The Little Things — Restaurant in Sofia City

Be warned - parking in the area is terrible. It's usually packed with cars, surprising for a blue zone area (paid street parking) but still... the nearest parking lot is about a 5 minutes walk from there, but you need to know that. It too, however, may be packed. I highly recommend you come with a taxi or by foot.

The sign outside is quite hidden, hanging on the left side of the entrance's fence. The restaurant is located inside a courtyard, and the first building (to your right, as your enter it) is a different establishment... you'll have to trek a bit into the courtyard, and guess that the next building after the first one you encounter holds the restaurant (that is, the building to the left). The restaurant's name is small and partially covered to notice immediately.

A flight of steep stairs leads to a corridor entrance framed by two doors. The restaurant is splayed all over the building - from the entrance several rooms and other flights of stairs split out, leading to different parts of the restaurant. The decor confused me - something between outdated and hobo culture, with various areas of neglect that I don't believe were intentional.

We sat, the 8 of us, at the entrance floor, in one of the rooms to the right, from which a flight of stairs descended into a basement level. I suspect the kitchen is there, as there were quite a few dishes coming with waiters from it that never landed at our table.

We first ordered some drinks, mostly beer. Some ordered some cocktails - nothing spectacular to report. The music was a bit loud - we had trouble communicating from one side of the table to the other. The rush from the kitchen bouncing behind my friends backs didn't help much either.

In general, the food was interesting - not exceptionally tasty nor were the portions generous. I ate there the meatballs, and tasted one of the salads.

When it comes to salads in Sofia, you'll find relatively high-quality products in your plate... no need to cook salads, so it's hard to spoil the ingredients. That's true for this place. Crisp vegetables, and refreshingly mild and not overpowering dressing.

When it comes to cooked food, in Sofia they tend to overly complicate matters and the results vary, even when ordering the same dish. Especially when they attempt to plate it for show. That's NOT true for this place. The meatballs were good! The garnish by them - less worth mentioning - but overall a dish I'd order again. My colleagues ate fish (nice portion), pork steak (big!) and some seafood - they were all content, though again, not overtly happy. Solid 4 on that.

In general, I'm unsure what exactly the food here is suppose to be. Seems like weird interpretations over staple dishes in common Bulgarian cuisine, but at least they are not draped lavishly with watered-down balsamic vinegar and/or parmesan-like flakes as I've come to expect from places such as this one. There aren't many dishes in the menu, which is always a good sign. However, I would expect from the reputation of the place, at least the one I've been told of, to find

The waiter was accommodating, but not very friendly. Not uncommon in Sofia, especially when their limited English fails to understand what you want and they call on colleagues for help (which is better than a few years ago, when they would just refuse you no matter what it was and leave you hanging).

I didn't eat the deserts, but the moans from around the table suggested they all hit the spot. I'd give it 3.5 if I could, but since I have to decide if it's a 3 or 4, I think 3 is the right way to go about this. If the food was truly exceptional, I would've gone with 4, but it wasn't. With that said, I do intend to visit there again and hope to have a...

The Little Things is a place we will be returning to every time we visit Sofia! It’s so cozy, hidden away, yet in a very central location, the food is absolutely delicious and the staff are friendly and welcoming.

Firstly, as the restaurant is situated between two other business - a shop on its left side and another restaurant on the right, you kind of have to walk into the little alley/pathway right by the ‘Gourmet House’ signs to enter The Little Things. On the photos below you’ll see a pillar that has a The Little Things sign - walk on the right of that and you’ll see it.

When we arrived, it was a late afternoon but we hadn’t had lunch so the waiters offered us some of their top selling dishes on the menu and according to our taste. We selected a grilled chicken with brie, peach/apricot and cashew nuts dish and a rice with mushroom and Parmesan cheese dish and they were both super yummy! The food didn’t take long to arrive, it was vey fresh and warmly served and it was bursting with flavour. The combination of flavours in each of the dishes made them so unique and they were very tasty! We also bought some of their homemade lemonade and that was really refreshing and energising so I recommend giving it a try!

The service was great, the atmosphere very relaxing as you’re kind of hidden away in a little garden whilst still in the centre of Sofia. The restaurant itself has a very unique design as well. It has an outdoor garden which is perfect for the summer but inside it’s built like a house. Perhaps, it used to be a house turned into a restaurant - great idea! There’s tables and sitting areas in each ‘room’ of the house and they have kept some very authentic and old furniture which makes the whole setting very cozy and homely.

Overall, 5/5 and we certainly recommend to anyone visiting Sofia and...

I ate at this restaurant in October 2021 and the service was horrendous.

We were a party of 5 people, some of us got the main dish before the salad and others waited for 1 HOUR for the pasta dish.

We asked a couple of times and the waitress assured us that its on its way (I guess without actually checking if its true)

After 50 min of waiting for the pasta she came back and apologised because there was a mistake in the kitchen (she didnt write the pasta on the order sheet correctly or the kitchen staff did not see it, there were a lot of excuses)and she said they can start making it now.

After 10 more min the pasta finally arrived

I dont know much about etiquette but it is common courtesy if they made the mistake there should be some sort of reparation. We at least expected for the two pasta dishes to not be included in the bill

Nope. Only half-authentic apologies.

We were not there during the busy period and the restaurant was empty so there is really no excuse for the poor service.

We had trouble getting the waitress' attention because she was chatting with a friend while on the job.

The food was not something amazing that the bad service could be forgiven.

✔-10 out of 10 ✔Would not recommend ✔Never going back there

*from what I read in previous bad reviews for the restaurant there seems to be an ongoing problem with all dishes as a whole as people are reporting that they waited extreme amounts of time for their food with no apology for the...