Oh, the anger! Is there no justice for miserable restaurant critics with an agenda? Apparently there isn’t. After literally dozens of visits, the last couple of which were truly horrendous, we went to popular Buda eatery Remiz so we could write the most acerbic restaurant review in the history of human civilization, and guess what happened? The place had the balls to serve us a decent lunch!

Remiz, named after the tram depot next door, has been a favorite of well-to-do Buda-dwellers since 1992. The place has been hugely popular for years, and the owners just can’t stop enlarging it. Now it has at least five adjoining rooms, plus a huge terrace in summer. As usual in Hungary, popularity instantly meant a huge drop in quality. It’s not just that Remiz hasn’t improved, competition is much stiffer now than it was in the nineties and has left it far far behind. Remíz clearly hasn’t seen the signs of the times, and is still cooking the same OK-ish but dull dishes that seemed incredibly modern in this city ten years ago.

So we went to Remiz with the taste of that horrendous, dry piece of salmon that they served us on our last visit fresh in our minds. Somehow this time they failed to disappoint. Alright, we chose very conservatively from the menu, but that’s not what matters. The important thing is that we had a decent meal.

We started with a matzo ball consommé and a vaguely Indian lentil soup with vegetable chips. The former was below average, but the latter made up for it, and even showed some imagination, something that took us completely by surprise at Remiz. It was made using spices and all! A classic, crispy goose leg followed with the even more classic mashed potatoes and red cabbage (you rarely go wrong with this one), and the one member of the party on a sad, masochistic diet had an almost excellent piece of grilled fogas (pike-perch or zander). Fogas is actually one of the best tasting fishes that can be found in Hungarian waters, and this one was so juicy it could have passed for something from the real, rather than just the Hungarian, sea.

Desserts were given a miss this time, but those are actually almost always good at Remiz, which used to be a sweet-shop decades ago. Go for the profiteroles, if you have a sweet tooth. Remiz is also an excellent people-watching venue, where the famous and not so famous of Buda’s bourgeoisie converge for a Sunday lunch or a midweek dinner. Because a crap lunch is always better when you can marvel at Ferenc Gyurcsány choking on a greasy piece of meat.