Chocolate
Address: 193 Rakovski Str
Tel: 089/ 782 00 90
Working hours: 8am-2am
Credit cards accepted

I am perhaps the only female I have ever encountered who does not care much for chocolate. Sure I will eat the occasional bowl of rocky road ice cream or have a chocolate milk shake thrice annually, but that's the extent of my indulgence. Even as a child, I could never understand Charlie Bucket's brazen foolishness to spend his last dollar on a candy bar just to visit Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Surely a new pair of football cleats would have been a better choice? And so it would seem odd that I would enter a restaurant/cafe bearing the very name. And yet I did.

My first visit came after a cold night of mislaid plans and walking about in a desperate search of entertainment. Somewhat by accident, we landed in the cosy environment of Chocolate on Rakovski Street. Decorated in a pseudo-African theme with a color palette of browns and off-whites, the ambience is rich, warm and inviting. And yet fresh at the same time. We could never quite figure out if there was a special ventilation system or just the higher-than-average ceilings, but even with numerous smokers inside, we never felt stifled or unable to breathe deeply as is so often impossible in other cafes.

Not one to forgo the obvious house specialty, I mulled over the hot chocolate menu along with the rest of my companions. And there is a special menu just for hot chocolate, drinks which include such treats as orange-flavoured hot chocolate and mint chocolate, all ranging in the four to five leva category. True to form, I ordered the least chocolate-y looking item on the menu, the vanilla flavour.

Another friend had the mint.

The drinks came in trendy, oversized mugs and lived up to the name "hot chocolate". Tongue-blistering, no-tasting-anything-for-a-week HOT. Once it cooled enough to drink, I was pleasantly surprised. This was not made from an instant mix. It was actual melted, flavoured chocolate, some parts of it so thick it was more like the inside of a soft-batch cookie. Sweet but not too rich. A sort of dessert and beverage rolled into one. Furthermore, the service matched the product. Our waitress was not of the ordinary variety who delivers the order and then disappears. She was attentive but not overbearing, even anticipating when we would need our bill.

On a return occasion, a friend and I decided we would sample the food. The extensive menu is neatly divided into categories with careful English translations printed right next to the Bulgarian. I ordered a chicken and pineapple salad which came with fresh bleu cheese grated over the top. The combination of flavours in the salad was unique and tasty, although it could have used more of the sweet pineapple to offset the pungent bleu cheese. My friend ordered the salmon and Parmesan cheese salad. She also appreciated the creative blend of flavours, though she noted that the salmon was overly salty and tasted a bit fishy.

Next we each ordered a bowl of gazpacho, a favourite back home. Normally when ordered in the United States, this cold soup is full of tomato chunks and topped with any variety of fresh vegetables and herbs, including onion, cilantro or avocado. Here, however, the tomatoes were pureed to an applesauce-like consistency and the croutons accompanying the dish became a necessary source of salt and flavour. We were…disappointed.

On to the main course. We decided to share a palachinka (crepe) in order to save some room for dessert. I am often leery of palachinki for a meal as I have found they are often heavy on the salt and sirene and light on the meat and flavour. But this one came filled with savoury ham, peas, mushrooms, some sort of cream, then topped with a bit of melted cheese, though slightly overcooked and dry.

At last we arrived at the grand finale of the meal. The menu boasts a special chocolate cake, even providing a tantalising photo to convince you to order it. We were easily swayed. The waitress warned us that it would take 30 minutes for the cake to come. Were they just mixing the dough then? Regardless, this gave us ample time to digest our food and enjoy some conversation, and to be mezmerised by the large flat-screen televisions placed at judicious locations around the large rectangle-shaped venue.

With such a long wait, it seemed impossible that the cake could have lived up to its reputation. But it did. We each sliced our fork right through the cakey exterior only to surprisingly find melted chocolate oozing from the center. Combined with a hot cappuccino, this ended the meal on a high note.

While the food was decent and the prices are fair (the entire meal cost about 15 leva a person), I recommend Chocolate more as a dessert and drinks type of cafe. They do offer a multitude of food and beverage options but it is best to stick with what they are known for: chocolate. After all, that is their golden ticket.