Chevermeto — Restaurant in Sofia City

Fantastic food, I highly recommend the kachamak with bacon. The atmosphere and the place itself are very charming, with live traditional music, space for dancing, and décor in Bulgarian style (though I’m not sure whether it’s authentic or not). The only downside was the service: in particular, we were served by a waitress who was rude from the very beginning.

As young Italians in our twenties, we didn’t know Bulgarian cuisine, so we asked her to suggest four appetizers of her choice, but without any pressure or expectation. At our request, the waitress rudely and inexplicably walked away visibly annoyed. As she was leaving, we called her back and ended up choosing four random appetizers ourselves, just to make her feel more at ease. From then on, the food was brought out in a staggered way, and we couldn’t manage to eat all together.

The only positive note about the service was that they managed to bring us a mix of desserts even though the kitchen was already closed. However, it was clear that these weren’t freshly prepared desserts and, as someone who has worked in the restaurant business, I can assure you that serving those desserts (which we of course paid for) required no special effort or exception on their part.

At the end of the dinner, the bill arrived, and the waitress brought us the receipt along with their suggested tip amount—which already made us hesitate: about 20% of the total, which is a lot for young students. In the end, we decided to leave around 5%, and tips are NOT mandatory. At our choice, the waitress began a pitiful scene: she charged us while sulking, gave us a cold attitude, and walked away without even saying goodbye. That goodbye never came, not even when we left the restaurant, despite the fact that we had greeted, remained polite, courteous, and accommodating with every member of the staff, and even left a small tip, although we’re not exactly the kind of people with a large budget....

Never again. We recently visited with some foreign colleagues. Of course, the mediocrity hit you the moment you stepped inside, but since it's supposedly a "traditional Bulgarian restaurant," we decided to show it to the foreigners. We ordered several portions of roasted lamb, which, unfortunately, we forgot to photograph. All the portions were absolutely cold. When we asked to return them, the waiter, bewildered, said: "But why?! We'll just reheat them!" (?!?) Then he tried to explain that the lamb wasn't cooked to order, as if even five-year-olds wouldn't already know that. Not only were the portions cold, but the meat itself was poorly cooked. Questions arose about whether it had even been prepared that day. After some arguments, they finally, and very reluctantly, agreed to take the lamb back. The portion cost 40 BGN and was ridiculously small, with the mashed potatoes consisting of a tiny scoop served with an ice cream spoon. Besides the audacity of the waiter questioning why we would want to return the food, when we ordered other dishes, he said: "We'll try to make sure they come out hot, since you're... THAT kind of customer" (?!?). On top of that, the beef steak was like a complete piece of shoe leather. At the end, they had also charged us for three extra shepherd’s salads. The food wasn’t tasty, and the service was absolutely inadequate. A mediocre, third-rate dive, nothing more. The rude attitude is also obvious in how they respond to...

A group of 4 of us came to this restaurant for a traditional Bulgarian dinner experience. We were greeted and seated in the barrel area with a large table. We ordered our food and a bottle of wine. The waitress wasn't particularly friendly and shortly returned to say she didn't have our chosen bottle of wine but had an alternative 'standard' bottle which we agreed to. The food was ok, nothing special at all and after we were served we had no other interaction with staff to offer more drinks or anything else. I was still finishing my meal when the table was cleared and we then waited 40 minutes before we'd had enough of waiting and asked for the bill. The bill didn't arrive so we again approached the waitress and it had clearly been forgotten. When the bill came, we had been charged for the most expensive wine on the list and upon challenging this we were told it was our fault for agreeing this bottle without checking the price. We explained that we were told it was a comparable 'standard' bottle but no apology and a very unpleasant attitude. We were not offered desserts or more drinks throughout our meal. The dancing was fabulous but not the best experience. I wouldn't return...