Hadjidraganov's Cellars
Hadjidraganov's Cellars things to do, attractions, restaurants, events info and trip planning
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Nice place. Food tasted excellent, it’s not gourmet or fancy. Waiter was pleasant and patient. Fast service. Decor is cute and warm. Menu is extensive. May be a bit touristy but there were many locals here, all range of people here like dates, business lunch, tourists. It seems to be authentic enough, possibly meant to evoke memories of more country style places where city folk grew up (or their parents were from)? If you know USA’s “Cracker Barrel” chain kind if like that but much more authentic and classy here. The long board of grilled beef, which in reality looked different from and was much better than the menu photo, was fantastic and filling and had nice skillet fried potatoes and big simple salad, if you order that you don’t need to order a salad. Grilled lamb chops also good, the lamb taste was subtle (great!). The rice that came with it was great, nice seasoning. The homemade wine is very sweet, almost like syrup, as was the cherry liqueur, we don’t like sweet drinks but somehow we liked both! Draft beer was Czech and good. Baklava was really nice, sweet as expected but very good. Good location and one block from the pedestrian mall. We’re happy we came here.
GT HodgeGT Hodge
40
So this is obviously very popular among tourists as I was turned away the first night I tried to get a seating. They were not very friendly but maybe it's just their brusk manner. Anyways I was able to book the place for lunch the next day and once again the person checking the reservation was not friendly either. As for the interior it's much smaller than expected and the seats are small. The decoration definitely tried very hard to give a folkish vibe and maybe that's why it's super popular among tourists. As for food I tried the homemade banitsa, the lamb soup and the deboned lamb head. The banitsa is not bad as it's not as oily or sweet that I thought, which is great. The lamb soup is alright but nothing special for me to say it's delicious. They put a lot of green onions in the soup which didn't bother me but the taste is both bland and salty at the same time. I pondered hard between the veal and the roasted lamb but at the end decided to try deboned lamb head as it's something new and I was told it's delicious. It's not. It's so so at best. There are eyes (I think the hard eye balls themselves were removed so you get the cartilage around the eyeballs) and brain (harder than I expected). I don't think it tastes good and I'm not stranger to eyes or brains but this dish just isn't flavorful. I'll put more spices myself and the meat from cheek is overcooked. Overall I don't know what the fuss is for this restaurant. Also the prices are definitely higher than typical. I don't really recommend this place. I'm debating whether to give this a 2 stars as the service especially at the entrance gives me a bitter taste but decided to just rate it on food alone.
Ed YuEd Yu
10
Hadjidraganov's Cellars is a kitschy restaurant decked out in a traditional Bulgarian tavern setting. The huge menu featured traditional Bulgarian dishes, and a band played live Bulgarian music. To start, the Hero’s Salad was a gigantic platter featuring a bunch of different salads and dips including Shopska Salad (chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and onions topped with grated cheese), roasted red peppers, buffalo cheese, ham, and three different kinds of dips including kiopoulu (eggplant pureed with tomatoes and peppers); katak (paste made of feta cheese, yogurt, and garlic); and my favorite, white beans mixed with a tomato sauce. For our main course, we had the Kapama, made using a traditional recipe from the town of Bansko. This was a stew of sour cabbage, red wine, pork, chicken, and sausage, all topped with a sarma (cabbage stuffed with ground meat). The stew had a salty flavor from the cabbage and a meaty flavor from the pieces of chicken, pork, and sausage. Everything went nicely with the fluffy homemade bread and the parlenka (a thin, freshly-baked flatbread) on the side.
David KwokDavid Kwok
30
This place was also recommended by a local guide. Here's a tip for lunch: go to there website and choose the Bulgarian version and then use Google translate. You can see a section called Lunch Menu which is not showing on the English site. Every Monday the restaurant updates the menu for the coming week with a few nice choices each day. When I came to the restaurant, the daily lunch menu was posted in front of the door too, but only in Bulgarian. After I sat down, the waitress gave me a whole stack of different menus, sans the lunch menu. I asked for it, she said "but it's in Bulgarian", as if everything else in Bulgaria was written in English, but handed it to me immediately. After that I had a great meal of lamb soup (so good) and veal and mushroom stew, and the service was quick too. All the other people sitting around me were also tourists, and none of them got the lunch menu like I did. So this was a soft form of tourist tax. Ofc their usual menu also looked very tempting. To make up for being an ungrateful tourist, I tipped handsomely. :)
Huan WangHuan Wang
40
google has great reviews. Staff were reasonably friendly. Decorations are great. Food is mediocre. Price is high. These two are mutually exclusive. Lots of tourists. They take card. Only saving grace was the platatnik (very tasty dill potatoes onions cheese tomatoes bake), and maybe the Kalugerska salad (fat beans with roasted peppers sauce). I've had better shopska salad that wasn't even in Bulgaria. The pork in the kavarma was overcooked and chewy. The vegetables were balanced. The chiken was defintley better in this dish. The mitrinkovska gozba - pork fillet grilled looked nothing like the picture, but even then it wasno good. the meat itself was old, you can taste this when the texture is gritty and mushy. the flavour was lacking, and it was 15 euros. please. Biolemonade was a win, the tasting wines were cheap. I would not return here, but perhaps in a large group setting the atmosphere would be ok - if you're willing to drop the $$.
JinnJinn
00
Wow wow and wow again. We turned up on a Friday night and found that we couldn't be seated. We then made a reservation for the following evening, and boy we were not disappointed. They had a huge menu and we ordered from the "favorites for british" laminate that was inside ( with pictures). We ordered and the waiter offered us some cheesy garlic bread to start and we thought why not?! My partner had a chicken and lamb with cabbage and onion - it was like a slow cooker meal. Very nice. I had rolled chicken fillet in cheese with potatoes and coleslaw. Again very delicious. All this food and 2 pints, and a 10 len tip ( 10% is kinda the norm) came to 95len (£40). As we finished the some musicians started playing traditional Bulgarian folk music. A fantastic atmosphere. Would recommend and would visit again if our trip was longer.
Richard LunnRichard Lunn
20
Nearby Attractions Of Hadjidraganov's Cellars
National Palace of Culture Park
The City Garden
National Palace of Culture (NDK)
Sofia's Central Market Hall
City Garden
National Palace of Culture
Ivan Vazov National Theatre
The Russian monument in Sofia
Orthodox Cathedral Saint Nedelia
Crystal Garden

National Palace of Culture Park
4.6
(11.2K)Click for details

The City Garden
4.7
(6.7K)Click for details

National Palace of Culture (NDK)
4.5
(6.7K)Click for details

Sofia's Central Market Hall
4.0
(6.1K)Click for details
Nearby Restaurants Of Hadjidraganov's Cellars
Shtastlivetsa Restaurant - Vitoshka
Happy Bar & Grill Rakovski
Mr. Pizza - bul. Vasil Levski
Happy Bar & Grill
Divaka
Divaka
Moma Bulgarian Food and Wine
Bar Friday
The Cocktail Bar
Cosmos Restaurant / Космос

Shtastlivetsa Restaurant - Vitoshka
4.5
(4.4K)$$
Click for details

Happy Bar & Grill Rakovski
4.4
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Mr. Pizza - bul. Vasil Levski
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Happy Bar & Grill
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Basic Info
Address
Sofia Center, ul. "Hristo Belchev" 18, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
Map
Phone
+359 89 877 5936
Call
Website
izbite.com
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Reviews
Overview
4.5
(3.9K reviews)$$
Ratings & Description
attractions: National Palace of Culture Park, The City Garden, National Palace of Culture (NDK), Sofia's Central Market Hall, City Garden, National Palace of Culture, Ivan Vazov National Theatre, The Russian monument in Sofia, Orthodox Cathedral Saint Nedelia, Crystal Garden, restaurants: Shtastlivetsa Restaurant - Vitoshka, Happy Bar & Grill Rakovski, Mr. Pizza - bul. Vasil Levski, Happy Bar & Grill, Divaka, Divaka, Moma Bulgarian Food and Wine, Bar Friday, The Cocktail Bar, Cosmos Restaurant / Космос
