Shtastliveca

 

There are quite a lot of restaurants in Veliko Tarnovo. Well, VT is quite a touristy sort of place, so that is not surprising really. As well as having a name that is hard to pronounce and even harder to spell, "Shtastliveca" is supposed to be the best restaurant in VT. Recently it has been done-up and re-decorated, so Irena and I were wondering if at last we should have lunch there. We have driven past "Shtastliveca" I do not know how many times and occasionally I have thought of eating there, but usually we have been put off by the long queue of hopeful (and hungry) customers waiting for a table.

 

 

Well, we turned up about two in the afternoon for our wedding anniversary on the 25th. For once there was no long queue, but we did have to wait for about ten minutes. Inside, yes, it is nicely decorated and very busy. This was October, for goodness sake, but the place was still packed. What about the food? There was a bit of a problem and it nearly meant that we could not order any food at all. We just could not read the menu! Neither of us brought our reading glasses and the print on the menu was rather small. I managed to read "mixed grill" and so that was what we had, together with some excellent chips and grilled veggies.

 

 

As for the wine, we started off with a half-litre carafe of the red and it was so good that we ordered another one. The mixed grill was superb: well cooked, meaty and absolutely delicious. The dessert and the coffee were pretty good too.

 

And now for the bad news. Eighty euros for lunch is pretty outrageous by Bulgarian standards. It really is way overpriced, so we probably will not be going again to this unpronounceable restaurant sometime soon. But the food was good.

 

 

For those of you who may perhaps be wondering how Lucky is doing, I am including this video that was sent to me by Fiona. That sweet little doggie loves having her tummy tickled.