Burgas has a solid local restaurant scene that caters more to Bulgarians than to tourists, which keeps prices reasonable and quality honest. Fish dominates — the Black Sea yields fresh catches of sprat, grey mullet, turbot, and mackerel — and the restaurants around the port and the Sea Garden serve them grilled, fried, or in fish soups.
The central market (Centralni Pazar) is the place to go in the morning for fresh produce, local cheeses, and smoked fish. For evening meals, the streets around Aleko Bogoridi and the pedestrian zone have a good concentration of restaurants and mehanas (traditional Bulgarian restaurants) serving grilled meats, shopska salad, and the ubiquitous local banitsa pastry. Prices are substantially lower than in the coastal resort towns.