The Best Cafes in Sofia: 10 Places I Go for Coffee

Sofia runs on espresso. Ask for a kafe anywhere and a small, strong shot arrives for €2 to €3, while a young specialty scene fills a handful of streets around Hristo Belchev, Oborishte and NDK. These are the 10 cafes I keep going back to, grouped by what each one does best, with what to order, where to find it and how to order coffee the way Sofia does.

My favourite cafes in Sofia at a glance

I drink most of my coffee standing at a counter or walking, so this list leans towards small specialty bars, plus two places for breakfast.

How Sofia drinks coffee, and what it costs

Going "na kafe" (на кафе, for a coffee) is how friends in Sofia catch up, and a terrace table on a sunny afternoon holds the same people for an hour over one small cup. Milky drinks and filter coffee are easy to find in the centre, and the specialty bars below brew by V60, Chemex and siphon.

Save these words in your phone. Menus in the centre are in English too, but a kiosk or a station cafe may only have the Cyrillic.

Coffee is one of the best bargains among Sofia's prices, and a cappuccino here costs less than one at a London chain.

The best specialty coffee in Sofia

Sofia's specialty scene is small and close together, and most of it opened in 2014 or later. You can walk between most of the places below in a morning.

Dabov Specialty Coffee

Dabov is Sofia's best-known roaster, and its shops are where I go to taste and buy beans. Jordan Dabov has sold specialty coffee in Bulgaria since 2008 and has judged the Cup of Excellence, the international competition for top single-farm coffees. His company imports and roasts rare lots and stocks the biggest choice of beans in Bulgaria.

The first shop, at Lyuben Karavelov 58, doubles as the roastery and sits a few streets from NDK, the National Palace of Culture, with a brewing bar, shelves of kit and a handful of seats. Dabov now runs 7 shops in Sofia, and in the centre I use the one at Angel Kanchev 28. Order a piccolo, or ask which natural Ethiopian is on filter, then buy a bag to take home. It's a counter for tasting, so come for one cup and a chat with the barista.

Chucky's Coffee House

Chucky's opened on Hristo Belchev Street in 2014 as Sofia's first craft coffee shop, and it's still the room I like best for a quiet cup. It's small and furnished in dark wood, at number 29, one block from Vitosha Boulevard. Chucky's roasts its own beans at a roastery south of Sofia, and about 80% of the beans change every month.

Chucky's ran four shops before the pandemic and is back to this original one. Order whatever filter is new that month.

Martines Specialty Coffee

Martines is the flagship cafe of the Martines roastery, at number 1 Hristo Belchev. It was the first place in Sofia with a Paragon, a filter brewer designed to hold on to more of the aroma, and it also brews by V60, Chemex and siphon. I order the siphon for the show: the water climbs into the top glass globe over a flame, steeps with the grounds and drops back down as coffee.

Martines and Chucky's are a few minutes apart on Hristo Belchev, so I treat them as one stop and pick whichever has a free seat.

Better Specialty Coffee

Better is a shoebox of a coffee bar at Neofit Rilski 59, open since 2023, all dark industrial tones with yellow cushions and curtains. The house blend comes from the roast master who also roasts for Martines. In summer I order an iced coffee or one of its alcohol-free coffee cocktails. In winter it's a single-origin V60. It's a takeaway stop for me, since there are only a few stools inside and a couple on the pavement.

Urban Embassy

Urban Embassy measures 11 square metres. It opened in September 2021 on Fridtjof Nansen Street, near NDK, makes its own plant milks, pours them from returnable deposit bottles and serves coffee in second-hand cups. Order the cortado with house hazelnut milk, or a honey-process filter if one is on. Inside there's barely room to stand, but tables line the wide pavement outside and more seats sit in the space next door.

Bug

Bug is a small red coffee bar on Professor Asen Zlatarov Street in Oborishte, the leafy district of old houses and embassies east of the centre. It has been open for about six years. It brews by Chemex, usually keeps an Ethiopian single origin, and makes an espresso tonic, a shot poured over tonic and ice. There are only a few seats inside, so I take the tonic to the outdoor tables, which come out when the weather turns warm.

Cafes in Sofia for cake, design and a longer sit

These are the two cafes I pick when I want to stay a while, and both have proper tables.

Coffee Syndicate

Coffee Syndicate opened in 2021 at Moskovska 3, close to the National Art Gallery and Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, and it's where I stop between sights. The beans come from Friedhats, a roaster in the Netherlands. The room spreads over two pared-back floors, and the cafe works to a zero-waste approach.

Order a V60 with an eclair; the lavender one is my favourite when it's on. There are sandwiches, savoury plates and cocktails too, and coffee tastings with the Origami dripper, a porcelain cone with deep pleats.

Drekka

Drekka opened in 2016 as a cafe and concept store on Marin Drinov Street, a short walk east of the centre. It roasts its own beans, brings in a guest roaster every month, keeps a wall of beans from roasters abroad and a shelf of brewing kit, and pours teas for anyone off coffee.

The room is pale concrete and sky blue and full of light, with a long marble table taking up most of it. It's the most beautiful cafe in Sofia to my eye, and the one I'd pick for a rainy afternoon.

Coffee with brunch or a Bulgarian breakfast

For eggs or something warm with my coffee, I go to one of these two.

Fabrika Daga

Fabrika Daga, also called Rainbow Factory, has served brunch with Dabov coffee since 2014. Its cafe at Sheynovo 13V, near the Doctors' Garden, opens at 8am on weekdays and 9am at weekends and closes at 8pm. When friends ask me for brunch in Sofia, it's the first name I give.

Order panagyurski eggs, poached eggs on garlicky yoghurt with hot butter and paprika poured over, or the slow-roast pork sandwich, with a flat white or a hand-brewed filter. The menu also runs to avocado toast, salads and cakes, and brunch is served all day, every day.

Mekitsa & Coffee

Mekitsa & Coffee is built around mekitsi, Bulgarian fried dough, served warm with icing sugar, jam or honey, with a coffee alongside. One mekitsa and an espresso is a full breakfast.

When I'm not near Mekitsa & Coffee, I swap it for a slice of banitsa from a bakery window and an espresso from the counter beside it.

Coffee in the Doctors' Garden

The Doctors' Garden (Докторска градина) is the park I carry a takeaway cup to. It's a small, central green square in Oborishte near Sofia University, with benches under old trees, a stepped stone monument to the medics who died in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 to 1878, and a lawn scattered with ancient carved stones, the garden's lapidarium. Of all Sofia's parks, it's the one I'd pick for twenty quiet minutes with a coffee.

Fabrika Daga's cafe on Sheynovo Street is a short walk from the garden, and Drekka and Bug are in the same neighbourhood, so the garden works as the end of an Oborishte coffee morning.

Where to work on a laptop in Sofia's cafes

Most of Sofia's specialty bars are too small for a laptop. Urban Embassy is 11 square metres, Better has a few stools, and Dabov's shops are built for tasting. For a morning of work I go to Coffee Syndicate or Drekka.

At Coffee Syndicate I head upstairs, since the upper floor has more places to linger than the ground floor, and an eclair or a sandwich keeps me going until lunch. At Drekka I sit at the marble table with a pour-over and move on to one of its teas in the afternoon.

A coffee walk through central Sofia

If you only have a morning, this route links 3 of my favourites with the sights between them, one espresso at each. Any more than three cafes and you'll still be buzzing at lunch.

The route runs south from the cathedral, over the yellow paving stones of the old centre, and finishes by NDK, where the park in front of the palace has benches and, on a clear day, a view of Vitosha mountain.