34 Alabin Str, Sofia
Tel: 981 05 57
Open: 9.00 to 1.00

Palette seems ideally suited to winter dining because its main restaurant – situated in the basement – is windowless and dark. In the summer I should think it too stuffy. Palette’s upstairs seems to double as a kind of diner during the day and that’s probably the best place to be on warm spring days.

The restaurant had just reopened for refurbishment but I can’t say we noticed a dramatic overhaul from our previous visits. The basement with its melting pot of colours and low ceilings still has a slightly claustrophobic feel. Some of the tables need strategic repositioning, otherwise you’re left staring at central heating pipes throughout the evening.

Unfortunately, there’s no English menu. When we arrived some of the staff seemed to be enjoying a smoke at the other end of the restaurant as though it were a private party. We felt just ever so slightly superfluous to requirements. Also, as is so often the case in Bulgaria, there was no proper no-smoking area and the lack of ventilation made it worse. Why do so many restaurants want to asphyxiate diners?

The waitress was pleasant and chatty. On our most recent visit, which happened to be the day after Valentine’s Day, I chose a tuna fish salad (450g – lettuce, sweet corn, onion and tuna) for 6.50 leva. My wife had a Caesar salad (450g – lettuce, sweet corn, anchovies, croutons and parmesan cheese) for 7.50 leva. Both starters were good, bistro-standard dishes, but nothing innovative. In fact, since our first visit, the menu seemed more streamlined and less varied, with three types of dishes for every meat, for example, and less audacious dishes.

My main course was pork in cream and melted sauce (8.90 leva). My wife had small pieces of pork mixed with bacon, roasted peppers and onion, also 8.90 leva. We both enjoyed our meals, although I felt my portion could have been larger. At the last moment we changed our order from half a litre of white to red wine because of our choice of pork. The waitress duly obliged with a smile even though she’d already decanted the white wine into a jar and was about to deposit it on our table. We were beginning to form quite a favourable impression. But then we chose a sweet from the menu only to be told there were none left, their excuse being that it was the day following the big “love-in”. Even so, you’d have thought they would have had a better supply! When we went upstairs it seemed that there were at least three varieties of cake behind a glass. Was no one willing to run upstairs to fetch us a dessert? Anyhow, the bill came to 38 leva.

On a previous visit I had a French salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, carrots, ham, olives and grated cheese) followed by veal in vinegar sauce. My wife had tomato salad with white cheese and basil and, for the main course, pork with vegetable pate and chips. We had a bottle of house wine (more than on our second visit) followed by a shared dessert. The price was a little more than 50 leva.

My overall impression on both visits was that the food was good but I wouldn’t like to visit such a “bunker” outside the winter months.