Great news. There's a new Thai restaurant in Sofia. This a restaurant I've long thought we should have in Sofia. So here's a big welcome to the Thai restaurant <a href="http://bluemoon.bg/" target="_blank">Blue Moon</a>!!

They went for a Thai-inspired name but nothing quite as in your face at Thaiphoon or the King and I. That was probably a good choice for Sofia.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6802435518/" title="Reading the menu at Blue Moon  by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7189/6802435518_a7768c09c8_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="Reading the menu at Blue Moon "></a>
Earlier this week a rumor spread like wildfire around campus this week, about a new Thai restaurant in Sofia. <em>A Thai restaurant</em>, we whispered.  A quick tweet to my followers confirmed the existence of the restaurant. After that it was settled. We would go.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6802435762/" title="Inside Blue Moon  by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7043/6802435762_0cd8440e7d_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="Inside Blue Moon "></a>
So a bunch of us planned to check it out on Friday night. One of the teachers at school made a reservation for 7:30 pm for a group of nine of us.  Some teachers were leaving from campus and others from our apartments in Mladost.

I however tried not to go. I thought that A. was going to pick me up at the apartments. We'd messaged about it earlier in the day. Then he called. We spoke in Bulgarian because I am trying to actively speak more Bulgarian even though it's often easier to speak English. At the end of the call, I thought we confirmed our earlier plans.

Needless to say at 8pm when I was still at home sitting on my couch, I was beginning to wonder what was going on. But forever reason, I didn't call A. I just figured that he was running late and I wasn't really worried about it.

Anyhow, A. called me from the restaurant when he found everyone there but me. You know, because I was still at home. Turns out A. thought I was just going to go to the restaurant with some my apartment friends. <em>Ops</em>.

So I grabbed a cab and was downtown 15 minutes later. When I arrived everyone had a pretty good laugh at my expense. One which I clearly deserved. A. told me that I'd better keep going to my Bulgarian lessons. <em>Okay</em>.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6802436222/" title="Blue Moon Veggie Noodles  by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7059/6802436222_25ac1eb793_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="Blue Moon Veggie Noodles "></a>
Luckily the restaurant is easy to find as Blue Moon is on Rakovski (Раковски 127) right next to Club Alcohol. Literately right next to Alcohol. In fact if you ate a late dinner you could walk out of Blue Moon and straight down the stairs to the club.

Blue Moon has gone for a gold-moon lit from behind with blue light theme and some hanging paper flowers as decor. I didn't love it but didn't hate it either.

Now onto the food. Here's the bad news. It's not really Thai food.

If you go hoping for coconut infused curries or pad thai with rice noodles you'll be disappointed.  The food is good but it would be much better to describe it as Asian inspired than Thai. I guess that probably shouldn't surprise me much. This is Sofia. I just hoped for more.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6802436026/" title="Blue Moon Pad King by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7199/6802436026_511a8a9d17_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="Blue Moon Pad King"></a>
Here's what I liked. The vegetables in the noodle dishes were cut into nice sizes--not too big and not too small-- and then they were well-cooked in that they still had a little bit to them.  The dish I had the pad king also had a little kick to it but it wasn't too much. I actually thought that it was pretty great.

Was it Thai food as I know it? Nope. But that's okay. Luckily I know <a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/2010/05/09/pad-thai-esque/" target="_blank">how to make my own pad tha</a>i. In fact I may have to make it one night this week.

At our table most of the discussion of the restaurant hinged on the fact that the food isn't actually Thai food but that it was pretty tasty for Asian food. No one actively disliked what they ordered. Most people just wished for more. The other complaint had to do with the portion sizes for the price. Basically it boiled down to this, the portion sizes were small for Bulgarian restaurants and the prices seemed a little high for what was being served.

The combination of these two things doesn't seem to bode well for the restaurant. The one thing that may make a difference is that the majority of the people dinning at Blue Moon seemed to be foreigners. I heard a lot of English being spoken with various foreign accents. This said, only about 2/3 of the tables were full. So if you're dying for some Asian inspired food go and check out Blue Moon sooner than later.

Finally, the <a href="http://sofiaecho.com/2012/03/02/1778665_blue-moon" target="_blank">Sofia Echo however has a much kinder review</a> than mine so who knows what will happen.