My friend A. recently told me about the best hamburger in Sofia.

Now you can't tell me something like this and not grab my attention.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="574" caption="Brown Bakery"]<a class="tt-flickr tt-flickr-Large" title="Brown Bakery" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6236150337/"><img class=" " src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6099/6236150337_1539fa1724_b.jpg" alt="Brown Bakery" width="574" height="430" /></a>[/caption]

The best hamburger in Sofia?! We live in a kufte and kabache loving country. Heck, in Bulgaria beef is by far the least popular of the the three big meats: beef, chicken and pork. So I figured that <em>best</em> must be relative. It's the best hamburger in Sofia because well, we're in Sofia.

The first time we went to Brown Bakery in Mladost we failed to get a hamburger. Apparently the kitchen was closed. Interesting problem for a, um, <em>restaurant</em>. Don't get me started on this problem. I think it's enough to say: these things happen here and leave it at that. So we had a drink and headed over to a different restaurant for dinner. And I found myself hamburger-less.

Of course, ever since, I've been thinking about hamburgers.<!--more-->

This week, we decided to take-two on the hamburgers. A. was determined to call the Brown Bakery and to confirm that the kitchen was actually open. Only the phone numbers on the Brown Bakery's website aren't correct so the line rang and rang and no one ever picked up. Kind of makes you wonder how they're running a restaurant but that's probably also something I shouldn't spend a lot of time thinking about.

So, we met up and headed over <a href="http://www.inyourpocket.com/Bulgaria/Sofia/Restaurants-and-Cafes/Modern-European/Brown-Bakery_86134v" target="_blank">Brown Bakery in Mladost 1 </a>on Yerusalim 6.  The restaurant was open but at 7pm we were one of maybe three tables. The place was pretty empty. A. double checked to make sure the kitchen was open and serving hamburgers. I wasn't close enough to hear what exactly he asked but the girl he asked asked looked at him incredulously--as if asking was a ridiculous question. Given our first experience it wasn't.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="590" caption="My Brown Bakery Hamburger"]<a class="tt-flickr tt-flickr-Large" title="My Brown Bakery Hamburger" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6236673840/"><img class=" " src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6219/6236673840_6dc6a598bd_b.jpg" alt="My Brown Bakery Hamburger" width="590" height="442" /></a>[/caption]

This time around we didn't even get menus. Who are we fooling? We're clearly ordering hamburgers.

By the time my hamburger arrived I was starving. That's the problem with being a teacher and eating lunch at 11:15 am. By 7:30 pm you're crazy hungry.

It looked delicious (but then again, anything you'd put in front of me would have). Looks can be deceiving but as it turned out, not in this case. This is one tasty hamburger. It's huge and the bun was a little too toasty but it's a more than acceptable when it comes to hamburgers.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="574" caption="Brown Bakery: the fork I never touched"]<a class="tt-flickr tt-flickr-Large" title="Brown Bakery" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6236149765/"><img class="  " src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6235/6236149765_bf59d626c2_b.jpg" alt="Brown Bakery" width="574" height="430" /></a>[/caption]

After all of the hype and lead up to this hamburger, I was pleasantly surprised. It was juicy and flavorful. The french fries appeared to be homemade and the ketchup and mayonnaise on the side didn't seem to be one of the many cheap Bulgarian brands.  Here's the one thing, I suspect that the hamburger is a blend of beef and pork meat. I don't know this for sure but it didn't taste like pure beef to me. This said, I now can confirm that this is the best hamburger in Mladost.

I don't know if I feel comfortable arguing this is best hamburger in Sofia. I mean, I haven't been to that many restaurants in Sofia nor have I eaten that many hamburgers while in Bulgaria. So, I'll leave that argument to my friend A. As a Bulgarian, I think he probably has a better handle on the hamburger-scene in Sofia than I do.