Philippopolis Tavern

Russian Ukrainian Food best !!!

Authentic Bulgarian!!! I love this restaurant. Its changed up just a bit but its still got the authentic items everyone must try there.
They have an assortment of «exotic» food, from chicken hearts to beef tongue. I had the chicken hearts and the were excellent. The spices used made the meal… I recommend everyone to keep an open mind and order something adventurous while they are there. Also, try all the desserts they are the best I have had from a mid-​scale restaurant.

Being a vegetarian there was NOTHING for me to really eat here but everyone else seemed to like there food.

Philippopolis. The guys that run the place are super friendly, that is a major plus.
The beer they carry is pretty cheap. Unfortunately, it’s also pretty low-​quality «working man» kinda stuff. Not happy that they don’t even carry Sweetwater 420. However I happened to find a polish beer that was ok.
None of the food looked very appetizing on the menu at the time so I just drank a beer.
The do advertise their pizza which is odd, because as I sat there and drank my beer I realized it was a greek joint. Then in speaking with the bartender I realized its run by bulgarians which is totally cool. So its a greek pizza joint that serves italian food thats run by bulgarians.
They did have several pool tables, lots of TVs, and it looked comfy. The owners are obviously going for a cross between a lounge, a tavern, and a bar. Also they had a setup it looked like for a DJ or possibly live music, I’m not sure.
Its near my house though and I’ll probably be returning to try out their food maybe on a Friday or Saturday night.

Tried this place the other day. I had the Chicken Skewer and some Red Pepper paste. It was pretty good. There was no one in there at all the night I went. I never had this type of food before. It’s a good lunch spot if you are in the area.

My friend and I really enjoyed this place! I like to drag him to new places, and we had a modest coupon from Val-​Pak to seal the deal.
The place is interesting on the outside, with festive lights and outdoor seating. Inside, we sat in the dining room, which only consisted of seven or eight tables on that Tuesday night. There was a curtain blocking off the rest of the place, and when we sneaked a look, we saw three times as many tables, all set for dinner. I am guessing that Tuesday evening is not the time to go, if you are expecting the place to be rocking. The huge floor speakers and sound system told me that at least SOME times, the place probably is, indeed, rocking. I want to go back then.
The food was good. My friend got a meatball soup, and I had a bite. It was well balanced, and the meatballs weren’t scarce. I forewent appetizers — though next time I intend to be brave and try the Beef Tongue In Butter. I need to embrace my inner Andrew Zimmern more sometimes.
What I got for dinner was the combo platter. A huge plate of meat, actually. I decided against a side item, because I was really never a huge fan of cabbage or french fries. They also offer sauteed carrots, boiled potatoes and steamed veggies. Authentic, absolutely. But not my favorite things ever. Besides, I got a plate full of meat.
The skewers were grilled very well. The pork and chicken were amazing. The sausage was firmly OK. Maybe I like taking risks with my meat (ha!) but I would not have minded it if things had been a hair less well done.
My friend got the mousaka, and said it was some of the best he has had. He had no use for the Tzatziki, as he hates all things cucumber. I happily dipped some of my food into it, and it was remarkable. They really ought to offer that with the combo (meat) platter.
We each had drinks, and they were meh. I would have loved to have seen more prominent ouzo drinks. The whiskey sour was not really that great, but my friend seemed to really enjoy his long island iced tea. Drink prices were very reasonable though, so there was minimal grumbling — we just didn’t order more.
We finished off the meal with baklava. These people are not kidding about portion size here. Two HUGE triangles of tasty baklava were twice as much we the two of us could eat. My friend took it home, where I am sure it promptly disappeared.
Our server was probably the best part of the meal. I wish I had gotten her name! She was friendly, funny, and knew the menu well enough to steer us in the right direction. She even told me to come back for the beef tongue, but that the tripe (in butter or as a soup) was a seriously acquired taste. I’ll be back for the tongue, but might not have the stomach for the tripe.

Very impressed with the food and delivery. Have not been to establishment, but pizza, mushrooms, and feta penna were delicious.

It’s awesome this place was turned into a Bulgarian restaurant. I sincerely hope this restaurant do well. They are really conscientious. They made efforts to improve the restaurant based on the few customer reviews. For instance, there’s a sign that request parents to watch their children and not have them run around. Our server, Peet, is Bulgarian, and was really helpful and honest with her recommendations.
I really liked the beef tongue in butter. It comes sizzling in a skillet and is very tender. I couldn’t stop dipping my bread into the grease. They serve it with warm toast, which Peet brought out generously for us, probably because she saw how much I was devouring it.
I highly recommend the combo grill because it’s pretty much all the meats they offer. The sauteed potatoes, a popular side item is really good. I highly recommend. However, the lutenitza, which I was told is almost a staple in Bulgarian diet, is simply tomato paste (ie, spaghetti sauce). You can tell it’s good quality, but I don’t have a taste for it unfortunately. I’m sure someone of Bulgarian descent can really appreciate it.
They also have special cake that day, Irish Crème Cake. We went ahead and ordered it. It was rich and very tasty.
They also have lunch specials and $ 10 dinner specials. The menu now have pictures, another improvement based on reviews.
This place apparently turns into a nightclub on weekends, according to their webpage. We tried to stay past 10 to catch a glimpse of the «nightclub», but nothing happened. Maybe we didn’t stay late enough. There’s a bar and lounge area across the dining and dance floor space.
And yes there are tvs.
Come on… give this place a chance. Do it. You know you want to.

Yesterday, I was watching an episode of Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives and Guy visited a Bulgarian place in Los Angeles. The sausages looked so delicious and I soon realized I had never had Bulgarian food. Unilocal to the rescue! For all the nitty gritty details, see Daniel B’s fantastic and thorough review. It sold me and so the next day I went! Philippopolis Tavern is in a small trip mall on Windy Road in Smyrna. The Russian salad was a fantastic way to start. With ham, peas, carrots, egg, pickles, potatoes, and mayo, each bite was subtle but balanced and quite tasty. But the money’s in the pork sausages. Get the combination platter, because you get to sample four items: mainichka (an encased pork sausage), kebabche (a sausage-​shaped but non-​cased pork sausage), kufke (ground pork shaped as a patty), and chicken skewer. For me, the three pork sausages were the stand-​outs, each with its own set of seasonings and tastes but all equally juicy, flavorful, savory, and mouth-​watering. Finally, I also tried the lutenitza, which is a tomato and pepper sauce with seasoning. As much as I love my Heinz 57, if I had a bottle of this stuff, man I’d be one happy guy. Delicious. If you’ve never had Bulgarian cuisine, definitely visit and try things for yourself. I can’t wait to return.

Philippopolis Tavern is a Bulgarian restaurant that opened 3 – 4 months ago on Windy Hill Rd. just west of Cobb Parkway. It occupies the former space of a Brazilian steakhouse and is in the same shopping center as Siam Square Thai Cuisine.
The restaurant doesn’t look like much from the outside, but the space inside feels new and spacious. They’ve got a bar with some lounge-​type seating, flatscreen TVs, and many tables. There’s a small, enclosed outdoor patio too. On Friday and Saturday nights, the restaurant stays open until 2am. It turns into a club of sorts as they bring in a DJ and play live music. They hosted a concert about a week ago and have another one coming up this Saturday.
I checked out this place on Friday night just before 9pm and the restaurant was not very busy. I’ve had Bosnian (Nerevta down the street) and Ukrainian food before, but this was my first experience with Bulgarian food. Philippopolis reminded me of Nerevta — *a lot* of meat — but their meat seemed to be cooked and prepared with more ingredients and seasonings, thus more flavorful.
Philippopolis’ menu has some depth to it. They have salads, stews, charcuterie and cheese plates, beef tripe, tongue, and chicken hearts, Bulgarian moussaka, and more. Most of the menu items are under $ 10 each. In addition, there are daily specials and lunch specials. After reading up about this place online, I already knew what I wanted. Here’s what I tried:
Appetizer:
Beef Tongue in Butter ($ 8.25) — slices of boiled beef tongue sauteed in butter and seasonings
Combo Grill ($ 17.50), which includes the following meats and two sides:
Meats:
Kufte — seasoned ground pork patty
Kebabche — seasoned naked pork sausage
Spicy Mainichka — seasoned pork sausage
Chicken Skewer — chicken on a skewer with green bell pepper, mushroom, and onion
Sides:
Sauteed Potatoes
Lutenitza — lightly spiced tomato and pepper sauce blended with spices
Dessert:
Irish Cream Cake ($ 3.50)
The Beef Tongue in Butter was absolutely delicious. The slices of beef tongue were served directly on a hot black iron skillet. The slices were large and hearty and easily some of the best beef tongue I’ve ever eaten. How could it not be? It was sitting in a small layer of melted butter! The tongue was appetizingly chewy. I recommend this dish.
I also recommend the Combo Grill if you’d like to have a sampling of several of the different varieties of meats the restaurant has to offer. All three of the Kufte, Kebabche, and Mainichka were plump, tasty, and served hot of the grill. The Kufte looked like a hamburger patty, except it was made of pork. I enjoyed all three meats equally and am not sure if I preferred any one over the other. They were all good. Savory with a good mix of seasonings. A little greasy, but not too bad.
Since this was meat overload, the server kindly provided a complimentary side of bread, which had been freshly sliced, briefly toasted, and served in a small basket. I don’t think bread comes standard, so if you want some, you’ll have to specially request it.
The Chicken Skewer wasn’t bad, but tasted bland compared to the savory pork patty and sausages. The Sauteed Potatoes were OK as well. According to our server, they are one of the more popular side items here. The potatoes were laced with something to give them more flavor.
The Lutenitza is like Bulgarian «ketchup.» It’s tomato-​based and tastes similar to American ketchup, except it tastes fresher and not as processed. It’s also a bit thicker. It went well with everything, whether it was the bread, meat, or potatoes. Our server told us Bulgarians can eat Lutenitza with their breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
The Irish Cream Cake is a new dessert item on Philippopolis’ menu. It was tender, moist, and smooth, and a pleasant end to a somewhat intense meal.
Our server was Petya (went by «Peet») and she was fantastic. She was very friendly, engaging, and attentive and did a great job of explaining all of the menu items. The food also came out in a timely manner.
One additional thing I’d like to point out about this restaurant is they seem to be receptive to Unilocal reviews (or the following is a big coincidence). Early Unilocal reviews of this place described the restaurant’s menu as being non-​descriptive. Amanda F. suggested the use of pictures in the menu. Philippopolis’ menu now includes pictures and descriptions. Another Unilocaler explained a dining experience here that was made worse because kids were running around inside the restaurant. At the entrance, the hostess stand now has a sign that tells parents to keep an eye on their kids for safety concerns. It’s nice the business is responding positively to customer feedback.
Overall, I had a good experience at Philippopolis and suggest it to anyone looking to try a new ethnic food. I give it about 3 to 3.5 stars for the food + 1 star for the service for a total of 4 stars.
Trivia: Philippopolis is the 2^nd largest city in Bulgaria.

This NOT Russian food. It is Bulgarian, which is like a cross between Greek food and Hungarian or Polish cuisine. FAR better than Russian.
The restaurant opened in January. Philippopolis is the ancient Greek name for Plovdiv, a beautiful Bulgarian city in what used to be Thrace. Anyhoo, my in-​laws are Bulgarian and I eat home cooked Bulgarian food all the time. It rocks. A good place to start is the traki feta appetizer, a hot tomato soup type dish with feta cheese chunks in it that you eat with bread. They give you a little piece of bread to start, so ask for more and tell them to keep it coming.
A famous Bulgarian salad is shopska salad which is tomatoes and cucumbers, feta and some other stuff. It is a mainstay of their cuisine.
For the main dish I got kavarma, which is a stew cooked in a traditional clay pot. I got the pork kavarma, they also serve chicken. Honestly this version had more carrots than I like, the kavarma I had in Bulgaria was better just because I am not a big carrot fan. Still, it’s really good.
Also, for the main dish two very popular items are kebabche and kufte, they are both made with ground pork. Kebabche looks like a ground pork sausage and kufte is shaped like a burger pattie. They are seasoned but not spicy hot. Both are great when eaten with lutinitsa, a tomato paste that is ubiquitous in Bulgaria and very good. Another great dish is stuffed bell peppers. Fried potatoes with feta on the side are great with these dishes. I highly suggest it for beginners. Also, there are many nice cheeses to sample.
A very popular Bulgarian sausage is lukanka. I prefer prosciutto (also eaten a lot in Bulgaria and on the menu here) but it is worth a try. My peeps simply eat it by cutting pieces with a knife and scarfing it with feta and potatoes.
While Bulgaria sounds like a very exotic place the food is very accessible and the service is very friendly and helpful. If you like Greek and/​or Central European food you will like this food. Go for it!
Baklava Bulgarian style is very good and quite similar to Greek baklava.
If you got this far, a Bulgarian joke for you. My Bulgarian family is very self-​deprecating about the bad economy over there.
Q: Man had two potato, what did one potato say to other potato? Answer: Premise ridiculous! Who have two potato?

I took the family out to eat on a Sunday. We were greeted and sat down. Then we waiting for about 20min before anyone showed up to the table. Everyone was more interested in a poker game than serving customers. Finally our food and drinks were taken and people were smoking. I had my children with me and thought about just leaving. Our food arrived and it was good but very over priced.

Stick with the ethnic food that is the specialty. Avoid the steamed vegetables at all costs. The grilled combo was awesome, a tour de force of sausage!!! The beer was great too — the Aztica was very tasty. Oh, and get the fries and Feta too!

My friends and I came here on a Friday night. First, the menu was confusing. I didn’t mind asking for explanations of food items, but sides and entrees would be on different pages, and they didn’t list drinks. That wasn’t so bad. Our food got to our table, and the portions were very small! I was disappointed. They also charge their Bulgarian ketchup as a side, which I thought was strange. All of this wasn’t too big of a deal. But I got fed up when the owner’s family came in with a troop of kids. They ran all over the restaurant screaming, and the parents did not get them under control for a good half hour. They were so rowdy I wasn’t able to converse with my friends, and other diners were visibly annoyed. They leaned over the railings yelling in customers ears, ran dangerously close to tables, and the entire family completely disregarded the space of customers. I was fed up. Hopefully, they will improve.

Went here with some colleagues from work today and at first I was skeptical. The signage is is hard to read and really does not give you any idea what type of food is served. When you first walk in the décor is basic but I must say, our server Amber was awesome. The menu does not have any explanations about any of the items so Amber had to guide us through item by item, she knocked it out of the park. The food was great and seemed to be authentic (I would not know what true Bulgarian food taste like). I had the Spicy Mainichka, Kufte, Boiled Potatoes, and peas and rice. Everything was great but my favorite was the boiled potatoes. They are boiled, seasoned, and sauteed which made them flavorful. I would definitely go back to this place!

We had the yoghurt salad, lankaka and cheese, and the combo grill. All were excellent. The menu could use some pictures or further description, but I was fine using my phone to look up the unknown. They have a full bar with American and Bulgarian beers. I had the Kamanitza and Astika which are larger than the typical 12 oz beer. The price was $ 5. Not bad. We went on a Saturday, and the crowd was HEAVY. The music was loud and people were up dancing. We enjoyed it, but if you are looking for a quiet night out, this is not the place for it… at least on the weekend. Servers and manager/​owner were very friendly.

This is a Bulgarian cuisine, the menu also has several Greek and Turkish items. The menu is more a la carte style. We had stuffed peppers, kofta, musaka, pasturma and kebabche. My favorite was the kebabche then the kofta. Musaka was good but without eggplant and the stuffed peppers — with rice and vegetables — were very good. The atmosphere is warm and a typical tavern style. They have a dj and parties weekend nights after 9 pm. The menu kind of lacked description and the server was as new as the place. But I would definitely recommend this place.