Location: Neofit Rilski Street between Tsar Samuil and Hristo Botev Blvd.
Telephone: 088 708 3216

Not unlike Paris, finding restaurants and bars in Sofia - especially when language is a barrier - is undoubtedly a challenging task. For the many of you who have lived here for some time you already know the good, the bad, and the ugly of places to eat or frequent. But for those who haven't been here long enough to salvage some local knowledge or had the possibility to exchange a host of tips with fellow expats, then the choices are to take a look at this column, one of the city's guides, or figuratively speaking take a DIY (Do It Yourself) kit, i.e. wander aimlessly through the streets until somewhere looks good.
I lived in Paris on and off for a couple of years and it doesn't get any easier to find new and interesting places, so if you are having some of the same trouble in Sofia, be thankful because this is what adds to the charm of city.
I had passed a very small cafe style restaurant called the Prairie House on several occasions, and quite frankly missed it as a restaurant on the first couple of times and then simply dismissed it on the other occasions. However, last week I was with a friend who said, "you live near the Prairie House, you have to try it!". He omitted to tell me that I should have a good understanding of Bulgarian or be with a local to be able to order. Never mind, it's the same in Paris or the back streets of Thailand so why expect something else in Sofia.
I sat down at one of the four outside tables literally parked on the footpath. I guess for the neighbours this makes a nice change to have parked tables to walk around rather than Ladas, Opels or a Skodas. The tables are in typical Bulgarian style; wooden benches on each side, a simple tablecloth and the centre piece, an ashtray. The view is the fairly unattractive street, but if you are a people watcher, there is no shortage of passers-by.
On either side of the restaurant's main door are chalkboards with the day's specials all hand written in Bulgarian and for the untrained eye and the struggling alphabet-phobic foreigner, a challenge similar to Friday's New York Times crossword. Most of us have been in this situation before and use some natural instincts, as a Second World War code cipher book won't help, no surprises!
The three main headings were quickly determined to be starter, main and dessert. In the meantime my accomplice and I had received the standard menu, which provided similar challenges, so understandably we ordered two beers to assist us on our task ahead, after all it was a beautiful summers day in Sofia.
Random adventure has its rewards. I decided to select number two for the starter and, why complicate the matter, number two for the main. My accomplice and I noticed many of our fellow diners eating soup and therefore believed the starters to be soup- we were right! Chicken and vegetable noodle soup. It was delicious, even if it came after what I considered to be the main dish. My main was a traditional Greek selection - moussaka. Although almost cold, again very tasty especially accompanied by local yoghurt. To finish off, the number two on the dessert menu was a bitter sweet chocolate pancake. Sounds unusual, it was. We tried to place how a traditionally sweet dessert could also have an underlying bitter taste. The World War 2 code manual had no suggestions, but we figured it could have been sour milk, yoghurt, or very old milk. I am pleased to say there were no urgent uncontrollable departures during or after our culinary experience, so we discounted the latter.
Inside were another six tables all full with patrons. And for reference only, a typical Bulgarian-style clean and private bathroom for both the boys and the girls.
The service was prompt, the waitress took our orders without writing anything down, normally impressive when everything comes out right, but in this case who knows-they could have got it wrong, but I don't think so. The only glitch was the dessert; it came nearly 30 minutes after we ordered it. That could have been as much our fault as theirs due to the fact of communication problems. Hand signals and a smile go a long way to achieving a result, and a result we got! A tasty three-course lunch with beer for less than 10 leva for two people. Superb value.