Pappous Tsipouradiko — Restaurant in Sofia City

The waitresses are very friendly and the restaurant has a pleasant interior.

Alas, the lights spoil the atmosphere because the lamps are exposed.

On some tables (unless you have people sitting in front of you and always at the right angle) you will inevitably stare at these lamps - a fault in the design.

There is a bottle of olive oil on each table that claims to be extra virgin olive oil produced with cold extraction.

I can confidently say this is not true ; the oil in the bottle on my table was in the best case scenario a mix of old (rancid) and non-virgin olive oil and other processed oils.

Toasted bread is brought to the table before the food arrives.

It is a strange choice for a restaurant that claims to serve high quality Greek 🇬🇷 food because the bread is filling (usually a small filo pastry or a small dip and olives is served in better Greek restaurants).

I speculate the reason this bread is served is probably because toasted bread is tasty even if not fresh and there are not enough customers on evenings in March to justify preparing something more authentic for them.

The lemon chicken was surely marinated as per the claim on the menu and it was good quality but it had a low quality mustard dressing drizzled all over it and made it edible but far from tasty.

The menu states it is accompanied with bulgur wheat (pilgouri) but it in fact came with cold couscous and a few parsley leaves.

The tsipouro with anise tasted very good but I could not distinguish it from Greek or Turkish raki (in fairness I am not an expert as I don't drink it often).

The orange cake was delicious (hence the third star). It is a moist cake which is great taste wise but also makes me wonder if it was chosen as such cakes keep fresh longer in the fridge.

The kitchen operates for only 4 hours every day (only dinner) and the restaurant opened in 2023 but accumulated nearly 1,100 reviews including hundreds of 5 star reviews with no comments attached to them so make of that...

I have visited the restaurant twice (once in 2022 and again in 2025) and I believe it is well-decorated, with a pleasant atmosphere and overall good service. However, I recommend dining earlier in the evening, as we felt rushed to leave at the end of our meal. For instance, as we were finishing our wine, one of the staff members hurried us to leave, even though there was still time left before closing. One of the staff members seemed to be quite stressed about the idea that we wanted a small moment to finish our wine, despite the total bill for two people being around 140 leva. A good alternative might be to offer us different options, such as asking if we would like to pack up leftovers to take home or if it would be possible to finish the wine outside. This would feel a bit more thoughtful. While I understand the reasoning behind the desire to be done before closing time, it did leave a slightly negative impression which is unfortunate because in general I am quite positive about Pappous Tsipouradiko. I would like to visit the restaurant again at another time, but I do hope that this was a...

Update:

Last time I went there with friends neither the service nor the food was on point.

We ordered different salads. The only good salad was the Greek one.

Other than that, we had a salad that was too sour... And an aubergine which wasn't tasty at all.

I guess as far as consistency goes, you have to be lucky...

Previous post:

Had an excellent experience!👌 Recommend 1000%! We had tzatziki with bread 🍞- to die for! And also a shrimp dish with sweet potato puree, tomatoes 🍅 & garlic! It was so full of flavor! A dish typical of Corfu island. When I saw it at first, I was skeptical because it looked like a small dish, but honestly, it ended up being super fulfilling! We loved it so much, we ordered it twice... 😄😁 We ended the evening with a halva dessert which was made with lemon & orange peels. We savored each bite! The service was top-notch as well. The waitress genuinely cared, was super kind & everything was brought fast. We didn't have a reservation but there were many customers who did. In short: it's a new favorite...