ARIA Restaurant — Restaurant in Sofia City

Before tonight, this was my new favorite restaurant in town. It was my 4th time visiting Aria in the past couple of months. Throughout this time, the service varied from ok to excellent when a really smiling lady greeted and took care of us on a ladies night out. She’s an excellent waitress, and her attitude made a nice friendly outing into an even more pleasant memory. Tonight was a different experience. Our waiter was a lady called Eli. Maybe we pissed her off by asking her to come back in a minute so that we can say cheers to each other first. But things did not go well between us. First, there was a bit of a disappointment when we realized that “Should I delay this dish” meant that after the appetizers, when the main courses started to come in, the main course in question was not ordered and the waitress was waiting for my friend to explicitly tell her to order it. Our expectation was that it’s not going to come at the same time as the appetizers but will be fired up a bit later, not pending an explicit second order. We can get passed this. The ventilation, however, was creating quite the current of cold air over our heads and we asked if it can be turned a bit down. The answer was: “Not possible.” No argument could be made. After freezing a few more minutes, we asked the hostess and oh, surprise, it turned out that something could indeed be done. The waitress did not come back to fill our glasses with the wine we had ordered. She didn’t offer or bring us extra plates for sharing the appetizers. Finally, two burgers that were supposed to be medium done came pretty bloody red. Don’t get me wrong, we know our meat, they were rare and bloody red all over. One of the friends was not ok with that and asked if something can be done. He got an odd reply: “What do you want to be done, to grill this one more or a new one?” He had eaten about a third from the burger, how on earth do you take out the patty, grill and put it back in? Long story short, he received a new burger - well done. With the words: “Here’s your well done burger.” As if he was just being annoying and not knowing what he wanted in the first place. Not ok. Not ok for a restaurant of this class. Please talk to your staff. Mistakes happen, own them. I really don’t think we were unreasonable at any point. Тhe whole experience left us very disappointed and not wanting...

WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY AND TIME . It takes a lot to make me unhappy on a night out but this place had managed to disappoint me that much that I had to make a review. To start with ... they forgot 2 items on my order never arrived , it was like we were invisible.... empty plates on the table for 15-20 min but nobody cared to come and take them , I was trying to make contact with waiters for more than 10 minutes to ask for the bill but I had to shout for someone to notice us .. they were walking facing down nit being able to see if any clients need something .... On the other hand the food was just bland no taste just texture ... my daughters calamari tasted like hospital food .... The receipt is ik Bulgarian so you dont actually know what they charge you i had to take a picture and translate with ai so I knew if it was correct or not .. Honestly we were just laughing of how bad a night out could go ... Making the reservation i noted that we are celebrating our daughters birthday... guess what they didn't even see that .... I dont know i felt like someone was...

This is FINE DINING for shy palates! Overall, this restaurant is a good option for dining with friends who are interested in exploring culinary concepts but prefer safe choice flavors without experimenting. While the experience is enjoyable, it may not leave a lasting impression; I suspect I might forget what I ate here after a month here. It’s a safe choice for bringing family and friends, though the dishes could be seen as somewhat mediocre, often lacking a distinctive element that would make them stand out.

The interior design is primarily defined by an interestingly lit wall with holes and LED lighting—a feature seen in other new Sofia restaurants. Beyond this, there isn’t much that stands out in terms of design. The restaurant leans toward the pricier side, likely due to its location in a more tourist-oriented area. However, the complexity of the dishes doesn’t quite rise to the level one might expect for the price. It’s fine dining for the...