Skarabar is a restaurant I trust a lot. Few times I have brought friends from all around the world to try Bulgarian food and one of the go-to places is Skarabar. They have an amazing high-quality grill, really tasty salads and great service. This time I was visiting with my family and I was very pleasantly surprised when I saw a burger on the menu. Since the place is so famous for its barbecue and good quality meat, I had to try it.

How tasty is the Motherf*#$&r? – 7.5/10

This smelled and felt lie a Bulgarian style burger from the first moment. And also seeing the burger beign served to a neigbouring table I was astonished by the size of it… its BIG!

The burger had:

• Beef Patty
• Cheddar
• Lettuce
• Pickles
• Red Onion
• Burger Sauce
• White Bun

This for sure is a great execution of a beef burger. It is entirely inspired and executed by the classic Bulgarian Kofta recipe and the taste is there. You can feel the spices, all the juices from the medium-well patty and is one of the better patties I have tried. You guys know I like meat with identity, something that is bringing the local culture into the recipe and this is it. I’m going to have a weird critique though. The meat was too much and the whole burger had a bit of an identity crisis. It was very tasty and dominant in the bites but that put the rest of the ingredients in the background. It felt much more like a classic Bulgarian style “burger in a bun” but without really embrasing it so it kind of stayed in the middle between a Bulgarian and a Western style burger.

The melted cheddar was too little to be felt in the large meaty bites. I would have put double the amount at least to it can be a much more present and balanced flavour in the mix.

The vegetables were tasty and I appreciated the fact that the tomato was omitted since it was out of season. (Maybe it is in the recipe but mine didn’t have one). The gherkings where sour and added that great acidity that goes well with every burger. I would have appreciated a few more. It is one of few times where I would ask for a bit more onion since hte few cuts weren’t enough but that may have been because of the meat.
I’m also putting the automatic minus points for full leaf of lettuce. Please dice your lettuce and make it more present in the burger without taking away from the juices…
thank you!

The bread was crunchy and  I like the fact that they went for white bread. The sauce was I believe luteniza and mayo and it went well but was a bit too little and I would have loved a bit more emhpasis from the mayo. Non the less a very tasty burger

Burger joint venue and overall experience? – 8/10

These are some of the best fries you can try. They taste like the fries your grandma will make. The fries are full of flavour and the right amount of salty but also go well with the large selection of good grill and salads.

Their beer choice is pretty good as well!

Quirkiness level of the experience? – 7/10

A Bulgarian style burger was a very interesting experiment. The last one I had at BDSwas lovely