Our family had the experience to taste Bulgarian food at the newly opened Vintage Blugaria Restaurant & Bar located at Tanjung Bunga, Penang recently. This is the first Bulgarian restaurant that makes its debut in Penang and is located right beside Ingolf's Kneipe German Restaurant.
The big signboard of this restaurant first caught our attention when we were dining at Ingolf's for their special pork knuckle that is serve only on Wednesday (yet to post the review). At that time, it was still under renovation.
A mezzanine floor is constructed in this shoplot to create more dinning space. Walking up the stairs lead you to the upper floor which has a dining area and a bar whereby diners get to enjoy a drink before the meal. Downstairs is another spacious dining area.
Bulgarian cuisines is influence by the Greek, Middle East and Turkish. The food are mostly grilled or sauteed. There is a wide range of mouth watering dishes to choose from the menu. We started off the dinner with the Shkembe Chorba, which is basically a tripe soup. It is very different from our local tripe soup. Do bring yourself to try it, it is very tasty!
Shepherd’s salad - a salad consisting of a selection of fresh vegetables, ham, button mushrooms, hard cheese and olives garnished with grated hard boiled egg accompanied with some dressing.
Platter Bulgari - Bulgaria trio consisting sausages, meat patties and chicken steak accompanied by a large portion of boiled potatoes, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower. This plate of mouth watering grilled meats of ground pork patties (rich in herbs), sausages (with lots of spices) and chicken steak is a must try!
Steak Bulgarian style … tenderized chicken steak topped with creamy mushroom sauce comes with the same large portion of mixed vegetable. The chicken meat is tender.
We had an enormous Balkan platter which has a trio of lightly sautéed chicken livers and onion, gizzards in butter and veal tripe with mushrooms and herbs. It is a very fragrant dish. Recommended to share this dish around.
Photos of the cozy interior dining area and a shot of me with Silviya Georgieva who is one of the partner. I had a chat with her and she told us that they had the the interior of the restaurant decorated quite similar to the Bulgarian country side cottage. They even had a Bulgarian chef brought over here to head the kitchen. She did hint that they might introduce more dishes in the near future such as tarator (cold cucumber soup) and banista (pastry).
This restaurant gives Penangites the opportunity to explore the many flavors of Bulgarian cuisines. Definitely worth checking out this place. This dinner was indeed a brand new culinary experience for us. We also bumped into Lingzie who was dining there with her family, Penang definitely is a small island!
For reservations, call 04 8981890.
Address : 1E Jalan Sungai Kelian
11200 Tanjong Bungah
Penang
I came across this 'beauty' in the restaurant, guess where does it leads to?
