21 Aug Victoria Restaurant – Delicious pumpkin soup in Bansko
Bansko. February.
Even though I’m not a professional skier and the black runs are far from my level I do enjoy taking a few days each year to ski, to admire the mountains, to see the whole white scenery.
Usually, when time allows it I head on to Bansko, Bulgaria not only because this resort really offers some great value for money paid but because it is also close to Bucharest. About 550 kilometres and I’m there so no need for any kind of special preparations, if you see the prognosis showing snow you just get on the car, drive for a feew hours and enjoy your time there.
This year I visited Bansko again, this time for only three full days so I decided to test a new restaurant since I was already planning to launch the blog and I needed material for the posts.
To my great joy the place I picked this time was more than ok and for the rest of the post I will try to tell you as much as I can remember from my time there.
Victoria restaurant is so close to the gondolla station that a bigger man could have the impression he could hit it with a rock easily. In reality the distance is about 100-150 metres and is no big deal for the quality of food I experienced there.
The restaurant sits under/near a hotel so it is very hard to miss, even more the place is situated on Pirin Street 119, Pirin street being the main access to the gondola parking lot.
My impressions were as follows:
- the place: it is really big and when I say really big i can guestimate around 200 people could be sitted at the same time. Even though is that big and it is not a single room the place was spottless clean when i visited it. The restaurant may seem a bit elegant when you first enter in your ski suit, tired after hitting the slopes all day but you soon come to realize it is filled with skiers just like you, skiers who just want to eat and drink something after a long day.
- staff: very professional, very civil, always there to help. Sugestions were made and all the time I was there I really enjoyed the attention that was given to every little detail. So this chapter gets a plus from me.
- food: As you can imagine I only tasted from a few things(soup,pizza, a traditional bulgarian dish) but here’s my thoughts on them.
The pumpkin soup(used in the featured picture for the post) was hands down one of the best soups I ever ate. It was so good that I felt sorry for ordering the other dishes thinking that I could have eaten two bowls of it and it would have been perfect.
What I loved about the pizza was the thin crust. I really dislike and avoid thick margins, thick crust so this here was a nice surprise for me. From what I remember a quattro formaggi was chosen and it was very good, I actually was surprised of the quality of the pizza and the generous ammounts of ingredients used.
Last was a pork kavarna and it was good. Maybe a bit too oily for my taste but the meat was tender and delicious so I enjoyed picking pieces from it.
Last but not least….I have tasted from three types of cakes, for dessert. I tried cake Victoria and loved it just as I really, really enjoyed the cheesecake with white chocolate. Last but no least I tasted the homemade italian cake and found it good also.
- prices: the prices are really ok. It may look a bit posh, expensive but really the prices are more than affordable and this was also a great plus for me. Most of the time skiers don’t spend so much cash to eat on their trips but this is really a place where good food meets great prices so it is really a win-win situation.
In the end I really give this place the thumbs up and on my next trip to Bansko I will stop once again for that delicious pumpkin soup.