Address: 6a Budapest Str (corner of Dondukov Blvd), Sofia
Open: 11am to midnight, every day including holidays
Telephone: 02/ 987 41 20 [www.doctorfaust.net]

I had read in the past great words about a restaurant named Doctor Faust, and was full of anticipation in tasting this unique menu. So my husband, a friend and I visited the restaurant on a crisp Saturday evening. The entrance led us down below ground level and at the base of the stairs we found ourselves in a quiet golden hallway with a large antique armoire. At first we thought we had entered the wrong building, since there was not a soul, and all was quiet, but as we continued along, there opened before us a pleasant and well-lit dining hall, we had arrived!

Although there are no windows because the restaurant is partially underground, lit stained-glass art cleverly replaces them. Once inside the atmosphere is serene and cosy, and all around, the decor is in relaxing hues. We were surprised to find few patrons, especially for a Saturday night, yet this was in fact a plus, because a nightclub scene was not what we were after.

The theme of the restaurant is Goethe’s Faust, and more specifically, Dr Faustus’ quote “I want the impossible”, which impels him to sell his soul to the devil to attain his desire. This translates to food in which the chef has created a uniquely inventive menu, of new combinations and parings, something like Nouvelle French cuisine. Nevertheless, for a non-Bulgarian, or one who has spent time in the West, the menu items are not particularly surprising or impossible, just all very delicious sounding. The salads average eight leva, the main courses 17, and desserts six; there is also an extensive wine list.

Once seated comfortably, a lovely waitress brought us menus in Bulgarian and reasonable English, though still a little confusing. We began with salads all around, one consisting of prosciutto, blue cheese, iceberg lettuce, arugula, almonds and marinated carrots, the second a salad of avocado, tomato salsa, fresh mozzarella, iceberg, prosciutto and marinated artichoke. I myself ordered a Caesar. The waitress brought these first courses in large rectangular white platters stylishly presented, with all the ingredients separate from one another, tapas style.

Everything was quite tasty, yet the portions were small, and all the salads consisted of iceberg lettuce, which may be considered special in Eastern Europe, but I believe everyone from the West is aware that this is not a classy lettuce, and I might add with no nutritional value. This was a disappointment, as I adore salads of real lettuce, and none were available, except the odd leaf of arugula among the iceberg. I wanted soft butterhead lettuce, crispy romaine and bitter endive, not styrofoam iceberg.

For the main course my husband dined on a rosemary lamb fillet on garlic mushroom ragout, with broccoli and carrot “fascicles”. He was very pleased with this, although his order of bread was not the freshly baked baguette we expected, but plain supermarket bread. My choice was a cheese platter, accompanied with fruit chutney, and while the cheeses were a delicious high quality, only three little grapes were present instead of the chutney. Our friend had a vegetarian dish, and said it was quite good. Everything arrived in a correct and timely manner.

I visited the nearly empty restaurant the following Saturday with my daughter for lunch, to taste one of their many fish dishes. I chose the walnut- and parsley-covered salmon, with pasta of avocado, and mashed carrots. When the dish arrived, the salmon did not have any parsley, nor did I taste walnuts; instead all I detected was mustardy batter. Still, inside the fish was juicy. The vegetables were a baby-puree texture, so the translation had been wrong, and they meant avocado paste, instead of avocado pasta. Our dessert arrived very late, and the same lovely waitress explained that it is very difficult to make, and the chef had just ruined it and was therefore remaking it. Finally a hot molten-lava cake with ice cream and raspberry sauce arrived. The chocolate flowed and it was sumptuous, their best item yet, and worth the wait.

Upon first visiting the spacious restroom, the light bulb was burnt out and the toilet paper was empty, but apart from that, there were no mishaps.

Over all, Doctor Faust is a gourmet and intelligent place to dine, though with small and expensive portions. While the dishes are stunning and well presented at first glance, once you begin to taste, you notice they are not perfect, that they could be better, and so too the restaurant is a novel idea, with great potential, yet poor execution with glitches, and mistakes at certain steps. If they organise themselves accordingly and achieve what is needed, the impossible will not be impossible!

(The restaurant has a well presented bilingual website, www.doctorfaust.net, where one can make online reservations, view the extensive wine list, read the menu (which is not updated) and enjoy some quality photos. The restaurant also offers catering services, so one can have a look at this menu, too, which interestingly offers more variety than the restaurant menu.)