How About Some Czech, Mate?

Among the many reasons why I am a Very Special Person is that (drumroll) I actually like Czech food. No, I'm not making a joke at the expense of Central Europe's most scoffed-at cuisine. Maybe it's because I lived in the Czech Republic long enough (13 months) to get familiar with the local grub, yet not long enough for this familiarity to breed contempt, but when I hear the words dobrou chu' (that's čeština for jó étvágyat) I am still drawn back, like Pavlov's slobbering dog, to the humble hospody I used to frequent near my old office on náměstí I. P. Pavlova. So it was without a single Czech food joke in my head that I headed down for a bit of pivo and jídla at the Ferdinand Monarchia Cseh Sörház, which a few weeks ago became the latest attempt to bring the best of the Czech beerhall and kitchen to Budapest.

Finally, a Budapest Restaurant Concept to Sink Your Teeth Into

It is one of those ideas that seems so obvious, you can’t believe it hasn’t been done before: take a traditional Hungarian butcher shop, add a few up-market flourishes, and emphasize the pre-prepared food rather than the meat counter. Half the customers in most butchers are eating a quick, inexpensive sausage or pork knuckle anyway, so why not cater to their comfort? That is exactly what the very centrally located Belvárosi Disznótoros (loosely translated as the Inner-City Pig Platter) does, and does very well.

Most! a Most Welcome Addition to the Budapest Restaurant Scene

According to one of my colleagues over at the drink-focused Pestiside.hu, the recently-opened Most! is a most welcome addition to the Budapest bar scene. Good news! And it gets better, because in my view it's an equally welcome addition to the Budapest restaurant scene.

Let me start by saying that I live quite nearby the place, and had long had hoped that the space it occupies - which I assume was originally some sort of garage or workshop - would eventually fall into the hands of someone able to capitalize on its numerous charms. For years it hosted a rather mediocre Mediterranean eatery/performance space called Articsóka, which, ironically enough, closed for good only after finally seeming to get it all right. Happily, what we have now is something that almost perfectly matches location with menu, offering diners a selection of interesting international and local dishes at prices suited to the modern bohemian. In fact, speaking of Bohemia, what the place really reminds me of is some of the better boho joints I used to go to in Prague back in the 90s, when that city had the regional monopoly on (non-annoying) hipster restaurants. Except with better food, because it's not being run by Czechs. But I digress.

So all that said, let's just take a quick look at some of what's on offer.

Cracking the De Fincsi Code at the "Historic" Leonardo Pizzeria

It has been a pleasure, over the years, to watch the short, picturesque District VIII street - Krúdy Gyula, named after the writer known as the "Hungarian Proust" - transform from a rutty, pockmarked side-street, to the macadam, chic pedestrian street is today. Complete with an ultra-trendy art gallery, a hipster vintage clothing store, and a boutique hotel, it has also seen the opening of any number of new restaurants, both high and low end. But anchoring the dining scene - probably for 20 years now - is the cellar pizza parlor Leonardo. After flirting about with any number of newer pizzerias in Budapest (including Il Terzo Cerchio, Randevú, and New York Pizza) I decided to return to my old favorite, to see how it is holding up.

Back to the Future at the (Red) Star of City Park

There are a lot of reasons to go to Pántlika, which sits behind Petőfi Csarnok in the Városliget. Foremost is that the weather is changing, and the City Park in the Zugló section of Budapest actually gets nicer as the leaves begin to turn. Pántlika has a spacious outdoor beer garden, not far from Széchenyi baths, but far away enough from most of the bustle around the zoo and the amusement park that it does not get the tourist traffic. But tourists shouldn’t overlook it, for Pántlika is a small, modest piece of history itself.

Budget Budapest: All Hail the New King of Szerb-Burgers

It is pleasing to write - during this period of culinary constriction - that there are a few recently opened budget establishments worth your attention, especially if you like grilled meats. One of them, the Burekkirály (Burek King), on the hide-in-plain-sight District VI side-street Weiner Leó, serves the best čevapčići in Budapest. This sounds like high praise, but despite our proximity to the Balkans, and the sizable Serbian immigrant population in Hungary, there are but a few places to get csevap and pljeskavica. I have a Serbian friend who claims that getting descent csevap in Budapest is now-and-forever impossible. But, because I like to dream big, I will say it is imminently possible, and Serbian-owned Burekkirály has made that dream come true.

Special Lunch Specials: World's Most Tender Chicken Versus World's Most Elegant Főzelek @ Csalogány 26

Our last check-in with Csalogány 26 (follow link for contact details and user feedback) occurred after someone had trashed the restaurant's service at lunch. Back then we found the service just fine, and the specials on offer just delicious. And on a more recent visit the service was still fine, and the lunch specials even better.

Special Lunch Specials: Salad with Shrimp and Sea Bass with Veggies, Ft 1,200 @ Central Kávéház

We're back! I'd apologize for the lack of posting, but will be dishing out enough juicy tidbits over the coming days to more than make up for it. While there are some longer, multi-visit reviews and other items pending, today we're going to introduce a new feature focusing on very short bites of very tasty lunch specials we've had around Budapest.

Exhibit "A" is this amazing two-course lunch menu that I and a companion both scored last week at the most likely of places: The Central Kávéház (follow link for contact details and user feedback). While the Central has always struck me as a wonderfully atmospheric place with decent traditional Hungarian food, I had long ago written it off as too tourist-friendly to be capable of churning out the sort of wonderfully inventive budget lunch menus that many higher-end local restaurants are now offering. How wrong was I?

Is There Anything Closer to a New York Pizza Parlor in Budapest Than This? Fuhgeddaboudit!

Even though I grew up going to family events with people who could have walked straight off the set of the Godfather - Grandma D'Amato warming the escarole pie on the radiator while Uncle Rocky teased Cousin Johnny about his hand-painted necktie - I keep learning new things about Italian food every day. In fact, it wasn't until my early 30s that I made the stunning discovery that in Italy and most of the rest of the world outside of New York and New Jersey, pizzas are generally served in single portion sizes, and eaten sitting down, in restaurants. With a fork and knife. Crazy!

So what does an East Coast Goombah like me consider a "genuine" pizza parlor? Well, first of all, it doesn't always mean pizza. Among the staples at most pizza joints in my ancestral grazing lands back in NYC and New Jersey are the sandwiches known variously as "heroes," "hoagies" or "subs" (from "submarine" rather than "subway"), which often come piping hot and stuffed with Italian-style sausages and peppers, meatballs and tomato sauce, or a breaded chicken breast covered in melted cheese and sauce (the critical "chicken parm sub"). You also see things like watery baked ziti and Greek salads made from iceberg lettuce, especially when the Italians running the places are Greeks who have never been to Greece. Remember: It's America.

The pizzas themselves usually have a much thicker and softer crust than their continental cousins, and upon this crust roughly twice as much tomato sauce and cheese is lovingly ladled and scattered. They are also larger, so that the slices can be sold individually and, thanks to that soft crust, folded over and eaten standing up, with or without the aid of a paper plate. Indeed, when one New Yorker asks another if they'd like to go get a pizza - which is actually called a "pie" - they will often just say something like Hey, Joey, I'm starvin' here - let's go get a slice. And despite the American mania for individual choice, you'll generally be offered a smaller array of topping options, which in New York usually includes shakers of red pepper flakes and grated cheese.

All this may sound like unspeakable savagery to you, but for an ignorant Jersey Dago punk like me it's heaven, and the lack of it in Budapest has always made my life here slightly hellish. Hence my intense interest in the recently-opened New York Pizza on District VI's Szondi utca, which is run by a cheerful guy named Szabolcs, pictured above in the iconic "I ♥ New York" T-shirt. Not only does Szabolcs seem to really love New York, he lived there for years, part of the time working in the local pie and slice trade. And I know he's not lying, because when I made my first order he said you got it, all in one word, just like a normal person.

Rich Americans, Poor Hungarians Brought Together By Love of Authenticity, Exclusivity

In these days of international economic crisis and discord, it's always nice to hear stories that illustrate how food can build bridges between peoples. This morning, several readers sent over a link to this story in today's New York Times about the wonders of the originally Hungarian breed of pig known here as Mangalica (and there as "Mangalitsa"). While datelined in the eastern Hungarian village of Emőd-Istvánmajor, most of the story concerns the enthusiasm for Mangalica/Mangalitsa of chefs and food industry executives catering to the most rarefied segment of American society. Among those heralding the "authentic"-tasting pork, which is still rare in America, is the French Laundry, a California restaurant famous for making prospective patrons call two months ahead at exactly 10:00 a.m. if they want to make a reservation, even though a meal for one can easily cost $300.

Meanwhile, just a few kilometers up the road from Emőd-Istvánmajor in the city of Miskolc, a similar love of the authentic is on display. According to boon.hu, Miskolc yesterday inaugurated its first so-called szociális bolt ("social store"). The store sells only Hungarian-made products at a deep discount, allowing customers to "buy locally" while enjoying savings of up to 50%, which really helps when you are trying to live on $300 a month, as many people in hardscrabble East Hungary have to.

"Unlike workaday pork Mangalitsa is marbled," the Times quotes the executive sous-chef of the French Laundry as saying. "[It's] softer and creamier, akin to Wagyu beef."

The szocbolt network is the brainchild of the National Alliance of Hungarian Farmers Societies and Co-ops (MAGOSZ), which has made headlines in recent years due to its militant opposition to the increasing globalization of the food industry, including sieges of foreign-owned fruit processing factories and the dumping of produce in the parking lots of multinational food retailers. The demonstrations struck a chord with many Hungarians, and MAGOSZ's hatred of foreign food is apparently shared by Hungarian Agriculture Minister József Gráf, who has said that only people who "like risk" should buy foreign food products.

Budapest Finally Gets an African Oasis

I have to admit that I was so excited to discover Savannah Africa, a cavernous new restaurant-café-nightclub near Teréz körút, that I immediately blew my cover as a food reviewer, and thus can't promise that your experience will be as friendly as mine. It is the mission of Savannah, and owner Ekiudoko O. Frank, a former professional footballer from Nigeria, to showcase the best dishes of Western African nations, with an eye to include food from all over Africa. Currently on the menu are samples of Senegalese, Tanzanian, Nigerian, Namibian and Ivorian cuisine.

A Genuine Transylvanian Love Story Turns to Horror in Final Scene

For a city with so many Hungarians originating from Erdély (Transylvania) there are precious few restaurants in Budapest specializing in the hearty fare from that region. And if you have been to Transylvania, you know just how good the cuisine is, and how hospitable the local population can be to visitors. One of my favorite meals of all time was a simple bowl of home-made puliszka (a cornmeal porridge much like polenta) with milk we had just squeezed from the barnyard cow, served to us by a family that had literally invited us in from the street. Not long ago, my colleague had a fairly underwhelming experience at another local Transylvanian eatery, so I was very pleased to happen upon the Székelykapu Étterem (follow link for contact details and user feedback), with its comfortable room, and super menu filled with Transylvanian favorites.

The Babel About Budapest (I): Is the Hungarian Capital Really the Cheapest in Europe?

Posting has recently been light, in part because we've felt a little too poor to go out. But maybe we shouldn't be! According to this recent post on cafebabel.com - which bills itself as "The European Magazine" - a night out in Budapest came out cheapest among 12 cities visited by 12 "cafebabel.com local teams," each of which enjoyed a movie, a dinner, a drink and a ride home on public transport:

[The] Babelcity in which you get the most for your money is Budapest. Éva, Judit and Veronika spend a night in the heart of the town at the ridiculously low sum of 7.34 euros per person.

The article did not say where Éva, Judit and Veronika had dinner. Which is unfortunate, because given the math indicated by their team's "victory," it must have been some kind of crazy bargain indeed. Just consider that €7.34 equals something just under Ft 2,000, and that pretty much the cheapest movie ticket in Budapest is Ft 600. Subtract at least Ft 200 each for that ride home on public transport and the drink, and you are left with at most Ft 1,000 for dinner - in the "heart" of Budapest, no less. So mark us down as dubious. Or perhaps "McDubious"…

Mmmmm. M. is Back

The restaurant known only as M. (follow link for contact details and user feedback) and its tiny District VII storefront made a quiet splash when it opened seven years ago, earning a following with its inventive comfort food, frequently changing menu, and complete lack of pretense. People who liked M., really liked M., and eventually it found its way onto the Chew "Top 33" list of fine dining spots. Then it suddenly fell from grace with foodies in the know, and appeared all but closed for some time. There are reasons for all this, which I will get into later, but for now, I am happy to report that M. is back in a big, capital letter way.

Budget Budapest: Tacos Locos

If I owned a restaurant, I am not sure I would put the cans and packages of my ingredients in the street display window. It is sort of like saying, "you could actually make this stuff at home, if you weren't so lazy." But Tacos Locos ("Crazy Tacos") puts their well-traveled refried beans, hot peppers, and mixes on display not only outside, but inside as well. I guess it is supposed to be some sort of sign of authenticity. Tacos Locos is the spiffed-up version of the former Speedy Burrito, which was dealt a death-knell once Arriba opened up a few hundred meters down the körút. (You can read reviews of the old joint here and here.)

I admire how Tacos Locos has decided to compete with Arriba, by not competing at all. You won't find a burrito on the otherwise comprehensive Tex-Mex menu. Wise choice, as Arriba has struck upon a winning formula there. As for how close a second place Tacos Locos comes in, read on.