The Cocktail Bar — Restaurant in Sofia City

So, here’s what happened.

We’re a group of four, going for some drinks. For one of the cocktails, we ask if they have something with mezcal. “We don’t have cocktails with mezcal, but we can prepare you one.” Great! we say. The cocktails come; two of them, including the mezcal one, are watered down. But that doesn’t bother us too much. (I’m getting used to services in Sofia getting worse in the last year, maybe linked to the coming recession, so what can you do 🤷)

So, we drink our cocktails, ask for the check, quickly scan it, leave a tip, and pay by card, all good. On our way out, we notice that the bill includes one full tequila cocktail and one mezcal shot, which isn’t cool since, this way, we’re paying for more than we have received. In other words, we’re paying for a tequila we haven’t received, substituted with the mezcal. Not critical stuff, but no bar should ever do this.

We’re asking a waiter (our own had left already) about it, and he goes get the chief bartender/mixologist/manager, idk. We’re chill, laughing about it, and expecting some kind of an excuse. Maybe a tequila shot as a compliment to level things up (we’re NOT expecting any money back. I know how hard it can be to insert changes into a payment system).

Then this person comes, visibly irate, and starts explaining a series of random facts. Like how expensive mezcal is, how they don’t have mezcal cocktails on the menu, and other unrelated to the situation things. I’m again explaining that the issue is we’ve paid for something we haven’t received, which is not cool. He then said that we truly have a point (thanks god he’s able to think), but instead of saying something like: “Sorry for that guys,” he continues telling me, angrily, about issues of their own - how they should stop offering cocktails that aren’t on the menu; how they cannot mark custom cocktails in their payment system and so on, as if we’re to blame for any of that. After 5 minutes of this, my mood has gone south, and we just want to leave disappointed. But sadly, that’s not the end.

We are already on the other side of the street, and we see a waitress running toward us with some money in her hands. And we’re like: Oh, maybe she wants to give us back some cash, which we definitely do NOT want. While running, she fells to the ground, scattering her money on the street. One of us quickly goes to help her. And then the waitress says she was sent to ask us to pay our check because obviously the mixologist/manager didn’t understand that we had already did…

All in all, that’s the most pathetic act made by a manager...

As we visited the bar last year, we liked the variety of cocktails and the fact that there is almost no other possibility to enjoy a drink in the center of Sofia after 23h. It was extremely expensive we paid hundreds of levas but it was worth it since we had a nice evening. As we “tried” to visit the place yesterday, we had less positive experience. The bar keepers did not allow us to stay on the bar “no place for customers”. Half an hour later the bar was overcrowded with customers. As we ordered our favourite gins, the waitress laughed! at us and assumed we are idiots, since these gins have not been sold there for years. The bottles we to be seen on the bar. After a waiting time of over 40 minutes, we said we are leaving and were attacked by a small gentleman (most probably part of the staff) who even had the atrocity to shout, lie, and accuse us. Once again a very typical bad service...

I have a really good and bad experience with this one. One evening I went there with my girlfriend and their signature cocktails were great, but they messed up the classic ones, especially the margarita, it wss just not right. The next day we went daytime and the service was terrible, we waited for so long to be served, without an apology, we were so thirsty that I asked for water and believe it or not, on a hot summer day, she brought us warm tap water without ice, and in the end when we got the Mohitos, which are a classic and so easy to make, THEY WERE TERRIBLE! I mean, I never tasted worse Mohito in my life. It was not muddled, just floating mint leaves in it and a slice of lime on top??? The ice in it was not crushed, and any bartender or cocktail lover would understand how awful is that. All taken, I give this place a 3 star only for the two signature cocktails that...