actually this 'fast food' is mostly traditional bulgarian snacks, pizza slices and shawarma/doner/kebap, not macdonalds stuff. the survey is very misleading. we are on the balkans, so a lot of great food with lots of vegetables (!and no sugar!)around.

It is sad to see the McAmerican influence ruin such a beautiful country. Put down the McDonalds and grab a tasty Kebabche !!

Do not let the beautiful Bulgarian girls fall victim to fast food that the American girls become. The before so beautiful Swedish girls have now become obese and it has now reached a point where I am now no longer go to the beach because I do not want to see misery. Bulgaria should increase the tax on food that is oily and hazardous.

Haha Lola, don't worry about it - it is not true :)
First of all, they asked about 800 people. Is that statistically telling for the population? If you ask in Baclhik for example, how many will there be? Or in Biala Cherkva? Yuo get my drift.
Also, if a "full meal" costs 12 lv and a pizza slice is 1.5, which one do you think a medium salary employee with 500lv would get?

McDonald's, Burger King, KFC are places where mothers would take their kids to make them shut up. And youngers too,specially night time as it would probably be the one place they know it`s open by this time. Banitsa,Pizza, Dunars, Flora kindda burgers - with tones of salad in, European pancakes, those little croasants stuffed with everything and my personal favorite "Strandjanka"s with lutenitsa are the one to go for as fast food. Oh, and it is different from old American fast food style, count on it. And better know if it doesn`t have a turn with soup or salad we don`t call it a meal. If we are to do fast food it is either one has bout 3 min to eat or 1-2лв money left in the pocket, usually by the end of the month. WE ARE NOT FAST FOOD PEOPLE. Not if we can help it.

Thanks, all. This is great. One followup question for Jed: What's "the BG hs-i-t-w"? Is that Burger King, maybe?

The company I work for started doing some work with a company in Bulgaria, and I was embarrassed to realize just how little I knew about your country. So, anyway, some friends and I decided to see what we could learn. Consequently, I'm going to try my hand at making Tikvenik for my wife this week (poor her), and we were rooting for you against Ireland yesterday (sorry).

Thanks again, all.

There is no indication of what constitutes "fast food". More than the McDs, BKs and KFCs, there are thousands of hole-in-the-wall establishments that serve a wide variety of food, ranging from pastries to meat products.
Despite having lived in N. America for many years and having frequented the chains there, since coming to Europe I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole. However, the BG hs-i-t-w have some surprisingly delicious snacks.

For Eric In Kentucky

I'm intrigued why are yiu and your friends studying Bulgaria ?

Ah this study is true, I am so disgusted and embarrassed by my fellow countrymen.

Eric - McDonald's (always big queues) and KFC are particularly popular but Sofians also like these takeaway pizzas, particularly at lunchtime, whereby you can get a large slice of pizza for about 1.80 leva (about one euro) and they can eat it on the go. Starbucks now also have two stores in Sofia, Pizza Hut is very popular and hotdog stands litter the corners of parks.
But it could be that these fast food chains still have a novelty value because they have only appeared in the past few years.
Why would you want to learn more about Bulgaria. Do you have any link to the country?

Some friends of mine and I in the middle of the United States are spending this month trying to learn more about Bulgaria. We were surprised to see that we have been overtaken in this area. Congratulations?

What fast-food restaurants have caught Bulgarians' fancy? Is it the dominant U.S. brands: McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, etc.? Are there home-grown Bulgarian options that I wouldn't have heard of?