flocafe
Lounge Bar and Restaurant
3 Sveta Nedelya Sq, Sofia
Tel: 950 66 46

I suppose the brand name itself suggests a more casual and laid-back coffee-shop atmosphere – flo-w!

But on the other hand, the vision itself and the setting of Flocafe is more of a bar and restaurant type indeed. Which means, firstly, that it is not actually a small premise at all, complete with stools and sofas, a bar and restaurant area and secondly, that it is not self-served, it has waitresses. It is a rather mixed up venue.

But the fact is, it offers a small selection of kitchenette foods. We supposed this was simply due to being more refined in taste, as it consists of a few small pizzetti, bagels and salads, like shopska and Caesar, and various shakes, coffees and sweets.

But what was our surprise when we ordered the pizzetti Mediterranean – pompously described with pictures to illustrate: a sliced white baguette with a few toppings, which, being not much of an expert, was extrememly bland. It is expected, I think, that pizzetti large or small should be made of dough for the base, not bread. I have encountered pizzetti on many occasions, mainly at receptions and cocktail parties and they were, generally speaking, wonderful and quite different to what we received at Flocafe.

In this instance maybe they had intended to make bruschetti – though not quite successful. Some kind of a mixture – as the whole place is – a mixture.

So to continue. Atop of the white bread – we observed something like lyutenitsa at its best, not to offend my favourite lyutenitsa though, topped with a few olives and cheese. That’s it. The whole impression was that it had been prepared by teenagers experimenting in the kitchen with left-overs from the fridge without their mother’s knowledge.

I am usually quite a positive reviewer, my editor knows that, but this time indeed it was bad. It was not even a simple and tasty snack – to put it in the words of other, more appetising coffee chains – such as Coffee Heaven and Onda.

To make the image worse, the pizzetti came out garnished joyfully with chips and chilli sauce, which just slightly masked the mediocre taste, but on the other hand it worsened the entire picture even more because chips usually go with club sandwiches, as far as I know.

But let us not stick to cliches and be more liberal and go further on to the salad we experienced: a shopska salad. It was a good choice, it is usually a good choice in any restaurant and you generally know what you’re going to get. All the greens, tomato and cheese in a nice mixture without any outrageous irregularities. A safe bet. But, and there is only one but – the salad was quite small in size. In ordinary pizzerias, a shopska salad can be shared between two, which is what we were planning to do. The salads here are meant for one and one only.

On a lighter note, I had a strawberry and apple fresh (fresh-squeezed juice), which was very good indeed, and my companion had mineral water, obviously a safe choice, nowhere to go from here. But, being in the critical mood that I am today, I have to say that I hate those small glass bottles of water, ecological though, but as an H2O lover, I would really need to drink approximately five of them in order to quench my thirst.

But this is a bit off-topic. Back to the main issue – the short menu list.

For dessert, I ordered a large gaufretta (waffle) with ice cream, which looked very delicious on the menu illustration, but in reality was awful indeed. It consisted of a large, formless, tasteless, cardboard of dough, ie, the gaufretta, with three flavourless-looking and -tasting balls of ice cream: pink, white and brown, the simplest ice cream in the world. And two dollops of whipped cream. That’s it. It was absolutely simple – but not simple in the sense of your grandma’s wonder-bakeries, country style that make your mouth water, but just simple, simpleton-made.

It was almost inedible, which was really absurd for most of the prices were above the average. For this entire feast we paid approximately 36 leva.

So to sum it up:

Given the fact that the place is still new (it opened on May 13) and the fact that it has a restaurant area (which was empty) apart from the lounge bar in the front area serving only snacks, crowded though we were – all these facts do not excuse the general negative impression, for the ambience is really ok. Nothing extraordinary, just expectable, if it can be put that way. The numerous chandelier-like hangings, flitting from the ceiling were the most memorable part of the place.

Otherwise…

It is a place filled with Greek students, who make it a bit more exotic, adding to the atmosphere. It is obviously a Greek chain.

And maybe the secret is to just sit and sip at a glass of thick chocolate shake, a bottle of water apart, and a cigarette in hand – as most of the Greek students did, listening to lounge music and overlooking the Sveta Nedelya Square from the big French windows.

In that sense, who cares then about the food so much?

Enjoy the ambience, just Flo-w.