Breakfast and Brunch in Sofia: Where to Eat in 2026

Sofia starts the day with pastry: a slice of banitsa from a bakery, or hot mekitsi with jam, and a coffee. At weekends the city brunches late, in courtyard cafes and on the top floor of a hotel. Below are the bakeries for a Bulgarian breakfast, the brunch cafes I'd pick, the hotel brunches worth booking, the vegan options and what each one costs.

What Bulgarians eat for breakfast

Breakfast in Bulgaria is quick and built on pastry, white cheese and yogurt. Most Bulgarians eat it on the way to work, from a bakery window, and the cafes add eggs and porridge for a slower morning. These are the dishes you will see on Sofia's breakfast menus.

Ayran is Bulgarian yogurt whisked with water and salt, and boza is thick, sweet and a little sour, with under 1% alcohol. Bulgarians have one or the other with banitsa. The same sirene and yogurt turn up again at lunch and dinner across Bulgarian food, from shopska salad to tarator.

Bakeries and Bulgarian breakfast in Sofia

Bakery banitsa is at its best between about 7 and 10 AM, while the filo is still crisp. Furna on Stefan Stambolov Boulevard labels every banitsa vegetarian or vegan and charges about €1.30 to €1.50 a piece, and the banitsa in Sofia at Furna, Hlebar and Sofiyska Banitsa is the classic grab-and-go breakfast.

Mekitsa and Coffee

Mekitsa and Coffee at Graf Ignatiev 28 fries mekitsi to order, and the owners traveled around Bulgaria for the recipe before they opened. The toppings run sweet, from powdered sugar and honey to pistachio spread, and savory, with sirene or cream cheese and pesto. Prices start at about €2.50. Take it to go, or climb upstairs for a seat.

Hlebar

Hlebar sells banitsa all day, sweet with apple, raisins and brown sugar or savory with potato and mushroom. Its branches sit at Vasil Aprilov 14 and in the Doctors' Garden area, on Oborishte and Shishman streets. Two banitsas and two espressos cost about €5.60. The filo can come out on the dry side, so I'd order the savory ones in the morning, when the trays are fresh.

Galleta Bakery & Cafe

Galleta at Ekzarh Yosif 36 makes everything on its counter by hand. The banitsa is the thing to come for, and it tends to sell out, so arrive early. Ekzarh Yosif is the street of the Sofia Synagogue, a few minutes north of Serdika.

Claire Bakery

Claire Bakery has two shops, at Vitosha Boulevard 139 and at Lege 6, and it bakes its loaves from sourdough. The counter holds banitsa, croissants, eclairs and cookies, and for a later bite there are baguette sandwiches. Dogs are welcome, so it is the bakery I'd pick with a dog in tow.

The best brunch in Sofia

Brunch in Sofia means specialty coffee, eggs several ways, avocado toast and a Bulgarian dish or two, usually in a small cafe with a courtyard or a garden. These are the six I'd pick, and four of them are in the center.

Rainbow Factory (Fabrika Daga)

Rainbow Factory, or Fabrika Daga, has served brunch and specialty coffee since 2014, and it is popular with locals. The menu runs from eggs Benedict and Panagyurishte eggs to avocado toast, sandwiches and homemade banitsa, savory with white cheese or sweet with seasonal fruit. The coffee is from Dabov, a Bulgarian roaster, poured as espresso or filter at an L-shaped bar.

Izzy's Coffee and Brunch

Izzy's at Knyaginya Maria Luiza Boulevard 17 sits in the streets where many of Sofia's murals are, and the best seats are on the open balcony over the courtyard. The menu mixes Bulgarian and international brunch, from Panagyurishte eggs to French toast, and there is a menu of staff-favorite combinations. Ask for the avocado toast vegan and it comes with lyutenitsa, and there is plant milk for the coffee. Avocado toast, oatmeal and two coffees come to about €20.

Cafe 1920

Cafe 1920 has two addresses, at Knyaginya Maria Luiza Boulevard 60 and at Tsar Ivan Shishman 24. The Maria Luiza room has an industrial look, with the building's old brick on show. The menu goes from American pancakes and avocado toast to mekitsa with homemade dips, sandwiches and breakfast nachos, with shakshuka among the hot dishes. There is specialty coffee, and cocktails if brunch runs long.

43.12 Coffee & Brunch

43.12 at Hristo Belchev 29 takes its name from the coordinates of its first address, in Varna on the Black Sea. The Sofia branch has a garden and a brunch menu of eggs in many forms, a smash burger, avocado toast, prawn toast, pancakes, seasonal soups and cakes. The beans come from the team's own roastery, Snack Coffee Roasters. I'd pick it on a warm morning for the garden.

Balkan Falsch

Balkan Falsch at Bulgaria Boulevard 82 serves a weekend brunch of Balkan cooking with a modern turn, with freshly baked sourdough, specialty coffee and house drinks. Bulgaria Boulevard starts by the National Palace of Culture, and number 82 is further out along it, so I'd save it for a slow Saturday.

Cookó at Juno Sofia

Cookó, the restaurant of the Juno Sofia hotel near the Ivan Vazov National Theater, runs one of the most sought-after weekend brunches in the city. Juno is one of the design hotels among the best hotels in Sofia, and brunch is the easy way to see it without a room booking.

Hotel and rooftop brunch in Sofia

Sofia's hotel brunches are the long, sit-down kind, with a view, cocktails and a buffet or a set menu. Two of the three are in the same building, the 30-story Grand Hotel Millennium at Vitosha Boulevard 89B.

Ozone Skybar & Lounge

Ozone, on the 29th floor of the Grand Hotel Millennium, is the highest bar in Bulgaria, and its O'Heavens brunch runs from 11 AM to 4 PM on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Avocado toast and eggs share the menu with creative versions of banitsa and mekitsi, and the cocktails were made for brunch. The city and Vitosha mountain fill the windows. Ozone is also one of the rooftop bars in Sofia I'd book for sunset, so brunch is the daytime way to have the view.

Vienna Cafe & Restaurant

Vienna Cafe, on the third floor of the same hotel, is a Viennese coffee house under a glass roof, with Art Deco lines and two terraces. The cake cabinet holds Sachertorte, Black Forest gateau and apple strudel. It is the one I'd pick for a slow, sweet morning of cake and coffee.

OXBO at Hilton Sofia

OXBO, the restaurant of the Hilton Sofia at Bulgaria Boulevard 1, serves a big international breakfast buffet with views toward the mountains. Its brunch is a family affair: salads, hot dishes, a carving station, desserts and ice cream. The spring 2026 brunches added a children's area, which makes it the pick for parents.

Vegan and vegetarian breakfast in Sofia

Bulgarian breakfast is easy for vegetarians, since banitsa, mekitsi and mish mash have no meat, but it leans hard on cheese, egg and yogurt. Vegans have more choice in Sofia than the classics suggest, and the vegetarian and vegan places in Sofia include a bakery that has been at it since 2003.

Sun Moon

Sun Moon at 6-ti Septemvri 39, on the corner of Malkite Pet Kyosheta, the "Small Five Corners," is a vegetarian restaurant and bakery that opens at 8:30 AM every day. It bakes more than a dozen breads a day from stone-milled flour, and for breakfast I'd order the vegan banitsa or the emperor's banitsa, a crepe wrap of mushrooms, spinach and rice. The vegan mish mash swaps the eggs for scrambled tofu. There is a terrace for warm mornings.

For a sweet start, Raw & More at San Stefano 9 makes acai bowls and raw vegan cakes with no refined sugar, but it has no indoor seating, so take it to a nearby park. Furna's vegan banitsas sell out by the afternoon, so go there early.

Brunch in Sofia at a glance

Specialty coffee is the other half of brunch in Sofia, and the cafes in Sofia such as Dabov, Drekka and Coffee Syndicate pour single-origin espresso and filter.

What breakfast and brunch cost in Sofia

Breakfast is one of the cheapest meals in Sofia. A bakery banitsa with an ayran stays under €3, a mekitsa and a cafe coffee come to about €5, and a cafe brunch with coffee works out at about €10 a person. The hotel brunches cost more, and I'd ask the price when booking.

Tips for breakfast and brunch in Sofia

Leave a tip. Service is not added to the bill in Sofia, and tipping in Bulgaria is about 10% at a cafe or restaurant, best left in cash even when you pay by card. At a bakery counter, nobody expects one.

Head off the main street. Vitosha Boulevard has plenty of terraces for coffee with a mountain view, but most of the cafes on this list sit a few streets away, on Graf Ignatiev, Hristo Belchev, Shishman and Maria Luiza Boulevard. A morning of street food in Sofia costs less still, with a gevrek from a cart for under €1.