The North

Open-back dresses, champagne, cigars, high heels, gold, silver cutlery, limousines, casinos, gourmet – this world of class, style and prestige is found in all its brilliance in Varna.
Varna is the gourmet capital of Bulgaria and the best restaurants can be found in this city, with their designer chefs working pure magic or chemistry. One of them is Velin Velikov at Moussala, a chemist-magician-chef who combines the earthly with the divine, the heart and the brain. The restaurant in the heart of Varna sets the highest standard of cuisine and the service is appropriate – silver cutlery, white gloves and English service. To enjoy the cuisine to the fullest, you can order the seven-stage tasting menu (95 leva). Saltwater shrimp, salmon, sea bream and the wonderful duck foie gras torchon with jellied quince offer enough gustatory satisfaction for at least two people. The wine selection is several years old and could use freshening up. The prices are a pleasant surprise given the restaurant's class.

Northbound after leaving the city, the overwhelming desire to touch the sea and taste the fresh fish is satisfied at the Roussalka tavern on Kabakoum beach. Blue and white, like a postcard from Santorini, the restaurant offers fresh fish, caviar paste, mussels, home-baked bread, ouzo and retsina. The service is sweet and the food is good. You will be surrounded by beach-goers, but in this part of the Black Sea coast, that is unavoidable.

After this brief break from Northern elitism, the road leads on to gourmet dinosaurs, although the gourmet restaurants in the resorts north of Varna do harbour some disappointment. Both La Terrasse (Oasis Hotel, Riviera) and Silver Gourmet (Astera Hotel, Zlatni Pyassutsi), with their distinctive interior decoration and interesting menus, give rise to expectations that are not always satisfied. A portion of fish can cost as much as 60 leva, should it even be available, and it might not be entirely fresh.

La Terrasse, in the Oasis boutique hotel, a two-story colonial building with high ceilings, is definitely worth a second look. The restaurant's large terrace offers a view of the sea over its infinity pool. The Mediterranean menu fits this spacious, white and beautiful place. The sea bass fillet with hollandaise sauce is neither cooked properly, nor as fresh as promised. The staff at times seems jumpy and sometimes uninterested, but the big wedding in the main room might have something to do with that. The prices are pretentious: salads range between 10 and 25 leva, the sea bass is 40 leva and the turbot about 60 leva. The wine selection is not equal to the interior design, but the surcharge makes up for that. An ideal place to vacation and worth the trip, but not for a gourmet.

The road to Zlatni Pyassutsi (Golden Sands) is busy, chaotic and noisy. Astera Hotel is centrally-located, but the view of the beach greets you from the very entrance. Silver Gourmet is distinct with its minimalist interior, with the occasional grey, silver and red – a modern version of the Ice Queen's palace, a welcome sight for those frazzled by the multitude of colours in what once was a very elitist resort.

The initial joy dissipates as soon as one finds out that even some of the items on the short menu are gone. There is no fresh fish and fish soup has to be ordered in advance. The wine list is not what it should be, but the good news is that a more traditional menu is coming, and perhaps has already arrived as this goes to print. The cuisine is good and the service is great, but the expectation for gourmet cuisine is unfulfilled and the prices are on the high end. Still, Silver Gourmet is a good option to hide from the throngs of tourists and the motley colours that rule the resort.

The search for Zen and peace of mind drives us on. Perhaps we can find it in the middle of the Botanical Garden in Balchik, a more royal and retro place than the ones we've visited so far. The town is full of trenches and any effort to navigate it by car is punished either by schizophrenic road markers or by clouds of dust. For fresh fish, the place to go is Korona, right below the palace in the garden, which every day buys the catch of the local fishermen. The place is traditional, the prices are acceptable and the kitchen is the benchmark that the rest of the town aspires to match.

Those in search of less traditional dishes should visit Byalata Kushta (White House), with tables right above the sea giving you some distance from the live music playing in front of the house. This is the place to go to if you are looking for fresh fish, steamed mussels, squid carpaccio, snails, lentil salad, turkey with chestnuts, Roquefort and spinach, turkey magret with fresh mushrooms, brown sauce, blueberries and capers. The prices are normal and entirely commensurate with the place.

On and on northward the road becomes quieter as it passes through pastel fields, the multitude of sunflowers reminiscent of a Van Gogh landscape, provided you disregard the surreal white windmill generators with their slowly-moving sails. The throngs are gone, this is the area of gated communities that offer exorbitant luxury for the eyes and palate, or at least try to.

Blacksearama golf course lies in the middle of a picturesque natural decor, with a view to the sea and heights occasionally shrouded in mystic mists. The restaurant has a solid stone presence and the view is stunning. The cuisine is great whenever it is in the hands of Ivan Kirin, yet another star chef. The service is professional, but the wine list is slightly outdated. One of the positives is that all vegetables are environmentally clean and grown on the premises.

For a true gourmet experience, ask for the fresh offers or have a chat with the chef, who pays personal attention to all guests that show an interest in his offerings. The prices are commensurate with the exclusive environment of the complex – a portion of exquisitely prepared turbot will set you back 60 leva.

Further north is El Balcon del Mundo in Kaliakria complex – the view might not be as great as that from Blacksearama, but the restaurant is a lot lighter and feels more appropriate for its seaside surroundings. The bar, lounge, restaurant and bistro are all an exercise in minimalism and attention to detail. The menu offers light food from every end of the world begging to be tasted, cocktails and a good wine list with very reasonable prices. The view and the nice music at times are forced to compensate for the products choice and their taste, as well as the staff's occasional disappearing act, but the place has character and, by the looks of it, ambitions that it is yet to fulfill.

Driving on, the fields and the stylish windmills emphasise the lack of civilisation. The embodiment of tranquility, timelessness and a truly unparalleled seaside establishment is the Dulboka mussels farm. From here on, the North looks a lot more like Rezovo than Varna. The road leading there is the kind of absurd small road that you follow only because of the desperate belief that it must lead somewhere. And it leads to mussels, lots of them – appetisers, main dishes and desserts – very fresh and very tasty. The service is efficient and very polite.

The mussels farm is one of those unpretentious establishments where it is difficult to stop ordering because every next dish is inviting you to discover more seafood secrets. The place is always full, but that is understandable.

Getting out is difficult because the dirt road up the hill is so steep, but the next destination is worth it. Not only because the road markers read Romania or the bird-watching spot labelled "not a restaurant", but also because it is in the middle of the exotic-sounding Dourankoulak marsh, according to the road map. And at the end of the trip along the Black Sea, you can taste one last time fresh fish, both fresh-water and salt-water, in an establishment that draws its name from a fairy tale – Zlatna Ribka (Goldfish), which carries a menu as extensive as it is classic.

The establishment sprouts up unexpectedly (provided that you see the small roadside marker with no arrow and take an instinctive right turn) and the immediate word that comes to mind to describe it is "patchwork". Even more unexpected is how full the restaurant is, but should you try the fish – catfish or turbot, fish soup with spicy sauce, caviar paste or crayfish – you will know why. The service is efficient, the prices are very accessible (the catfish is seven leva and the turbot is 13 leva) and the wine list is appropriate for the location. For places like this, the long road is worth it.