Bulgarian Restuarant. Oh what a Faux Par

 Having read a number of comments about the new Pizza restaurant that has opened in part of the Bulgarian Resturant I think the owners of both need to get together & sort out the problem that comments have bought to light.

The one that stands out is the one where it appears you cannot order from both @ the same time. Why?

If both restuarants produce a bill then both till`s will register the correct sales.It may mean that the waiter/ waitresses will have to serve from both kitchens but if they are paid the same hourly rate by both then surely this will not cause any problems. Better to keep the customers happy than to loose to the opposition.

Mabe some one could pass on my comments if you think the idea is a good one. I would do so but i am not out until June. There should be some good sales this week due to the holiday but if parents & their children are not happy with the current state of play then both will area`s loose out.

Jan

 

This message was last edited by hamibabe on 14/04/2014.

So is it two separate businesses? When I heard about it I assumed it was the same people running as two distinct eateries so wanted to keep the menu's separate.

Hi

I am getting mixed pm`s. one says its the same owner & one other says it is two owners???

If it is the same owner then he really is a silly man.

Why upset your customers by not allowing both menue`s to be used by the same group of people, but maybe this info is also wrong.

Could be a bit of stirring up again.    

I still say that there could have been a better choice for a second restuarant, in the Bulgarian or else where, at the moment every one who wants a decent Chinese or indian has to go off site. Either of these would have been a better choice in my opinion but having said that I think that one of their kitchens was set up for Pizza`s originally

I will wait & see.

Jan

 

This message was last edited by hamibabe on 14/04/2014.

I popped in yesterday and so far as I understand it, it is still the same owner but they are using 2 separate kitchens; one for the pizzeria and one for the Bulgarian. I too can see problems; from a personal perspective it could be interesting for us as our 3 kids will inevitably want pizza whereas we won't! That said, we'll give it a go and see what happens...

I was eating there the other week and the guy said they were opening the pizza part as most kids don't want to have the Bulgarian menu, they only want Pizza etc. So the idea was to provide something for the kids. If someone is in there next week maybe they should advise him yes it is a good idea to provide the pizza side for the kids but to combine this with the Bulgarian menu. Parents can have a lovely Spatch while the kids munch into their pizza. Everyone happy then..... Please someone tell him, he is trying to accomodate families but seperating the two is not the way to go. I am sure if someone advises him of this, it will be changed.

I gave my feedback there on their first day when it just didn't work for us. Going forward - if they don't listen to the families they will miss out big time. There is no way we will go to Sofia's ( the Bulgarian) if we can't sit with our kids. Part of what I love about our holiday time is all eating together with family and friends and everyone ordering what they like. We will just move to La Cata who have no problems serving pizzas to the kids with adults ordering whatever from their menu. I was hoping that it was just something that had not been thought through logically on the first night but sounds like it's still happening.....how strange.

On the plus side I hear that the pizza side are delivering pizzas so we can use that on nights we stay in and have an Indian delivered for the adults but if it was my business I would want me, my friends and all the kids to eat in my restaurant as much as possible and order starters deserts and loads of drinks. I hope they listen to the clients and make some adjustments.

It was the prices in the Bulgarian that shocked me last night. So expensive compared to last year. Will not be able to eat in there that often this year for sure as there are 5 of us.

La Cata so much more better value now. Shame as we always enjoyed the Bulgarian, will maybe try the one in Camposol instead.

I agree...was there too last week. We choose the Italian site of the restaurant and we were a bit dissapointed.

The italian menu/card was very limited. Only pizza and a few pasta. 

The portion of the pasta was way too little and when you order a pasta carbonara, you want to have at least a few

pieces of bacon ??? The pizza was also not baken enough and was not crispy at all. 

So I really want the owner to be aware of that, so he can adjust it again. I'm also telling this with the best

intentions...

We always concidered the Bulgarian as a Fine Dining Restuarnt. Some where you went that may be slightly more expensive but a change from the norm. I will be very unhappy if my next experience there (in June) is not as good. When I visit Condado alone I never leave as I do not drive and always look forward to visiting all the restuarants as they all offerd something different. I still cannot understand why the owner of the Bulgarian has chosen to serve Pizza when you can get it elsewhere. A real Spanish restuarant would have been a better choice or maybe an Indian. I know the second Kitchen was set up for Pizza but I wonder if financialy the better choice would have been to rent out one section & the owner of that section could then put in a kitchen best suited for their needs.

Jan

 

This message was last edited by hamibabe on 19/04/2014.

Ge did you give your feedback at the time re not enough bacon and not great pizzas - they need to know or they can't put things right - hopefully it's teething problems - they might not get to see these comments on the forum.

I am sure that burgers and pizzas were always on the menu at the bulgarian, so it's not like they've re invented the wheel.

That's the thing - yes you could have whatever you wanted there but now the pizzas and pastas are being served in a different part of the restaurant - if you are in the Sofia's Bulgarian part there are now no pizza options you can still have burgers in the Bulgarian and now Mexican too but if one of the party want pizza they have to be on a different part of the restaurant .....Complete madness! Hope they listen and make it work better for their customers!

We went last night with 3 kids and it worked perfectly for us. 4 adults and 3 kids on the same table ordering from different menus. The waiter informed us that the pizzas would come before our meals which was perfect as we were having starters. Kids pizzas and our starters at more or less the same time - what's so wrong with that? My kids are 11 year old twins and a 6 year old and if they had to sit apart from us it would not have been a problem but they didn't have to. Looked to be a few families on the Sofia's side of the restaurant eating from both menus. We presumed we would have separate bills which wouldn't have been a problem, but all food was on the same bill. Staff were very attentive and accommodating and the food was very good. Maybe a little bit expensive but was worth paying a little more for a delicious meal on a hot sizzling plate. Kids were happy with pizzas and there is a kids menu for Sophia's too. Must say I only ever went once when it was the Bulgarian and never went back as it was very poor service as well as food. However, we will definitely go back for sure as had the most delicious starter and I will have for main next time. Please don't knock this place until you have tried it - nobody likes change but this is definitely for the better. We booked our table and would recommend doing this especially at busier times 😊😊

Hamibabe it is far from a fine dining restaurant I am afraid. As an owner and frequent visitor to my apartment we are always very keen to support the on site restaurants. Our last visit to the Bulgarian in March was as far from fine dining as you could get. My chicken starter was raw, and by raw I mean not even close to being cooked. My daughters steak which she asked for as medium was still "moo-ing" so she left most of it and the service was slow.

Then the card machine was not working so I had to go to the clover to get cash back to pay the bill.

Biggest issue was the complete lack of apology from the waiter who was on his own and looked completely harassed. When the bill came they did not charge for my starter but had not discounted anything from my daughters steak. I did complain and there was an 8 euro discount to our final bill.

When I handed the euros over to the waiter I did feedback how disappointed we had been but he was more interested in counting out the euros.

Such a pity as we have had decent, not great fine dining, meals there before.

La cata seems to take a lot of criticism on this forum but we have never been let down there, food always great and an owner who proved to us in March that he is trying really hard.

It's all quite interesting reading about food/drink (wet/dry) outlets on CdA.

''Consistency'' seems to be the word that is missing, and this i suspect is because there is no ''consistency'' in terms of demand or supply. Think back to The Surgery.

When u think ur out of season you'll reduce ur staff/menu (kitchen & waiting) but you'll then get caught out some nights, then all of a sudden you need to find staff for summer/easter/whit/Xmas etc (good staff) and it won't be easy.

As a punter it ain't good enough, but as a business owner its a juggling act (and let's be honest, you form a business to make money, product quality and customer service follows the need to make money, eventually they are mutually inclusive) because if u staff/produce up too much then you'll have wastage and go bust.

Last year i had one good and one bad experience at La Cata, I had multiple good experiences but 1 bad at the Condado Club (but i really like that place as it delivers what it says on the tin, in that its not aiming to be a restaurant). Also had just 1 bad experience at Bokao (just ignorant, waitress did not write down the order and i challenged her whether she could remember, she said she could - but she didn't and served us a right pile of fried rubbish that hadn't been ordered) and The French (obvious they were new and under pressure).

This year I've been once to La Cata, Sofia, Big G's and all were good. I've been 4x to Condado Club and all were good.

On balance after experiencing 'nearly' 6 years of CdA of food/drink (wet/dry) on CdA then each year has got much better.

I've got 36 more days this year at CdA, I will be trying all eateries again. I have seen what Big G's, La Cata, Sofia, Condado Club can do in terms of quality, and i believe Bokao (inparticular) for its Tapas and The French can do far better than i experienced last year.

Appropriate feedback will improve thse places / will help them get it right. What I've found over the years is people don't accept feedback for what it is (it's a free gift, that you should acknowledge but then act on), instinct is to defend yourself and respond, you should actually say little, maybe apologise, but mainly learn from it and change accordingly.

Rome wasn't built in a day, but it did get built

Having not been back to the Bulgarian since we were told we could not have the Bistro and pizza manus at the same table we went to Le Troquet the french retaurant for the first time tonight where you can have there full menu including pizza at the same table. The food was great and excellent value compared to current Bulgarian prices. We will definately be going there again.

Following my earlier post we ate at Sofias and the pizzeria. I have to say that i was impressed; the service and the food were excellent. The kids happily had the kids meals at Sofias and never mentioned pizza! We then had a night at the pizzeria which was equally as good. It might not be for everyone but it did work for us in the end and we will be going back when we are out in the summer... not least for the "real chips" which are fantastic!