Regular readers may have noticed a flurry of recent comments on this site from folks who claim I and my co-authors don't know anything about food, and are thus unqualified to review restaurants. (You can "enjoy" some of the sniping on this thread.) While I'm a strong believer that anyone with a mouth is entitled to an opinion on what they put in it, all the yelling did get me thinking about whether I should sometimes see what others are writing about restaurants before I throw in my own two forints. So for the following review of the somewhat recently-opened downtown luxury eatery Babel Delikát Étterem, I've decided to include the opinions of some well-read Hungarian bloggers who have previously written up the place and, who, interestingly enough, seem to have very different ideas of its merits.

First, we have perhaps the best-known of all of the country's foodbloggers, Zsófi of Chili és Vanília. Zsófi, whom I have not personally met, has apparently recently returned to Hungary after living some time in Brussels, and likely had lots of exposure to high-end international restaurants like Babel.

And Zsófi just loves the place! In fact, she says that the first time she ate there she wanted to run right home and write about it, and then quickly went back twice. She goes on to write that head chef István Pesti has created dishes which are not too complicated, but show great harmony between taste and texture, and which otherwise indicate that he is really putting his heart into everything that gets served up.

Similarly, the excellent but sadly now Hungarian-only blog Food Police gave Babel 8.5 out of 10 points and a write-up so glowing the blog's anonymous "commander" may need to recalibrate his rating scale.

Meanwhile, László Szily of Index.hu recently posted on his personal blog a rather different appraisal of the place. (Full disclosure: I was with Szily and one of his colleagues during his dinner; that's him in the "Blogger" shirt, appropriately enough.) Szily says he thinks Babel is overpriced, that its shiny black interior would fit a luxury car salon better, and that the portions served are "microscopic" - he compares the size of one dish to a hit of LSD - which he says cannot be tolerated under any circumstances.

Among the dishes on the multi-course Hungarian-themed menu he ordered, he singles out for praise a plate of buffalo tenderloin with chanterelles and beef cheeks, as well as his bowl of halászlé, though he then went on to say the latter was only "almost as good" as what he cooks at home down in the fish soup capital of Baja. Overall, he says that the restaurant isn't bad, but it seems with every dish that they are trying too hard, and that the location on Váci utca is terrible because of the tourist street's bad associations.

Before adding my opinion to the babble, let me first add a little factual background. Szily, myself and our companion all opted for the restaurant's seven-course tasting menus - I and diner #3 chose the "international" menu instead of the Hungarian one - each of which come with a plethora of quality domestic and imported wines. There were so many courses I forgot to get a picture of everything, but starting from the top you can see the piglet kocsonya appetizer with tongue that László had, then a libamáj "torte" (not the fleck of gold leaf), a tomato consommé, a trio of scallops topped with slices of black truffles, a saddle of lamb with spinach, a trio of carrot desserts, and a very "nouvelle" somlói galuska. Interestingly - and I would say nicely - our bill itemized all the different items, including the wines. In total, it came to just over Ft 57,000 for the three of us before gratuity - or roughly €72 per head - including three large bottles of (domestic - thanks!) sparkling water.

So what's my take on Babel? I'd say my opinion lies somewhere in the middle. For sure, some of the dishes we had were remarkably inventive, or just remarkably delicious, and the service throughout was very friendly and professional. But the location is dread-inspiring, the prices somewhat fear-inspiring, and I personally am increasingly less inspired by dishes so aggressively complex in taste and presentation. But then what do I know about restaurants?