A Foodie's Guide to the Best Vegetarian and Vegan Restaurants Sofia Has to Offer
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Wondering where to eat in Sofia Bulgaria as a vegetarian or vegan?
Bulgaria’s capital city Sofia has a reputation as a carnivore’s playground but look a little closer amongst the hearty stews and smoky grills that the country is famous for and you’ll find a food scene I’d happily call a plant-based paradise.
Quick Guide to Sofia
Pushed for time? Here’s a quick mini guide to Sofia to help you make the most of your trip!
🏠 Where to stay in Sofia:
- 5 Vintage Guest House (fabulous value)
- Art Hotel 158 (great location)
- Grand Hotel Millennium Sofia (luxury hotel)
🌤️ When to visit:
- Best weather is shoulder season (April–June, September–October).
- Summer (especially August) is sweltering but very quiet!
- Winters are cold 🥶, with snow and rain!
🙋 Best things to do in Sofia: :
- Visit Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
- Take a local wine and cheese tasting tour
- Go on food tasting guided city tour
🌟 Don't Forget:
- Stay connected with an Airalo eSIM!
On our two trips to Sofia, I never struggled to find a satisfying vegetarian or vegan meal (and believe me, if I had, you'd be reading a much grumpier article titled How I Got Hangry in Sofia).
From naturally vegan Bulgarian dishes like bob chorba (a hearty bean stew) and vegan takes on breakfast staples like crispy banitsa and fried, fluffy mekitsa, to dining at some of the best restaurants Sofia has to offer, I ate like a king and never once felt that I was eating food that tasted like sadness.
Does this look sad to you? Nope, ‘cos its banging!
This guide covers all the best restaurants in Sofia for vegan and vegetarian travellers and makes sure that you don’t miss out on trying local Bulgarian cuisine just because you’re a herbivore. That’s right my kale crusaders, you can have your banitsa and eat it too.
So, whether you're looking for creative vegetarian and vegan options at restaurants that serve local Bulgarian fare, or you’re on the hunt for incredible all vegan and vege restaurants, we’ve got you covered.
Ready to dive fork-first into our guide to the best vegetarian and vegan restaurants Sofia has to offer?
What’s Cooking in Bulgaria? A Bite-Sized Intro
Before we visited Bulgaria, we had no idea that the cuisine was so varied!
Bulgarian cuisine shares a lot of dishes with neighbouring Greece and Turkey and its Ottoman history means that you’ll find Middle Eastern dishes here too.
From mezzes, stuffed vegetables and kebabs, to baklava, breads, pastries and lengthy soup menus, there was a lot that was familiar to us.
Like Turks, Bulgarians love their dairy products: their yogurt is famous and sirene (a white cheese similar to feta) features in many dishes.
There are also tons of vegan dishes: Bulgaria’s Eastern Orthodox Christian traditions mean that during Lent, Bulgarians consume a vegan diet for 40 days.
Restaurants offer fasting or ‘lean’ menus during this time - you can sometimes still find these menus even when Lent is over. This is one of the reasons that eating in Bulgaria as a vegetarian or vegan isn’t as hard as you might think!
💡 Tip: If you’re vegetarian or vegan, ask for the “postno menu” (постно меню).
The Best Traditional Bulgarian Vegetarian and Vegan Restaurants Sofia Has to Offer!
We’re kicking off with the best restaurants in Sofia serving vegetarian and vegan friendly traditional Bulgarian food.
Mekitsa & Coffee (Мекица и Кафе) - Start Your Day The Fried Way
Breakfast: Vegetarian and vegan options
If you’re looking to start the day with a traditional Bulgarian breakfast in Sofia, head to Mekitsa & Coffee.
This small cafe serves hot, fresh mekitsa - a deep fried dough made with flour, eggs and yogurt - with various sweet or savoury toppings.
Traditionally mekitsa is served with a sweet topping of powdered sugar or blueberry jam or a savoury topping of cream cheese and grated yellow cheese. We tried both: they tasted divine!
There are plenty of other varieties to choose from, including caramelised apple and cinnamon, honey and walnuts, cream cheese and basil pesto and even a spicy mekitsa with white cheese and chilli peppers.
Most of the menu at Mekitsa & Coffee is vegetarian, but there are tasty options for vegans too.
Try their whole grain vegan mekitsa - made with its own special dough - and add any of the vegan-friendly toppings on offer, including a creamy cashew cheese.
A mekitsa costs around £2 - £3 , so if you’re on a budget and looking for veg/vegan food in Sofia Bulgaria that doesn’t break the bank, check this place out!
Address: Sofia Center, ul. "Graf Ignatiev" 28, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria.
Hours: Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM - 7:00 PM; Saturday/Sunday, 9.00 AM - 7:00 PM.
Best dish: Mekitsa with blueberry jam.
Cost: 2.50 - 6.90 lev depending on the topping.
HleBar - Beautiful Banitsas
Breakfast/brunch: Vegetarian and vegan options
Sticking with the theme of breakfast in Bulgaria, Hlebar is one of our favourite cafes in Sofia.
Although renowned for their handmade, sourdough breads, it’s Hlebar’s banitsas that are the main attraction, with plenty of vegetarian and vegan options to choose from.
A beloved Bulgarian breakfast staple, banitsa is made from flaky filo pastry rolled into a spiral or log and stuffed with a variety of fillings. The classic version is stuffed with eggs, tangy white cheese and yogurt.
In addition to the classic banitsa, HleBar offers several fantastic vegan versions. The savoury option is packed with potatoes, mushrooms and olive oil and seasoned with chilli, onion, dill, parsley and pepper.
For something sweeter, there’s a vegan banitsa filled with apple, cinnamon, and crunchy walnuts or an autumnal version stuffed with pumpkin and walnuts.
We managed to grab the last apple banitsa and honestly, it was next-level good. I was properly devastated when it was finished.
Which brings me to an important point: Hlebar (especially the location on Oborishte Street) is one of the most popular restaurants in Sofia for breakfast and brunch, so if you want to try the banitsa, get there early.
If you arrive and find the banitsas have sold out (as we did once), Hlebar also serves great brunch dishes - I tried the peppers and tomatoes stuffed with cheese and it was excellent.
Address: 16, Oborishte St Str, 1504 Sofia, Bulgaria (seating available).
Hours: Monday to Sunday, 7:15 AM/7:30 AM - 9.00 PM.
(Hlebar has another location on 27, ul. "Tsar Shishman" Street - this is takeaway only).
Best dish: The apple, cinnamon and walnut banitsa is bloody amazing and vegan!
Cost: A banitsa costs 5.50 lev.
Zlaten Klass Bakery - A Class Act
Breakfast: vegetarian options
Please forgive my cheesy pun in the title - Zlaten Klass is yet another place to try great vegetarian banitsa.
We ordered two flavours to take away: the classic cheese, egg, and yogurt banitsa, and a sweet version with pumpkin, walnut, and cinnamon. The pastry was spot-on - golden, flaky, and just the right amount of buttery crisp.
The savoury filling was rich, slightly heavy but satisfying - like the best kind of breakfast comfort food - while the sweet one was the kind of deliciousness that made me wish I’d ordered three.
We got quite full from eating these banitsas - the portions were generous and it was pretty cheap!
Address: Sofia Center, Boulevard "General Mihail D. Skobelev" 50, 1606 Sofia, Bulgaria.
Hours: Monday - Friday, 6:30 AM - 6:30 PM, Saturday, 7:00 AM - 6:30 PM, closed on Sunday.
Best dish: pumpkin, walnut and cinnamon banitsa.
Cost: Around 3 lev for a banitsa.
Manastirska Magernitsa Restaurant - Best Bulgarian Restaurant Sofia Has to Offer For Plant Based Folk
Lunch/Dinner: Numerous vegan and vegetarian options
We think Manastirska Magernitsa is easily the best restaurant in Sofia for traditional Bulgarian food - and we’re not the only ones. It regularly shows up on lists of the top 10 restaurants in Sofia, and once you eat here, you’ll know why.
We stumbled on it by accident one evening, lured in by the beautiful rustic decor and the fact that it was absolutely packed - always a good sign!
The rustic decor at Manastirska Magernitsa. (I had to wait till the restaurant was closing to take this photo!)
Housed in a historic building once owned by Bulgaria’s first literary critic, Manastirska Magernitsa serves authentic Bulgarian dishes based on generations-old recipes from monasteries across the country.
The menu is hearty, seasonal, and surprisingly veggie-friendly. There's even an entire section - “Monastery Lean Dishes” - that’s fully vegan and vegetarian!
Baked cheese with honey and walnuts at Manastirska Magernitsa. I need more of this in my life!
Traditional Bulgarian pogacha bread.
The amount of choice on the menu easily makes this the best Bulgarian restaurant in Sofia for vegetarians and vegans - no sad risottos or limp salads here.
We shared a starter of creamy oven-baked cow’s milk cheese with honey and walnuts, then moved on to two gorgeous vegan mains: I had the slow-cooked large Bulgarian beans with prunes, vegetables and tomato sauce, while Vincent went for the Mount Athos lentils simmered with garlic and mint.
Stewed Bulgarian beans with prunes and vegetables. So delicious!
Lentils simmers with garlic, mint, chard and various other vegetables.
We were also treated to fluffy, complimentary pogacha bread served with sharena sol - Bulgaria’s signature spiced salt - and washed everything down with a carafe of raspberry wine. (You MUST try this!)
The generous portions, amazing service and stellar food deservedly makes Manastirska Magernitsa one of the top restaurants in Sofia.
If you’re a herbivore and looking for the best Bulgarian food in Sofia, don’t miss this place!
Address: Sofia Center, ul. "Han Asparuh" 67, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
Hours: Monday - Sunday, 12:00 PM - 11:00 PM
Best dishes: All of them - it’s too hard to choose!
Cost: It’s pricey but worth it.
Reservations are recommended - it’s very popular!
Izbata Tavern - Traditional Bulgarian Food Sofia
Lunch/Dinner: Many vegetarian options, some vegan options available
Izbata Tavern is another of the best Bulgarian restaurants in Sofia with excellent options for vegans and vegetarians.
The menu features mostly vegetarian appetisers, including the delightfully named mish-mash - Bulgarian scrambled eggs with tomatoes, peppers, and cheese.
There’s also a veggie main course section with three solid vegan options…plus, for some mysterious reason, a couple of fish dishes. (Not sure what’s going on there!)
Amazing stuffed aubergine at Izbata Tavern.
We tried stuffed aubergine with garlic, herbs, homemade cheese and tomatoes; roasted red peppers topped with tomato sauce and served with a slice of cheese; a yummy vegan dish of rice with blue plums, spinach, garlic and walnuts; and homemade bread with plenty of garlic.
Delicious doesn’t even begin to cover it.
This time, we actually saved room for dessert. I had my heart set on the rice and milk cream with orange peel and cinnamon - it sounded incredible - but sadly, it was sold out. So, we went for the chocolate mousse instead which hit that sweet spot perfectly.
Rice cooked with blue plums, spinach and garlic.
Creamy and delicious chocolate mousse.
Izbata Tavern is considered to be one of the best traditional restaurants in Sofia - it certainly lived up to its reputation and is a solid option for vegans and vegetarians.
Address: Sofia Center, Slavyanska St 18, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria.
Hours: Monday - Sunday, 11:00 AM - 11:00 PM.
Best dishes: Stuffed aubergines.
Cost: Pretty expensive.
Reservations are recommended - you can book online. If Izbata Tavern is full, try its other branch, Izbata Tavern 2, just a 10-minute walk away!
Best Restaurants in Sofia Bulgaria Serving Vegan and Vegetarian-Friendly International Cuisine
Our favourite restaurants in Sofia serving tasty vegan and vegetarian food from all around the world.
Supa Star - The Name Says it All
Lunch: Numerous vegetarian options, at least one vegan option
As slow travellers on a budget, we aren’t always in the habit of eating at fancy vegan restaurants or famous restaurants. Sometimes we’re just after something cheap and delicious.
Enter Supa Star.
This small ‘soup bar’ (and its sister branch Supa Star Dondukov) serve six different homemade soups each day. Most of the soups are vegetarian and there is always one vegan option.
During our slightly chilly spring trip to Sofia, we spent a lot of time in Supa Star warming up from the inside out.
One afternoon we tucked into comforting bowls of creamy potato soup and a zesty carrot and coriander (both vegetarian). Another day we went for the rustic Italian tomato soup with celery and basil - completely vegan and delicious!
You can check the daily available soups on Supa Star’s Facebook page. I wish I’d known this earlier as I would have loved to time our visit for a day when they were serving vegan Moroccan chickpea soup or Turkish lentil soup!
Supa Star also serves sandwiches (with vegan and vege options), salads and desserts.
Supa Star is one of the best restaurants in Sofia centre for a quick, nutritious and filling lunch on the cheap.
Address: Sofia Center, ul. "Tsar Shishman" 8, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
Hours: Monday - Friday, 11:30 AM - 7:00 PM, Saturday - Sunday, 12:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Best dish: There are so many different soups to try, it would be hard to say! We loved the carrot and coriander soup.
Cost: Cheap - a soup costs between 7-12 lev.
rCurry Sri Lankan Restaurant - Superb Sri Lankan Grub
Lunch/Dinner: Vegan options
If you didn’t already know, Sri Lankan cuisine is a dream for vegans. And as a British Sri Lankan, I always get excited when I stumble across Lankan food abroad.
So imagine our surprise when we found a Sri Lankan restaurant…in Sofia! Of course, we had to try it!
rCurry is the passion project of Radostina Ilieva, who fell in love with Sri Lankan food after multiple trips to the island while living in the Middle East. She was inspired to bring the flavours back to her country and opened Bulgaria’s very first Sri Lankan restaurant in 2023.
The chefs hail from Sri Lanka, and the food is the real deal: home-style dishes, just slightly toned down spice-wise for local tastebuds.
My vegan bowl at rCurry - aubergine, chickpeas, lentils, beans, jackfruit and more!
rCurry follows a casual canteen-style setup. Each day, they prepare 7–8 curries (over half of them are vegan), and you simply choose which ones you want served with rice.
We ended up visiting three times during our trip (I regret nothing!). I tried every curry combination: from beetroot to cashew, mung bean, okra, aubergine and classic lentil parippu (dhal). Everything is cooked in coconut oil, and the richer curries are made with coconut milk or cream.
On some days, they also served coconut roti and spicy coconut sambol!
The buffet bar at rCurry.
rCurry is one of the best places to eat in Sofia Bulgaria if you’re on a budget. It offers superb value for money - a basic vegan bowl with rice and five different vegetable curries costs just 9.90 lev (£4).
So if you’re looking for good restaurants in Sofia with extremely tasty vegan options, consider rCurry!
Address: Sofia Center, ul. "Stefan Karadzha" 11Б, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria.
Hours: Monday - Sunday, 11:30 AM - 10:00 PM.
Best dishes: Aubergine curry, pea and cashew nut curry.
Cost: Cheap! A vegan bowl costs 9.90lev.
Ashurbanipal - Stellar Iraqi Cuisine
Lunch/Dinner: Lots of vegan and vegetarian options.
Located near Jenski Pazar (Lady’s Market) in Sofia, Ashurbanipal is a family-run restaurant that has been serving tasty Iraqi cuisine for years.
There is no menu here - the sometimes friendly, sometimes brusque owner will tell you what dishes they have on that day. There are always vegan and vegetarian options and they’ll also let you know if any dishes can be made vegan.
Check out this spread!
We went for saffron infused biryani rice topped with nuts and sultanas, comforting chickpea and spinach curry, hummus and aubergine cooked in a flavourful tomato sauce.
Ashurbanipal is entirely self-service: the owner advised us to “act as if it were our home”.
With a steady stream of heavy metal playing in the background, we helped ourselves to drinks from the fridge (you can even pour yourself a glass of wine if you fancy), picked up our plates and cutlery from the counter and waited for our order to be called.
This biriyani rice was to die for.
I don’t know what they did to this aubergine but it was lit.
When our food was ready, we picked up our chosen dishes plus a salad topped with crispy fried pitta and a generous serving of bread - these were on the house! We also had free tea afterwards.
We’ve tried a few Iraqi restaurants in Sofia and can confidently say that Ashurbanipal is the best restaurant Sofia has to offer for vegan and vegetarian Middle Eastern grub.
Chickpea and spinach curry is always one of favourite vegan dishes.
Extremely tasty, budget friendly and with generous portions, it’s proof you don’t have to go to fancy restaurants in Sofia to get a good meal.
Address: Sofia Center, ul. "Knyaz Boris I" 174, 1202 Sofia, Bulgaria
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 12:00 PM - 10:00 PM, Sunday 12:00 PM - 5.00 PM, closed on Mondays.
Best dishes: Chickpea and spinach curry, hummus…but really all of them.
Price: Cheap. Each dish was 7 lev and our whole meal plus beer and water cost 32 lev.
Satsanga - Amazing Indian Vegan and Vegetarian Restaurant Sofia
Lunch/Dinner: Fully vegan and vegetarian restaurant.
Looking for Indian restaurants in Sofia with decent options for plant based folk? Satsanga should be at the top of your list.
This Sofia vegetarian restaurant offers a 100% healthy menu that makes use of seasonal ingredients and local suppliers.
Satsanga serves a daily-changing buffet of mostly Indian and Southeast/East Asian dishes - with a few European surprises thrown in. You pay by weight, so load up your plate as much (or little) as you like! (We opted for the former…)
A comforting plate of vegetarian and vegan dishes at Satsanga vegetarian and vegan restaurant Sofia Bulgaria.
Just some of the many dishes at the buffet at Satsanga restaurant.
There’s also a buffet of fresh salads and desserts and most options at the restaurant are vegan friendly. The lovely staff are always happy to point out what’s vegetarian too. Alternatively, check out the daily menu at Satsanga on Facebook.
We went all in: crispy golden vadai (deep fried chickpea fritters), crunchy vegetable tempura, creamy sweet potato curry, lentil dahl, paneer in tomato gravy, curried cauliflower, fluffy rice and warm chapatis.
On our second visit (because yes, we absolutely went back), I tried a Chinese-style ‘meatball’ dish and a yummy mixed veggie curry.
The inside of Satsanga restaurant has a very relaxed vibe.
With its wide variety, flavourful dishes and chilled-out vibes, Satsanga easily ranks as one of the best vegetarian restaurants Sofia has to offer.
Address: Sofia Center, ul. "Georgi Benkovski" 8, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria.
Hours: Monday - Sunday, 9:00 AM - 10:00 PM.
Best dishes: Sweet potato curry, dahl, paneer curry.
Cost: Cheap - our two (very full) plates cost us just 40 lev.
Sun Moon - Pure Vegetarian and Vegan Restaurant Sofia
Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner: Completely vegetarian and vegan
Widely considered to be one of the best vegan restaurants Sofia has, Sun-Moon has several outlets and stores across the city and is one of the results that always comes up when you search ‘vegan Sofia’.
Whilst the menu isn’t 100% vegan there are tons of options for plant-based folk. The restaurant’s dishes are inspired by cuisines from all over the world and they even produce their own organic and herbivore friendly baked goods!
This parsley pesto starter was delish - we could see from this alone why Sun Moon is one of the best vegan restaurants Sofia Bulgaria has to offer!
We’d already tried their famous vegan red lentil banitsas from their onsite bakery, but on our latest visit to Sun Moon, we decided to have a proper sit-down meal.
We ordered a spread of parsley pesto with homemade bread, flavourful aubergine moussaka, and a moreish bean stew with vegan sausage. The verdict? Serious, serious yums.
The bean stew with vegan sausages - Vincent loved it and he’s not vegan or vegetarian.
If you're visiting in the warmer months, grab a seat in the fairy-lit outdoor seating area - it’s the perfect setting for people watching. As one of the most popular vegetarian and vegan restaurants in Sofia, Sun Moon fills up fast in the evenings, so a reservation is recommended.
Address: Sofia Center, 6th September St 39, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria.
Hours: Monday - Sunday, 9:00 AM- 10:00 PM.
Best dishes: Bean stew, parsley pesto, lentil banitsa.
Cost: Mid-range. A meal for two with three dishes, a cookie to takeaway and two drinks cost 53.20 lev.
Ananda Healthy Bakery - Eat Well, Feel Good
Breakfast/Lunch: Pure vegetarian and vegan
I’m a big fan of off-beat discoveries, and Ananda Healthy Bakery was exactly that. We happened to rent an apartment right across the street and ended up discovering one of the best vegetarian restaurants Sofia has tucked away!
Ananda Bakery offers a daily changing vegetarian menu featuring salads, quiches, stews, dips, soups and freshly baked bread. Half of their dishes are usually vegan or raw and they also have amazing homemade desserts and ice cream. (They’ve got 50 recipes for cakes alone!)
Ananda Healthy Bakery has a fab vegan/vegetarian supermarket and a cute cafe. What’s not to love?
Perfect samosas.
You can check out the daily menu at Ananda here. We tried the vegan samosas and a slice of vegan coconut cake - they were so tasty that we ordered another two samosas to takeaway for our trip to Rila Monastery the following day.
Ananda has cosy indoor and outdoor seating and a small supermarket stocked with vegan goodies like cashew cheese and yogurt. It’s also incredibly budget-friendly - mains and salads are just 9–10 lev, while soups are just 5.50 lev.
It’s definitely one of the nice restaurants in Sofia worth bookmarking!
Address: Kriva Reka, ul. "Felix Kanitz" 14-16, 1606 Sofia, Bulgaria.
Hours: Monday - Friday, 08:30 AM - 6:30 PM, Saturday 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM, Sunday 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM.
Best dishes: You’ve got to try those samosas!
Cost: Budget friendly.
No Meat? No Problem!
We hope this guide proves that being vegetarian or vegan in Sofia is anything but a struggle and that you can still get your fill of delicious, traditional Bulgarian eats without the meat.
Of course there are plenty of other amazing vegan restaurants in Sofia that we haven’t mentioned like Loving Hut, Edgy Veggy and Veda House - we simply ran out of time and stomach space. But hey, we need to leave something for our next visit, right?
If you’ve been to a fab Sofia vegan restaurant or an amazing veg place that we haven’t mentioned and think it’s a must-visit, make sure to let us know in the comments below!
More Useful Resources For Your Sofia Trip
💳 Save Money With an International Debit Card
Get the best exchange rates, free or super-low fee cash withdrawals and avoid sneaky transaction fees with a Wise Debit Card.
Before you go, make sure to check out some of our other Sofia guides and guides to the rest of Bulgaria:
⛲ An Epic One Day in Sofia Bulgaria Itinerary
🍸 Hambara Sofia: A Hidden Candlelit Bar in Sofia
⛪ A Guide to Sofia’s Best Churches
Find more travel tips and useful information on Bulgaria here.
Looking for more travel inspiration? Click here to discover more of our favourite places around the world.
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