Address: 4 Budapest Street (side entrance)
Telephone: 987 4120
Open: 11.00-23.00 daily, Peak times 12.00-14.00 and 19.00-21.00


Dr Faust Restaurant, one of Sofia's newest taste sensations, opened as recently as March 8, and is already making its name among food connoisseurs. I had to come to try it for myself and, like me, you are probably wondering about the name.
The name Dr Faust is befitting as the restaurant faces the Goethe Institute, named after one of the most important German writers and poets, who in the literary world is talked about in the same breath as William Shakespeare, Dante Aligheri and Miguel de Cervantes. Goethe wrote his own account of the Dr Faust legend in 1808.
The tale of Dr Faust, a travelling fortuneteller and magician, many believed of questionable but extravagant character, originated in the 16th century. He was bored with the simple things in life, so much so that the legend is that he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for a life full of immediate, long-lasting and unexampled sensuous pleasures.
The restaurant undertakes to provide is patrons with the same feeling of unexampled sensuous gastronomic pleasure.
Greeted by a polite and courteous maitre'd I was shown to a candlelit, modern and elegantly set table that had the air of fine dining but relaxed lounge style comfort.
The menu was devised by George Armenkov, the famous Bulgarian chef, with French style cuisine in mind. La Carte is available in both Bulgarian and English.
The polite and helpful stylishly black-uniformed staff are competent in English and French as well as Bulgarian with the young professionals, bankers, doctors and politicians who frequent the restaurant.
Now for the food. There are many tasty treats on offer, and the waiter's recommendations didn't fail to please. A three-course taste bud explosion started with:
Tomatoes with tuna fish, shrimps, anchovy, boiled quail eggs. Black olives, French beans and a herbal vinaigrette. Six leva. Very fresh and skillfully combined flavours.
The second course was a warmed dish of goose liver with roast pineapple and duck maigrette rugula and grated almonds.13.80 leva. Sounds good; it is and it speaks for itself.
The main course and the house speciality is grilled salmon with rosemary, garlic, carrot fascicles, broccoli and capers. 13.20 leva. To cook fish well so that the succulent juices remain, while cooked long enough for the flavours to pass through is an art. The head chef George Armenkov perfected how fish is to be served, not an easy task in mountain-shadowed Sofia.
I accompanied the threesome with a bottle of Todoroff Cabernet Sauvignon special selection; yes I know it could be considered going against the norm drinking red with fish, but what the heck, it was delicious.
All the courses were delivered with impeccable timing.
One of the more important aspects in Bulgarian restaurants is air-conditioning, whether you are a smoker or not. I am, but find smoky restaurants a personal torture. Dr Faust gets top marks in the clean air department with 50 per cent of the 54 seats non-smoking.
It always impresses me when a restaurant thinks outside the box. Three choices of vegetarian dishes, although not on the menu, came as a pleasant surprise.
Dr Faust restaurant, just as the character of the legend would have wanted it, delivers sensuous pleasure to patrons.