Bulgaria - Black Sea Restaurant, E15

Restaurant:  Black Sea 

Location:  81 Portway Road, Stratford E15 3QJ

Date of visit:  3 May 2015

Time of visit:  6pm

Our latest restaurant adventure took us to East London, to one of a handful of cafes and restaurants catering for the Bulgarian community. A quick search online flagged up that the Black Sea restaurant was clearly the best of the lot. And off we went.

The restaurant is halfway between Stratford and Plaistow stations and is housed in a building that was almost certainly a pub in a former life. And like some pubs in quiet communities, we walked in to an initially uncomfortable welcome. Almost the stereotypical "turns the place silent, someone drops a glass in shock, tumbleweed" scenario. It seemed clear that we weren't Bulgarian. And that people who aren't Bulgarian rarely walk through the doors. It's the kind of situation I expected long before now on this project.

Anyway, it turned out that the cold welcome came from some customers - nothing harsh, just a look of bemusement... a long look - which was also down to a bit of bad timing resulting in Elle asking one of them asking if they had a table for two. That didn't help. He just ignored her, walked past us and went back to his table.

Once the waiter realised that we knew we hadn't walked into the pub-that-was by mistake, he gestured us to take any table (most were empty) and we took our seats.

The menus were quickly forthcoming, and the selection was extensive. It took a little time to take in exactly what was on offer. It was a little unusual in that many of the appetisers were considerably more expensive than some mains. There was also a large selection of non-Bulgarian dishes such as spaghetti bolognese and general meat dishes. If these were given a particularly authentic national twist, then it wasn't obvious.

Always one to try and get as much out of this experience as possible, I went for two of the most traditional dishes I could find. To start I went for the tarator soup - a cold yoghurt and cucumber soup. The waiter warned me that the soup was cold. In fairness, this was made clear in the menu which said it was a "cold soup". I went for the pork kavarma as a main, a traditional Bulgarian stew. The waiter recommended that I didn't need anything to accompany this by way of a side dish.

Elle picked a starter of "fried potato and cheese" - no other description was given although the waiter seemed a bit surprised at the choice. Some of the dishes on the menu were illustrated with a photograph of the dish. This was one of them. Although nothing in the photo was recognisable, it looked good whatever it was. For main she went for Bulgarian grilled sausage.

It's worth pointing out at this stage that Elle asked the waiter for information of several of the mains on the menu, which he was happy to do. But it was here that we discovered that a fair section of the menu was unavailable.

Unfortunately there was also no draft beer available but we did order a bottle of Kamenitza beer each, which is one of the most popular beers in Bulgaria. 

It's usually at this point, whilst waiting for the food to arrive, that I take in, and take notes on, the surroundings. The restaurant, quite sizable, was decorated in traditional Bulgarian fabrics. Some Bulgarian pop music played throughout the evening, and Spanish football was airing on a Bulgarian TV channel in the corner.

The wait for the food to come wasn't too long at all. The soup appeared exactly as I expected it to. Elle's fried potatoes and cheese? Chips and cheese. It was a plate of chips and cheese. I'm guessing this isn't a traditional dish. The waiter's reaction when this was ordered was a little unusual but at no point did he warn us that it was chips and cheese.

I actually realise now that, for the purposes of this review, I forgot to ask Elle how her starter was. I can probably guess. However, if anything was unusual about her starter it was the cheese. It was a kind of grated cream cheese, with a really distinctive sour, bitter salty taste. Like goats cheese but much more intense. Looking it up now, it was most likely sirene cheese - popular in the Bulgarian and in South Eastern Europe in general. So there is some national flavour right there!

My soup was surprisingly good. It was indeed cold. It was also a substantial portion in a deep bowl. The main base of the soup was thin yogurt, with a good helping of chopped cucumber and thyme. Initially I thought I would struggle to eat much of it, but it was very enjoyable and surprisingly light.

Very little time passed before the mains arrived. My kavarma came in a medium sized ceramic pot which was incredibly hot. The stew itself was molten hot. Now I realised why the waiter also gave me a sideplate and a spoon. If it stayed in the pot I'm sure my food would have stayed piping hot until the end of eternity! The stew is cooked in the pot, which was filled with lovely chunks of pork, egg, mushroom and onion in a lovely oily but flavoursome sauce.

Elle's grilled sausage was fairly typical of the region, almost shish kebabesque in presentation. It was presented with a side of chips and some sliced tomato and cucumber. The vegetables were incredibly fresh and ample in portion.

Both meals were a good size, leaving no room for dessert (as is usual). However there was always going to be room for my planned digestif - Bulgarian rakiya. It took a disappointingly long time to be served for dessert/drinks, especially as we had been given the menus again. When we finally got the waiter's attention we ordered a pomorie rakiya each, a popular fruit brandy of the region. It came as a double measure in a small glass and seemed to be extremely strong! Warming as it went down, so say the least! A good way to end a decent meal.

The entire meal and drinks cost £34 which is really good in our eyes. No doubt the Black Sea restaurant is invaluable to the Bulgarian community of East London. But it was the first time we felt any real awkwardness in a restaurant on this project. It wasn't unpleasant by any means, and it was definitely worth the trip.