When I saw an advert for Sushi, I knew I had to check it out. I love sushi and always head for a sushi bar when abroad to satisfy the craving. Of course there is always the worry about how safe the food is. Raw fish must be truly fresh because any attempt at cost cutting could lead to very serious food poisoning. When I first heard reports from expats that Sofia's sushi house was quite good (and that they were still alive!) I was ready to brave it.

As I arrived in front of the library building, I was pleasantly surprised. Attempts at a zen gravel garden caught my eye. Inside the building a sense of exotic calm envelops you: on all sides water trickles down the black glass walls, emptying out into petal-strewn ponds.

The restaurant interior is as authentically zen as can be. Cherry wood and tranquility are the order of the day.

Diners are offered three seating options: private dining Japanese-style, standard restaurant seating or at the conveyor belt bar where differently-priced coloured plates glide past you and you pick and choose as you please. I feared that greed would get the better of me at the bar so we went for the safe option of restaurant seating.

Loving sushi makes me no expert. I'll try anything, and so we opted for a 12-piece combo platter, delightfully presented on a thick wooden board.

The combo offered sake (salmon), maguro (tuna) and ika (squid) nagiri (fish draped over a ball of rice) and three types of kappa maki (rice rolls wrapped in seaweed). This was accompanied by a miso soup and we ordered an extra wakame (seaweed) soup. No spoons are provided, as the soup must be drunk. My companion had never eaten sushi before and found the whole experience a novelty. She even needed to be shown how to dunk her sushi into the bowl of soy sauce.

It is hard to describe the taste of sushi. Either you like it or you don't, and the condiments - pickled ginger and spicy horseradish - are also an acquired taste. In all I rated the sushi as very good, though the rice could have been more moist.

We chose green tea to accompany our meal, but beware, the teas are not listed on the menu and cost six leva each, which considerably pumped up our bill.

The smiling waitress, dressed in samurai style kimono, bowed each time she entered and left the dining area and was exceptionally helpful in deciphering the menu. One could tell however that it was all still a little new for her. What I did miss was the typically Japanese custom of displaying all menu dishes either in plastic or photographic format, something that comes in handy when dealing with a new and unfamiliar cuisine. For sushi to succeed, a high turnover is helpful as it keeps customers confident that the product is fresh.

Prices were reasonable for such a specialist venue. The combo platter cost 22 leva; soups cost three leva; Sashimi (fish without the rice) cost seven leva; Terryaki chicken was eight leva and desserts were four leva.

I certainly plan to go back for more soon and then I may brave the conveyor belt!