Followers of our (soon to be re-started) Budapest Burgerwar™ will know that we are giant fans of the Gresham Kávéház‘s Ft 4,200 hamburger. Yes, €16.50 is a heavy price to pay for a burger, but since it’s hard to get even a passable beef patty in this town, paying a lot for a world-beating example doesn’t seem so crazy. The same, however, cannot be said for two other heart-unfriendly dishes that are easy as pie to find in Hungary, though seldom at the heart-attack prices asked at the “coffeehouse” of Hungary’s most deluxe hotel.
Spurred by our enjoyment of the Gresham’s luxury take on America’s favorite non-luxury dish, last week we decided to sample the restaurant’s luxury take on two of Hungary’s favorite non-luxury dishes: Hortobágyi palacsinta (Hortobágyi-style meat-pancake, top) and Bécsi szelet, a.k.a. Wiener schnitzel.
Now, we’re not total fools, so we knew that we were taking a risk by spending Ft 3,300 (€13) for a starter portion of the sort of sauce-napped meat-roll-up you usually pay well less than Ft 1,000 for in Hungary. Same for the Ft 4,800 we were about to part with for an order of what is commonly known in Hungary as Rántott szelet, or “fried slice.”
But while we may not be total fools, we’re still fools, because the fact is, there’s really nothing you can do to either of these Magyar standards to make them worth the price of an entire meal at most upscale local restaurants. Or at least, there was nothing the whizzes in the Gresham’s kitchen did that could ever justify this kind of price. In fact, the fried slice, while no doubt made from the finest tortured veal, was in our opinion notably inferior to the much cheaper (and much much larger) borjú bécsiszelet served down the street at Café Kör. The flesh-crêpe was more interesting, but still mostly memorable for its price.
The point isn’t that people shouldn’t rule out lavish variations on relatively simple fare. But charging a combined Ft 10,000 (with tip and a glass of fizzy water) for a pair of only slightly souped-up versions of Hungarian standards you might still be able to get for Ft 1000 in lunch combo form strikes us as only slightly less foolish that us. So next time we’ll stick with something really fancy, like that burger and fries.
