Dot Sofia
Millennium Balkan
City central Women’s Market
In an up-and-coming neighbourhood close to the capital’s key sights, Dot Sofia is a luxe design den of apartment-style stays. Behind its striking red steel shutters, a team of local tastemakers has curated all kinds of sensory treats: 11 minimalist apartments, honed with fine Bulgarian craftsmanship; a restaurant putting an haute spin on traditional local plates; and displayed throughout, extraordinary contemporary art. Hundreds of years of history are on your doorstep, but an induction into 21st-century Sofia starts here.
Facilities
Rooms
11, including six suites.
Checkout
Noon, but flexible for a €50 fee, subject to availability and prior arrangement. Check-in is at 3pm, but flexible, subject to availability and confirmation a day in advance.
More Details
Rates at Dot Sofia don’t include breakfast, which is available for €19 each.
Also
There is lift access to all floors, and step-free access to every room, but no rooms have been specially adapted for guests with limited mobility.
Free Internet Access
Laundry
On-Site Restaurant
At the Hotel
Contemporary art collection, meeting room, exhibition space, garden, washing machine and tumble dryer, and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: smart TV, Bluetooth speaker, underfloor heating and cooling system, plug adaptors, iron, kitchenette with stove, mini fridge and toaster, Nespresso coffee machine, tea-making kit with Bulgarian herbal tea, slippers and bespoke Pepilota bath products.
Our Favourite Rooms
If you’re coming with friends, the Penthouse 360° makes a luxurious pied à terre, with the views from the rooftop terrace sweeping across the city to the mountains. But for romance, there’s no beating the Sky Studios with their partial glass ceilings – as the sun sets, watch the city’s windows begin to glow from your private balcony, then turn in for some under-the-covers stargazing.
Spa
There’s no spa, but the hotel’s roster of events often includes yoga and meditation workshops, and there are yoga mats to borrow for solo sessions.
Packing Tips
Many of the hand-picked pieces you’ll find in your apartment are available to buy, so save suitcase space for an angular vase or some artisanal Bulgarian pottery.
Also
Dot’s diary of cultural events includes exhibitions from Sarieva, the country’s leading contemporary art gallery. When the salon’s not serving as a gallery, it can be booked for private soirees – or sauntered into with a book and a glass of cab sav.
Children
Welcome. Extra beds can be added to Garden Suites for €30 on request, for one child over the age of three. Loft Studios and Garden Suites can accommodate one younger child, and cots and highchairs are available at extra cost.
Gallery
Food & Drink
Top Table
Let your artistic taste guide you. When your out of office is happily set for the foreseeable, the banquette beneath Stefan Nikolaev’s granite slab, embossed in gold leaf with the word “deadline”, makes an especially satisfying spot.
Dress Code
Athleisure to haute couture, all the better if it’s supporting Sofia’s homegrown designers – Maria Queen Maria’s monochrome deconstructed fits look made for Komat’s industrial minimalism.
Hotel Restaurant
Komat is the hotel’s contemporary Bulgarian restaurant. It’s home to some of the art collection’s finest pieces, all boldly modern but Bulgarian through and through. The menu follows their cue, with reimagined versions of traditional recipes still proudly spotlighting long-loved local flavours – baked aubergine mousse is paired with tahini, lovage and Bulgarian yoghurt, risotto is rich with Bulgarian saffron. Tuck into a hearty plate of patatnik, a time-honoured cheese and potato pie, and you’ll be feeling patriotic. Weekends here mean big (often bubbly) brunches, with stalwarts such as avo toast pimped with Bagri ewe’s cheese and all manner of traditional sweet treats on offer, from fluffy buhti pastries with homemade jam to katmi, a kind of pancake drizzled with wild herb honey from the Balkan mountains.
Hotel Bar
Komat’s craft cocktail list infuses the classics with a kick of local flavour. Current highlights include the Balkan negroni, which adds rakia and linden tea to the traditional vermouth and campari, and a mimosa made with rosé prosecco and homemade hibiscus syrup.
Last Orders
Komat serves lunch from noon to 3pm and afternoon tea from 3pm to 6pm, Tuesday to Friday. Dinner is served from 6pm to 10pm, Tuesday to Saturday. At the weekend, brunch runs from 10am to 4pm. Komat is closed on Mondays.
Planes
Sofia Airport is a 30-minute drive away. The hotel can arrange private transfers for €30 to €90 each way, or taxis from €10 to €20.
Trains
Sofia’s Central Railway Station is a 10-minute drive, or 20-minute walk, from the hotel. You can get there direct from other Bulgarian hubs, Bucharest or on the sleeper service from Istanbul. The hotel can arrange transfers from the station for €10 to €30 each way.
Automobiles
There’s private underground parking at the hotel for €20 a night (€30 for the space with an electric vehicle charging point); book in advance to be sure of a spot. Alternatively, there’s ticketed parking on the street near the hotel: it’s €1 an hour between 8.30am and 8pm, Monday to Saturday and free at all other times.
Worth Getting Out of Bed For
The Women’s Market, which lends its name to Dot Sofia’s neighbourhood, is a sense-tingling open marketplace still thriving after almost 150 years – head there to stock up on spices and yours-for-a-song souvenirs. A short stroll from the hotel, you’ll find the Square of Tolerance, a cultural crossroads where the Saint Nedelya Orthodox Cathedral, the Banya Bashi Mosque, the Sofia Synagogue and the St Joseph Catholic Cathedral are all within a few minutes’ walk of each other. Immerse yourself in the city’s heritage at the Regional History Museum of Sofia – the building was once home to the Central Mineral Baths, and you can still sample the natural hot springs from the fountains in the square outside. If the hotel’s collection has you curious, you can branch out further into Bulgaria’s artistic heritage at the National Gallery. Borisova Gradina is Sofia’s much loved park, with tree-lined avenues and a rosarium brushing up against historic statues and a huge Communist monument, but for a dose of green closer to home, snag a sycamore-shaded bench in the City Garden.
Earn or Redeem Points with World of Hyatt
This Mr & Mrs Smith hotel participates in the World of Hyatt loyalty program. As a member, you can earn and redeem points and enjoy exclusive benefits for qualifying nights. .
