Cactus в София

Stopped by for lunch with the wife, we watch the chef‘s show and thought it would be fun. The service was really good, we got the goat cheese salad (server recommended the appetiser and was very likely right), the foie gras and the pork roulade. The cheese in the salad was quite good, but the rest was a heaping pile of lettuce, ok, but nothing great. The foie gras was really excellent, the pairing with thinly cut beets and the sauce was excellent: add a side order of bruschetta to mop up all the deliciousness! The roulade was good, the sauce was the highlight and could be a bit more generous. We will be back, and will listen to the server next time! It‘s a quirky layout, so check out the floorplan if you are going for 6+. Nice atmosphere, and friendly and professional staff with good food at very reasonable prices. Thank you, team Cactus!

We came here on a Saturday night without a reservation and they were pretty full but they were kind enough to make room for two of us. For starters we had the burrata salad and shrimp which were both fantastic. For mains we had Viennese schnitzel which was cooked perfectly by the chef. It was accompanied well by the Riesling wine , fantastic wine pairing. For dessert I had cheesecake which was amazing. We were served by Ekaterina who was excellent. Very friendly and accommodating and we were glad we were served by her. Thank you so much for the great food and service.

The service and the atmosphere are exceptional. It is a really good place for a meeting. The desserts are top notch and the chocolate cherry looks amazing even if it has some marzipan taste which I am not fan of - I still loved it. And those are the good things I can say. Maybe my expectations for the food were higher than they needed to be but I was quite disappointed. The salad dressing is definitely store bought, the egg yolks were overboiled so much they were blue, the schnitzel was almost like a boot. The sea bass wasn't well made either. A colleague of mine gave really good review for the salmon though. For me the food was at passable quality for the restaurant next door but nowhere near my expectations (again - excluding the desserts).

Really nice food, motivated service, good drinks. It was almost perfect. Until we realised the aircon was blowing cigarette smoke to our table. After a couple of discussions with the server, we were told the „chef“s office‘s ventilator is blowing air to the table we were sitting. No comment. Wish I could post smells…

The service was friendly, and the atmosphere was really nice. However, given Chef Manchev’s reputation for quality, I honestly expected much more from the food. The Caesar dressing was store-bought, and the calamari were over-fried and oily, with no homemade sauce