I hadn't heard of Izbata but it was recommended by the Free Walking Tour Sofia group. It is located in the hip part of Sofia just south of Cathedral St. Alexander Nevsky, which is where the tour finished at around 12.30pm. After a quick look around the cathedral, it was the perfect time for lunch.
It's a little cosy place that had quite a few tourists there, some American, some Chinese, some Spanish, but also some Bulgarians too. I suppose not surprising that tourists all read and receive the same recommendations.
- Home singed purlenki (typical Bulgarian bread with white cheese) 4.5 lev - charred bread with salty cheese. Very good;
- Fire-dancer's hotchpotch (chicken fillet, potatoes, peppers, mushrooms, French beans & olives, with tomato puree & hot pepper) 14.5 lev - chicken really nice with lots of peppers, paprika and potatoes. Unfortunately "hot" in the Balkans is not hot or spicy;
- Kavarma Radomir style (pork, onion, mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, red wine, all baked with egg & hot pepper) 14.8 lev - pork tender with a nice milder flavour. The hot pepper on top whole this time was by itself a bit hotter than mixed in the chicken above. Still not too much though;
- Kebapcheta 12.8 lev - minced pork kebab with bouncy meat lots of flavour. Mild potato beans and thin crisp bread;
- Rice with blue plums & spinach (with garlic, dill & walnuts) 8.5 lev - very nice rice with slightly sweet plums.
Overall an excellent meal with very large servings that more than filled 4 of us after the walking tour. I found out later that there are a lot of chillies grown locally (Chilli Hills Farm Shop is a nice place to visit for chilli products and gin).