Sofia, Bulgaria
The best coffee in Sofia
Nine Sofia specialty cafés and roasters, from the third-wave pioneers to the newest names in the scene.
9 entries · verified August 2026
Sofia's specialty scene is younger than most on this site — Dabov's 2008 opening is generally treated as the starting point — and it has moved fast since; cheap real estate keeps opening leaves for new names rather than consolidating around a few. There is no obvious strip on the level of a King Street or a Haywood Road. Sofia Center holds the highest concentration, including two of the newest arrivals, Bloom and Martines, but the scene spreads out just as easily into residential Oborishte, where Drekka and Bug Coffee sit a few streets apart from each other.
The city splits fairly cleanly between shops that roast their own beans (Dabov, Bug Coffee, and now Martines) and shops that buy in from elsewhere on purpose: Coffee Syndicate brings in Friedhats from the Netherlands, Drekka rotates guest roasters like Berlin's The Barn, and Bloom pours Bug Coffee's beans rather than roasting its own. Neither approach is the "better" one here; a rotating guest-roaster shelf and a single dialed-in house blend are just different bets, and this list has both.
Not a US city, and not chosen for a search term the way the other guides on this site are — this one exists because it's a scene worth covering on its own merits, and because it kept changing enough between this page's first draft and this update that two of the nine shops above didn't exist on the list a year ago.
Dabov Specialty Coffee
Sofia Center
Bulgaria's third-wave starting point, opened in 2008 by Jordan Dabov and Vesela Vasileva, and now roasting for more than 100 shops around the country. The Lyuben Karavelov location runs cupping classes as seriously as it pulls shots, and reviewers consistently single out Dabov himself walking the room and talking through the beans on offer.
Order: a cupping-class flight if one's running; a flat white if not
58 Lyuben Karavelov St, 1142 Sofia · Website
Chucky's Coffee House
Sofia Center
Sofia's first dedicated craft coffee shop, and the one locals point newcomers to first. 100% arabica across every method (espresso, chemex, French press), and reviewers repeat the same two things: staff who explain the menu in English rather than just take the order, and enough outlets and quiet to actually sit and work.
Order: a chemex, or a filter if chemex is running slow that day
ul. Hristo Belchev 29, 1000 Sofia · Website
Coffee Syndicate
Sredec
Three coffee people who launched in 2021 after Friedhats' roasting out of the Netherlands, on the walk up toward Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. Industrial, minimalist room; a second location on Yanko Sakazov. One of the baristas has won a national latte-art title, which tracks with how often the flat white gets singled out. The eclairs are made upstairs same-day. The one recurring complaint in reviews is a surcharge on plant milk. Worth knowing before you order, not a reason to skip it.
Order: the Espresso Fizz, or a flat white if you want something to sit with
Moskovska St 3, 1000 Sofia · Website
Urban Embassy
Sofia Center
Opened September 2021 near NDK, run by Nikola, a barista reviewers describe as having worked with most of the specialty scene in the city before opening his own room. An explicit stance against to-go waste (bring a cup or borrow one of theirs), and the milk alternatives (hazelnut, walnut, almond) are made in-house rather than poured from a carton. A community space first, a coffee shop second, which shows in how long people stay.
Order: a flat white with the house hazelnut milk
ul. Fridtjof Nansen 19, 1142 Sofia · Website
Altruist
Serdika
Urban coffee shop and bakery in one, with the pastries made in a backyard bake space behind the counter. The room itself is a step up from most on this list: art-deco touches, tall ceilings, brass lamps. The croissant gets named often enough in reviews that it's not a coincidence.
Order: an espresso and the croissant, whichever one's left
ul. Ekzarh Yosif 49, 1000 Sofia · Website
Drekka
Oborishte
A residential-neighbourhood shop and concept store in one: coffee, loose-leaf tea, spices and drinking chocolate share the same shelves. It rotates in guest roasters, currently including Berlin's The Barn, rather than running one house blend forever, so the menu genuinely changes visit to visit.
Order: a flat white, or a pour-over of whichever guest roaster is on that month
ul. Marin Drinov 23, 1504 Sofia · Website
Bug Coffee
Oborishte
A Sofia-based roaster in the literal sense: six origins in rotation (Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Peru, Honduras, plus a decaf from Colombia), roasted on-site by a Specialty Coffee Association-certified roaster. Reviewers who've been through most of the city's specialty scene tend to name this as the one they keep coming back to.
Order: an espresso tonic, or the Ethiopian as a chemex
ul. Asen Zlatarov 19, Sofia · Website
Bloom Cafe
Sofia Center
One of the newer names in the scene, a 2025 European Coffee Trip pick, pouring Bug Coffee's beans in a minimalist, light-filled room near the covered market. Opens at 8am, earlier than most of this list. The cold brew gets called out specifically and often enough in reviews to be worth a special mention: served properly cold with no ice needed to get there.
Order: the cold brew
ul. Veslets 23, 1202 Sofia · Website
Martines Specialty Coffee Shop & Roastery
Sofia Center
A family roasting business dating to 2007 that only recently opened its own café, a few doors down the same street as Chucky's rather than in a different part of town. Small and deliberately cozy, run day-to-day by Alexander and his wife; reviewers point to the pour-over program specifically.
Order: a pour-over, whatever single origin is on that week
1A Hristo Belchev St, 1000 Sofia · Website