Skip to main content
Loris8 🇧🇬Your destinationBulgaria▾
Home› Bulgaria›Food
Bulgarian Food — What to Eat and What It Costs

Bulgarian Food — What to Eat and What It Costs

Banitsa, shopska salad, rakia, and the yogurt culture that put Bulgaria on the map.

Bulgarian food is hearty, dairy-heavy, and cheap: a full meal at a neighborhood restaurant runs €6–12, a nicer dinner €18–28. Don't miss shopska salad (Bulgaria's national dish — tomato, cucumber, peppers, and grated cheese), banitsa (a flaky cheese pastry eaten for breakfast), tarator (a cold cucumber-yogurt soup in summer), and rakia (fruit brandy, the national drink). Bulgarian yogurt is a genuine point of national pride — the bacteria strain behind it was discovered here.

Bulgarian food doesn't get the international reputation of its neighbors, and honestly, that's a little unfair — it's rustic, generous, dairy-forward cooking that's some of the best value eating left in Europe. Here's what to order, roughly what it costs, and the one drink you'll be offered constantly.

Food

Bulgarian Food: What to Eat and What It Costs

Shopska salad, banitsa, rakia, and some of the best-value eating in Europe.

Melnik & Bulgarian Wine Country
Food

Melnik & Bulgarian Wine Country

8,000 years of winemaking and grapes that grow almost nowhere else.

Questions people actually ask

What is Bulgaria's national dish?
Shopska salad is the closest thing to a national dish — tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onion, and a generous grating of sirene (a salty white cheese similar to feta) on top. It's on virtually every menu in the country and rarely costs more than €3–5.
What is rakia?
A strong fruit brandy (usually grape or plum), typically 40–50% ABV, offered as a welcome drink or after a meal almost everywhere. Homemade rakia is a genuine point of pride for many Bulgarian families — restaurants often serve their own.
Can vegetarians eat well in Bulgaria?
Yes — the cuisine leans heavily on vegetables, beans, and dairy, so shopska salad, banitsa, lyutenitsa (a roasted pepper-and-tomato spread), and bean-based dishes like bob chorba are all naturally vegetarian. Vegan travelers will need to ask about butter and dairy, which show up often; halal and allergy-specific requests are best made directly, since English menus don't always flag them.