Opening hours: 11.00 - 1.00
Credit cards:  no
Address: Yan Palah Str. 1
Tel.: (052) 60 14 18
E-mail: felice@happy.bg

Felice is the upmarket arm of the Varna based Happy Bar & Grill chain. It works on similar principles to the semi fast food chains Happy Bar by occupying the niche between luxurious restaurants and fast food outlets.

The restaurant is not in the most attractive quarter of Varna. It lies on a small shopping complex, surrounded by drab, decaying concrete tower blocks (a legacy of the communist era) and overgrown wastelands. Stray dogs loiter eager to pick up gourmet scraps and a busy main road runs alongside. Yet amidst this impoverished landscape the car park is bursting with black Mercedes, BMW‘s and Porsches. This is a great place for people watching and it is common to see local mafia types accompanied by their meaty bodyguards, who always sit alone at a table within eye shot of their boss. The sign on the door clearly says “no guns,” but come on, this is Bulgaria, and no one takes note of a one-way street sign let alone a sticker asking for no weapons.

The restaurant decor is rather bland, but comfortable. Lots of dark shiny wood, plastic plants, mock rustic Italian cuisine pictures and terracotta tiled floors. In every corner there is a plasma screen TV showing the fashion channel or a sports channel. The restaurant is on two levels, has a covered outdoor section shielded from the road and as much of the abominable view as possible but, given the location, this never appeals to me and is rarely used. Upstairs is much quieter, but for me, the best seating is in booths next to the enormous plate glass window, which screens the kitchen from the restaurant and allows you to watch the chefs prepare your food. The kitchen is spotless and so are the cooks. If the menu says your dish is 400 grams, then that is what it will be, you can watch the chefs carefully weigh out every portion of food before it is cooked. The kitchen runs with smooth, seamless efficiency and is a great credit to the restaurant. My sons love to sit by the chef who cooks the flambe dishes, but it does get a bit nauseous hearing their constant cries of “Fire”. I prefer to watch the pizza chef who uses a wooden shovel to put his enormous pizzas into an authentic brick oven. The restaurant offers a take away service where you can order pizzas big enough to feed a small army.

Felice offers reasonably priced tasty Italian cuisine from a varied picture menu, which changes regularly.  Each section of the menu offers some unusual dishes, there is a great selection of salads ranging in price from three to eight leva, the generic pizza and pasta section all of which I can recommend and a host of snack dishes like spinach pita rolls, and shaved parmesan in a brandy snap basket. There is an interesting array of main courses, most of which I have tried, but my favourite being the veal bon filet, cooked to perfection and served with a smooth appetizing mash and a rich sauce. Main courses cost around eight to 15 leva. My only criticism of the menu is that the dessert selection is poor and synthetic, something I imagine the chef defrosts as an afterthought.

The staff here are friendly and attentive. Most are young girls who force themselves into the mini-skirt uniform which doesn’t always suit, but there are plenty of men who eat here with this as the sole recommendation. Food arrives whenever a dish is ready, but most arrives within a few minutes of each other, so you do not usually find that one person has finished their meal before the others have started.

I never tire of eating here, Felice are consistent in their quality, and you never know who might pop in…