One ongoing riddle for local fans of fine Italian dining is what exactly to make of Cantina Taverna, the small below-ground eatery on District V's Széchenyi utca opened a few months back by the owners of the nearby Trattoria Pomo D'Oro. Aside from some confusion over its name - it was originally called Cantina Pomo D'Oro - and some other seemingly key details (the folks over at the Trattoria always seem hard-pressed to remember the phone number or opening hours) it's never been entirely clear what the point of the Cantina is, other than to handle the spillover from its sister restaurant. But after a visit last week we think we have at least one answer to this mystery.

And the answer is: game. If you haven't been, the Cantina has a rather short permanent menu, and a very prominent chalkboard offering the menú del giorno. And on the night we went, three of the nine items being pushed that day, or a full 33%, involved game. So being six, we tried all three. From cheapest to dearest we had tagliatelle al ragù di cinghiale (tagliatelle pasta with wild boar ragout; left, Ft 2,290/roughly €8.40), coniglio all cacciatora (rabbit braised in tomato sauce, top, also Ft 2,290) and cervo in salmi (venison stew, bottom, Ft 3,690). In our opinion, the best of the bunch was the boar, and the weakest the deer, but game is a very specialized taste (one that we don't necessarily have) and you might feel exactly the opposite. Regardless, what we had was certainly better and better priced than the wild things you often find on the menus of Budapest's stuffier Hungarian restaurants, most of which seems to be left over from the hunting season before last. Either way at least we now know what one part of this cozy little place's game plan is.