Address: 113 Rakovski Str
Tel: 988 21 41
Open: every day, 10.00 to 24.00
[www.opera-bg.info, but it’s not up to date]

Among Sofia’s beige slushy streets is a hidden visual sanctuary, a clean fusion of modern and baroque decor, a restaurant named Opera. The building, owing to its history as part of the National Opera and Ballet, is grand and beautiful and it’s interior newly remodelled, now open and on show. Opera’s previous decor was under-lit and modern minimalist, a foil to the existing elaborate white and gold ceiling. Predominantly black, hard plastic furniture, with accents of white, resulted in an extremely stylish and cosmopolitan restaurant. The new interior persists in flattering the lavish baroque ceiling, with vertical, velvet-striped walls guiding the eye upwards. Still present are the modern chandeliers, but the furniture is now soft, and velvet covered, more comfortable, lounge like and accessible to a mature crowd, too. Whilst the previous Opera oozed a trendy party ambiance, the new Opera has ripened to a timeless, intelligent setting. The party scene has now been relocated underground below Opera, to the new club Mascara. To reach it one descends stately marble stairs, lit by gorgeous crystal chandeliers, to where Opera and Mascara also share an all-purple bathroom.

Which I may add was one of the cleanest powder rooms I have seen in all of Sofia and the ladies chandelier-lit one housed five stalls.

Opera’s new executive chef, Jose-Luis Ruiz Camino, hails from Madrid, bringing with him an impressive background, having honed his art in Spain and Switzerland and later working at Madrid’s five-star Villa Real Hotel as well as Paris’ Ritz.

I visited the restaurant for lunch, with a few friends on a chilling January Saturday. Its Mediterranean menu is minuscule, though well put together, featuring quite a number of fish dishes, including one rarely found in Bulgaria – tuna carpaccio, which comes marinated in grapefruit served over a mango mousse, a delightful appetiser; there are also tapas options. Prices average in leva at 3.50 for a soup, seven leva for a salad, 10 for starters, up to 23 for a main course item and 3.50 leva for a dessert.

A separate drinks menu showcases an excellent selection of Bulgarian and world wines. But it being a cold day, we began with herbal tea and the three available soups: cream of forest mushrooms, a tasty classic; cream of red cabbage with apples and pine nuts, unique and quite delicious; and lastly the summery gazpacho, which may be a little too vinegary for some. The kind and eager waiter brought the soups quickly and we soon ordered our main courses, a dish of baby squids with tinta (stewed in their own ink) sauce accompanied by citrus risotto, a dish of plum-stuffed chicken rolls served over brandy and cheese sauce, accompanied by “breaded potato puree”, and a salad of fresh spinach with two cheeses, pine nuts, bacon and croutons covered in balsamic vinaigrette. The stylishly presented dishes arrived swiftly, on large white plates. The salad was nice, although the spinach could have been smaller and finer, the squid dish was good though a little odd as its black sauce appeared to have no additions such as garlic or herbs, although the citrus risotto was enjoyable. Lastly the chicken dish, which we expected to be fresh, sweet and gourmet, arrived in such a dry state that it could barely be cut, or eaten. A let down indeed, it seemed as if the dish had been cooked the previous day, and only warmed for us, further dehydrating it.

We inquired with the waiter about the Spanish chef, and he explained that we could meet him, if we came sometime for an evening meal; in other words, Mr Camino had not been responsible for the dry chicken and only cooked for the dinner guests. Therefore a reservation for the evening is safer, for you will have Jose-Luis overseeing your meal, and hopefully preparing it too.

The dry debacle behind us, we relaxed with the pleasant lounge music delicately surrounding us, enjoying our coffee and desserts. One of boccaditos biscuits drizzled with vanilla cream and chocolate, evidently tasty, and an almond Santiago cake with lemon cream, which my friend was not fond of, while I enjoyed its unique light tartness immensely.

All in all Opera is a retreat, rejuvenating the visual and auditory senses. But dish quality is not consistent; however, since the staff and menu are new, we can be forgiving and expect them to acclimatise and reach a complete taste sense rejuvenation, too.