The Best Ice Cream in Sofia: Gelato Shops, Bulgarian Flavors and Vegan Scoops

Sofia's ice cream is mostly Italian-style gelato from small shops, and the best of it uses local flavors like yogurt, rose and baklava. Afreddo and Raffy sit on Vitosha Boulevard, and the parks fill with ice cream stands in summer. Below are the shops I'd walk to, the flavors to ask for, and where to find vegan and late-night scoops.

Ice cream in Sofia at a glance

Sofia's gelato sits in two clusters: on and around Vitosha Boulevard in the center, and out in the neighborhoods, from Samokov Boulevard to the streets by South Park.

The best gelato shops in Sofia

Gelato & Latte

Gelato & Latte makes artisanal gelato on site to Italian methods, with dairy from Rozino Organic Farm, its own farm, where it keeps a herd of Jersey cows and Murrah buffalo. The shop works from over 400 recipes, and the waffle cones are baked on the premises. There are vegan and sugar-free options too.

The main shop is at Samokov Boulevard 28B, out toward the Iztok district, open from 11 AM to 9 PM, and there is a branch at San Stefano Plaza closer to the center. If I had one scoop in Sofia, this is where I'd go.

Savi Gelato (Savini Gelato)

Savi Gelato at San Stefano 9 makes handmade gelato and sorbets from organic and natural ingredients, with no ready mixes, colorings or palm fat. The milk and cream are pasteurized at a low temperature. The signature is a fior di latte made with organic milk and French cream.

The flavors are the reason to come. Yogurt with rose oil puts two Bulgarian classics in a cone, and pistachio and baklava are the other two to try. The founders' travels supply the more unusual flavors on the list. There are vegan scoops, and the shop doubles as a bakehouse with fresh pastries and specialty coffee. Prices are on the high side for Sofia. A second branch at Yeroslav Veshin 63 sits near South Park.

Afreddo

Afreddo at Vitosha Boulevard 12 is a gelateria on Sofia's main pedestrian street, with a terrace in front for people-watching. It serves gelato in a cone or a cup, including vegan fruit sorbets and a tiramisu with a hint of wine, and the pistachio gets the most praise. Prices are low for the location, which makes it the easiest stop on a walk down Vitosha Boulevard.

Confetti

Confetti at Hristo Belchev 5 is an Italian restaurant and gelateria close to Vitosha Boulevard. The ice cream comes in fruit, nut and chocolate flavors, and the kitchen also serves pizza and Italian dishes, so it works for lunch with gelato after.

Raffy Bar & Gelato

Raffy is a Bulgarian chain, and its branch at Vitosha Boulevard 18 serves pasta, a menu with vegetarian and fish dishes, and gelato. It stays open late, which makes it the place for a scoop after dinner in the center. I'd come here for the hours, and go to Gelato & Latte or Savi for the gelato itself.

More gelato worth a detour

Gelateria Diana is the one I'd make the trip out to Krasno Selo for. Cheese and Fresh suits a slow afternoon, with a slice of cheesecake and a scoop on the side.

Bulgarian ice cream flavors to try

The most interesting scoops in Sofia use what Bulgaria already does well: yogurt, roses, walnuts and syrup pastries.

Yogurt is the flavor I'd start with. Bulgarian yogurt is tart and creamy, so a yogurt gelato tastes sharper and fresher than a plain cream scoop. The boza ice cream at Cosmos is the strangest, and if you have tried boza at breakfast, you will know at once what to expect.

Rose is Bulgaria's other signature flavor. The oil comes from the Damask roses of the Rose Valley around Kazanlak, and in Sofia it turns up as a scoop at Savi, as rose jam in the supermarkets and as rose lokum in the souvenir shops.

Ice cream at Sofia restaurants

These six Sofia restaurants serve ice cream for dessert, and three of them make it by hand.

• Moma, the Bulgarian restaurant in the center, has served yogurt ice cream with blueberries, the most Bulgarian dessert of the lot.
• Shtastlivetsa on Vitosha Boulevard has paired a chestnut cake with gorgonzola and plum ice cream.
• Cosmos on Lavele Street, the tasting-menu restaurant, turns boza into an ice cream.
• Izbata Tavern serves homemade ice cream, and it keeps banitsa and sarmi on the menu too.
• Hadjidraganov's House near Lion's Bridge makes handmade ice cream to go with its banitsa with orange syrup.
• Made in Blue, in a converted mansion on a side street, has a homemade ice cream that diners single out.

For dessert at a Bulgarian dinner, I'd skip the gelateria and order the house ice cream at one of these. Garash, the chocolate and walnut cake on almost every Bulgarian restaurant menu, is the other order, and the rest of the Bulgarian desserts, like krem karamel and sweet banitsa, turn up at traditional restaurants too.

Vegan and dairy-free ice cream in Sofia

Three of the gelato shops above have dairy-free scoops. Savi Gelato has vegan flavors next to its dairy ones, Afreddo makes vegan fruit sorbets, and Gelato & Latte has vegan and sugar-free options on its counter.

Loving Hut on Rakovski Street, near the National Opera, has a fully vegan menu and has served a vegan salted caramel ice cream next to raw vegan brownies and truffles. It opens from 11 AM to 6 PM on weekdays and closes on Sundays, so plan it as a daytime stop among the vegan and vegetarian places in Sofia. Veda House on William Gladstone Street is a vegetarian tea house that also serves ice cream, and it opens every day from 10:30 AM.

Frozen yogurt in Sofia

Chillbox, at The Mall on Tsarigradsko Shose Boulevard 115, is the frozen yogurt counter to know. It is the stop I'd make on a hot day after shopping at the mall. For a more Bulgarian cold dessert, a tub of plain yogurt and a jar of honey from any supermarket is hard to beat.

Where to eat ice cream outdoors in Sofia

Vitosha Boulevard is the obvious strip for a cone on the move, with Afreddo at No. 12 and Raffy at No. 18 on the pedestrian stretch. On a clear day the mountain fills the view at the south end.

The City Garden, in front of the Ivan Vazov National Theatre, has benches, fountains and flower beds, and it is the most central place to sit down with a cone. In Borisova Gradina, ice cream stands line the main alleys in summer, and the mature trees keep the park cooler than the streets around it. South Park is the other big green space, with paths, playgrounds and a view of Vitosha.

With children, the parks are the answer: Borisova Gradina and South Park both have big playgrounds, and Borisova adds pedal boats on Lake Ariana in the warm months. An ice cream from a stand fits into any day out in Sofia with kids.