The Little Bulgaria, Hastings: café-restaurant review

There is an easygoing, lived-in feeling to The Little Bulgaria, this small café on Queen’s Road.

It’s the jar of lollipops on the counter, next to the wine rack. You see it in the cushions in the bold white, green and red bands of the Bulgarian tricolour. It’s the small rural scenes hanging on the wall, and the open kitchen just the other side of the wood-panelled counter.

On a beautifully bright East Sussex day the pavement tables are full, and inside owners Rita and Ivan are busy as smells of cooking fill the small room.

We drink glasses of the Bulgarian house white, served with a small dish of ice cubes, and glasses of ayran (salted yoghurt) as we read a menu which is unfamiliar in parts, but which hints heavily at the influence of the country’s neighbours, Turkey and Greece.

There will be a twenty minute wait, apparently, for the intriguing-sounding gyuveche trakian, named after the clay pot it cooks in. While we wait, ‘Snow White’ (‘Snezhanka’) turns out to be yoghurt, labneh-thick, with cucumber, walnuts and dill.

We order flatbreads, slathered with butter then seasoned and seared on the grill, and start tearing and scooping: on our second visit, katuk (whipped cream cheese) substitutes red peppers for cucumber with similarly gutsy results.

The mains- nine of them- are distinctly meaty, and offal lovers will welcome the sight of beef tripe, chicken hearts and livers. The names may be unfamiliar- kufteta, kebabcheta, karnache– but if you can’t decide, have the mixed grill, which they say will serve three to four for under forty pounds. I’d take that at face value, too: portions here are substantial. Recently a friend and I were irked after paying almost fifty pounds for another eastern European mixed grill for two in Cardiff city centre, one which left us hungry, but The Little Bulgaria has no such aversion to feeding you well and inexpensively.

There are salads- five of them- and a few soups, including tarator, a chilled yoghurt-based soup with cucumber and walnuts- not to be confused with the Middle Eastern sauce- which can be made to suit vegans, and beef tripe, which presumably can’t.

That gyuveche is tomatoes, red onion, mushrooms, peppers and Bulgarian smoked sausage over a soft, thick layer of feta. There’s a touch of chilli heat as we dig in. Salty, savoury, oozy- it’s all topped with an egg- this is a hot mess in all the best ways. ‘I could eat this all day long’, is B’s verdict, and it feels like the perfect autumn lunch.

Those flatbreads, slathered with butter, seasoned and seared, keep coming. The sprightly and citrussy sprinkling comes into its own with chicken livers: similar to sumac, it does good things with the savoury heft of the gravy.

There is none of that graininess which can spoil such a delicate meat. Instead, they are coaxed into buttery softness in a ‘cottage style’ rustic stew of white and red onions, a tricolour of peppers, mushrooms and parsley. It’s remarkably satisfying stuff, and it is under nine pounds. It could easily stand as a hearty meal in its own right.

Kebabcheta is presented simply enough, just a salad dressed with dill and a tangy vinaigrette, the meat (a beef and pork mixture) striped from the grill: but it’s all about that ratio of fat to lean, which makes them noticeably juicy.

The same is true of karnache’s densely meaty curled sausage, with both served alongside a little pot of ljutineca (‘spicy’) a coarse tomato chutney of roasted peppers, aubergines, garlic and more which brings some gentle, smoky heat. It’s great with the meats, but easy to imagine as versatile: spread on toast with fried eggs for breakfast, perhaps, or beefing up a sandwich.

It has taken Ivan and Rita ten years to realise their dream, and since opening in December last year the scarcity of Bulgarian menus means they regularly pull in compatriots from as far as Tunbridge Wells, Eastbourne and London. Yet somehow, this feels very much like a local cafe for Hastings: the sort of place that welcomes you with inexpensive, hearty and interesting cooking. The sort of place you can easily see yourself becoming a regular, the sort of place you’ll be glad you knew about.

69 Queens Rd, Hastings TN34 1RE

Mon – Thu 10:30 am – 8:30 pm
Friday 10:30 am – 9:00 pm
Saturday 11:00 am – 9:00 pm
Sunday 12:00 pm – 7:30 pm