From the outside, the restaurant is unremarkable: another building along Rakovska, yes, with a sign, but despite having seen it before I chose to visit, I had never paid it any special attention.

Outside seating is offered, and is usually preferable, but as this particular day was rainy and cold, we decided to pass on the garden. Inside, the decor is more sparse than in some restaurants that I have seen, but what is there is fairly well-chosen. The walls are painted yellow, and largely undecorated, though broken up by burgundy windows with gold-and-blue curtains, a combination wood-sculpture/lamp, a cosy-looking fireplace. They have flower boxes placed outside the windows, which I thought was a nice touch, at least if you like flowers.

Like many restaurants in Sofia, the building for Salome appears to have originally been built as a house and then later converted into a restaurant, which can be both a plus and a minus. On the plus side, the rooms are smaller, making the venue more personal and private, but on the other hand the floor plan is not exactly optimised for seating. That said, we arrived just before 8pm on a Saturday and were seated with no problems, so I would hazard a guess that reservations are not strictly necessary.

The selection of salads in the restaurant is fairly standard: shopska, ovcharska, etc, and ranges in price from 2.79 leva for a mixed salad to 5.29 leva for the "kalugerska", which involves aubergines and sweet peppers. We eventually settled on a selska, or "village" salad, which involved tomatoes and roasted peppers covered with crumbled white sirene cheese, sprinkled over with chopped green onions. It was quite large and enough for both of us; the presentation was lovely, the tomatoes juicy, the crumbled cheese generously covered everything and the onions added a nice touch. There were fewer peppers than I was expecting, but that’s all right.

For an appetiser, we ordered garlic chicken bites (5.89 leva): small, thin strips and chunks of chicken meat cooked in a light sauce of oil and garlic, sprinkled with dill, which was an unexpected but by no means unpleasant addition to the flavour. The chicken was quite tasty and very moist, certainly after dipping it in the sauce in which it was served, and whetted our appetites for what was to come.

For the main course, I ordered the pork sach, a Bulgarian dish involving small cuts of meat with onions, mushrooms, courgettes, carrots and other such vegetables cooked together until the flavours and juices blend and percolate together creating a lovely blend of sight, smell and taste. The whole concoction is then served steaming and sizzling on an iron plate supported by a wooden frame, and is easily large enough to feed two—I ate my fill and rather more at the restaurant, and then again for lunch the next day and there was still enough left for another meal or so.

I was expecting this from the price (14.39 leva), which was significantly more than most single-person entrees, such as those on the grill menu (which were all under 10 leva). I reiterate: this is a dish large enough for two people with leftovers, as pointed out by both the waiter and my friend. In fact, we actually had to move to a slightly wider table in order to accommodate both of our orders and the salad. On the whole I found it plentiful and delicious, but I do have this against it: there wasn’t quite enough meat. Understand, I am not a typical American who views meat as his favourite condiment and demands a burger patty on his salad, but when eating such a dish I do like to have at least a little bit of the meat in each bite, for both flavour and texture, and there wasn’t quite enough to go around here.

My friend ordered a stomna kebab (11.99 leva)—loosely translated, "kebab in a jug." It’s another traditional Bulgarian dish consisting of meat, sweet peppers, onions and pickles stewed together in a thick wine sauce in an earthenware jug or pot. In Salome, the earthenware pot in which it is served is shaped like a wine cask held up by an iron rack with a hole in the top for it to be served out of, which is a nice little aesthetic touch. Having pickles in such a dish might be considered an acquired taste for a Western palate; I personally enjoyed it very much and we were both quite satisfied with it. Again, like many of their dishes, this would have been more than enough for the both of us, probably with some left over to take home afterwards.

For dessert we ordered the "home-made cookie cake", at 2.59 leva the least expensive dessert. Others, including creme brulee, range from four to five leva or so. My friend was disappointed: not because she disliked it, but because it is a dessert that she herself makes frequently under the name of "sweet salami": a doughy, chocolaty paste packed around vanilla biscuits. While we both enjoyed it thoroughly despite full stomachs, had we known that it was something that she made at home regularly, we would have ordered something different. This should not, however, be read as a commentary on the dish itself, which was quite good, served with whipped cream, lovely folded orange slices and little drizzles of sweet berry preserves.

The service is friendly though otherwise unremarkable; this may perhaps be influenced by the fact that my friend is a regular client and on speaking terms with the staff. A lunch menu is also offered of less expensive, fast-served dishes for people to eat on their lunch break, and though I haven’t tried it myself, my friend vouches for it as someone who eats there on a near-daily basis.

Prices are reasonable: our total for the evening came to 43.62 leva without the tip. Some things to keep in mind, however, are that we shared the salad, appetiser and dessert, and on the other hand ordered main courses so large that we ate our fill at the restaurant, and then we both made another meal of the leftovers afterwards, and furthermore we will probably make yet another full meal of them before they run out. We could easily have done without either of the main dishes, or ordered less expensive, smaller dishes, and still eaten our fill of four (shared) courses for about 14 to 16 leva a person. On the whole I am quite satisfied with my experience, and would definitely go again.

Overall: 4/6
Service: 3/6
Atmosphere: 4/6
Food: 5/6
Price $ $
($ up to 12 leva a person for three courses; $$ 12 to 20 leva pp; $$$ 20 to 35 pp; $$$$ 35 and over pp)

Address:
174 Rakovski Str, Sofia
Tel: 02/ 980 41 57
Open: every day, noon to midnight
Credit cards: yes