizers, while the fish dishes can be up to 10 leva each.

We ordered a Kirik salad, thinking that it will be the usual assortment of typical Bulgarian salads. However it proved a huge disappointment, as were the cold fish entrees. The salad consisted only of assorted canned or frozen vegetables with occasional tomatoes and cucumbers thrown in. The fish, on the other hand, were marinated in some sauce making them extremely salty and rubbery. At this point it would have been easy to loose hope but fortunately we did not, as the divine main fish courses were yet to come.

We asked the waiter to recommend a grilled fish, and simply ordered what was suggested. We were not disappointed. The grilled blue fish was meaty and so juicy you could feel its softness while the taste permeated in your mouth, giving all the taste buds a pleasant surprise.

Although it came with a relatively similar name, the taste of the grilled little blue fish provided a different sort of sensation. It was smaller and therefore we received more than one fish. These were crispier and saltier, definitely unlike the blue fish. Both were served with delightful spicy yoghurt that complemented the dish well and, in my opinion, was much better than the usual heavy tartar sauce.

In conclusion, Kirik is worth visiting because of the garden scenery and excellent grilled fish. It is suitable for family meals and most of the crowd consists of families. If you visit, however, I suggest you forget about the appetizers and directly order the main course. Although the staff speak little English, you may want to insist on knowing which fish are fresh and which are grilled, as it is not said on the menu.

Another possibility is to ask them to prepare a variety of fresh fish either grilled or fried. I hear that this can be delicious.