Address: Mladost 2, block 202
Tel: 884 50 12
Mobile: 089/ 781 20 44
Open: every day, noon to midnight
My last visit to a pizza place in Mladost left me feeling distinctly underwhelmed, so my expectations weren’t that great when we visited Pizza Lachoni. An inauspicious-looking restaurant on the other side of the road from Alexander Malinov’s Hit supermarket, it lies by the neighbourhood’s familiar concrete tower blocks. However, don’t judge a restaurant by its facade – a pleasant surprise awaits you inside.
On our first visit, a Saturday night, we’d reserved a table. We were ushered into a garden, cordoned off with a white tarpaulin tent and warmed with hanging gas heaters. I have my usual gripe about smoking, but with summer imminent the area will open up.
The menu is amazingly long, in Bulgarian and in English, catering to every possible poodle-like predilection. We were in a mood to pig out and so enjoyed the whole enchilada. To be honest, though, the servings are mostly so generous that you could get by on the first course alone. My starter was the gourmet salad: yoghurt, green salad, cucumbers, walnuts, boiled chicken, carrots, tomatoes, olives and cream (700g for seven leva). It was tasty, well served and filling. My wife also enjoyed her Greek salad with cucumbers, baked peppers, lettuce, tomato, olives, cheese and olive oil dressing (450g for 4.39 leva). We each had a peshterksa grozdova rakiya (50mg for 1.29 leva, special version for 1.59 leva).
I then ordered a large Mexican pizza: mushrooms, peppers, smoked breast of pork, sweetcorn, yellow cheese, tomato sauce and ham – 6.99 leva. Service was fast given the crowd but during the 15 minute interval between the first and second course my stomach registered that it was already full and that I’d now be functioning solely on “eyes bigger than stomach” mode. The pizza was so good, however, that it got my saliva running. My wife, much more petite than myself, ordered a small Sicilian pizza: tomato sauce, yellow cheese, ham, loukanka and pickled gherkins for 5.50 leva. We also enjoyed half a litre of Domaine Boyar cabernet red wine for 4.90 leva.
By then we were near to exploding and so we steered clear of desserts. For your information, however, they do very reasonably priced sweets for about four leva. The bill was just a bit more than 31 leva, very fair considering our consumption.
Our second visit was mid-week. I expected it to be quieter but it was just as busy. This time we sat inside at wooden tables with long benches. Perhaps the seats weren’t super-comfortable but you don’t expect grand hotel-type luxury in Mladost at these prices. The walls are nicely decorated with pictures of maritime vistas and from our corner of the dining room we could see the chefs cooking the pizzas on an open coal stove.
I had a tomato and mozzarella salad with olive oil and basil (300g for 4.99 leva) and my wife had a snezhanka (280g for 3.59 leva), a popular Bulgarian dish made from finely chopped cucumbers mixed with drained yoghurt, walnuts and garlic, sprinkled with dill and garnished with olives. This was followed by braised pork with potatoes and broccoli for myself (8.29 leva) and chicken Stroganoff with onion, served with rice, mushrooms and curry for my wife (7.79 leva). We drank two large beers and half a litre of (well chilled) chardonnay Domain Boyar. The total price, including four little sesame rolls, was 34 leva – again, no complaints about that.
My tomato salad was very edible, but as tomatoes are not in season it tasted rather bland. My wife’s chicken was extremely good, piping hot and tasty but it arrived a good 15 minutes before my dish. In the event I envied her choice because her chicken was much better than my pork, which was a bit dry and hard, not really worth the long wait.
Despite these reservations, I can see why Lachoni is so popular: a good, no-nonsense eatery with pleasant service attracting a mostly young crowd. We shall return! Hasta la vista.
