Meet the Bulgarian cuisine with Balkan Bites – The Free Food Tour of Sofia

If you’re travelling to Sofia and you want to know more about the Bulgarian cuisine, there’s no better way of doing that than joining the free food tour of Sofia – Balkan Bites!

The volunteers from Balkan Bites will welcome you with a big smile and a sign with the tour’s logo so you can’t mistaken them. The tour starts at 2 p.m. every day with no exceptions. The duration is about 2 hours. The meeting point is  in Park Crystal next to the statue of Stefan Stambolov (MAP).

I personally admire those guys who created and continue to develop the tour. They work every day to show foreigners the traditional cuisine of Bulgaria, to tell them more about our customs and to show them nice places where they can eat healthy and delicious meals.

Balkan Bites is one of the first free food tours in the world. It provides free samples of delicious Balkan food and a lot of stories about the history of the Bulgarian and the Balkan cuisine.

The Restaurants

There are three restaurants* which open their doors for the tourists during the walk. The first one is Supa Star where foreigners can try our tasty cold soup, called “tarator” made with yogurt, cucumbers, cold water, garlic, walnuts, dill and salt.

The guide will also tell you the interesting story about our pride – the yogurt. While walking to the next restaurant, you will hear a lot about the squad shops, the street art and many more interesting stories related with Sofia.

The second place where tourists can taste traditional food is called Lubimoto (The Favourite). It’s a family owned restaurant with a traditional style of cooking and atmosphere. There you can try “shopska salad” made with tomatoes, cucumbers, white cheese, onion, peppers, olive oil and salt. Very tasty!

The last restaurant to visit is Sun & Moon – a bakery that prepares over 15 kinds of sourdough bread from flour, freshly ground on a stone mill every day, and over 25 kinds of healthy sweets. Here’s the place where you will try freshly baked bread with “lutenitsa” – red pepper, aubergine and tomato purée, and “kyopolou” – popular Bulgarian and Turkish relish made principally from roasted eggplants and garlic.

At the end of the tour, you’ll definitely fall in love even more with the Balkan cuisine. So if you come to Sofia soon, do not hesitate and visit the free food tour Balkan Bites!

* Update, June 2017: Now, the locations visited during the free food tour of Sofia are more than five. 

Have you tried any Bulgarian meal already?
Which one is your favourite?