One of the most common conversations that seems to take place among Budapesters keen on international cuisine is the seemingly random distribution of different national “kitchens” around the capital. Why are there a half-dozen Indian restaurants in a relatively small area of Pest, but only a few Thai joints in the entire city, and only one Vietnamese, far outside the center? And why no casual French bistro? And why, oh why, so many Belgian restaurants?
It’s bizarre enough that Budapest’s newest Belgian eatery – Philippe a Belga (follow link for contact info and user feedback) – is situated fewer than a dozen blocks across District XIII from the long-running Mosselen Belgian Beer Café. It’s that the owner had a similarly eponymous eatery up in the Danube Bend town of Esztergom until a few years ago. I can only assume that this other restaurant didn’t find enough takers, after which he decided to decamp to the capital, whose sophisticated diners would be more likely to appreciate the wonders of fine Wallonian and Flemish cuisine.
After a few weeks of waffling, two companions and I ended up sitting down for a no-holds-barred delving into the new restaurant’s offerings. One had previously dined chez Philippe, and mostly wanted to talk about the maître d’s unjust demand that he and his date de-overcoat while others in the chilly dining room were allowed to stay bundled up. But we nevertheless tried to keep our minds opened as we opened our belts and gullets.
Things started off well, with a delicious amuse-bouche consisting of some kind of fried fish and salad. Likewise, our starters were really nice. There was a plate of spicy goose liver pâté and fig compote (Ft 3,300/€11), a “crazy salad” with prawn tails and a lip-smacking orange dressing (Ft 2,400, above) and, for me, pressed beef à la Roger Vergé (Ft 2,250). This last item was really something; sort of a deluxe version of disznósajt, though made from cow rather than pig.
Unfortunately, the show that followed failed to live up to the overture. The Ostend-style cod fillet with creamy mushroom, mussel and prawn sauce (Ft 4,250, up top) showed signs of having been fished out of the freezer, and the accompanying mashed potato in a baked crepe thingy struck me as a gimmick on stilts. Meanwhile, the extravagant-sounding Ghent Waterzooi of half a whole roast cockerel from Les Landes with vegetables (4,650, above) was just so-so. I had the honor/obligation of ordering the one-kilo pot of mussels served with home-made pommes frites and mayonnaise (Ft 5,950 with garlic and cream, or Ft 5,800 without). While I can’t complain about the mussels or the sauce, the experience was more or less fatally flawed by the accompanying plate of limp, lifeless friet. Dude, you guys were supposed to have invented these things!
As for the desserts, the only memorable one was a Kriek beer zabaglione with hot honey madeleines (Ft 1,500), and it was mostly memorably because it seemed like a pointless misallocation of an otherwise delicious beer.
All this probably sounds harsher than it was meant to sound, and nothing except the frites and maybe the cod was downright bad. And I have a strong suspicion that if I went again, I’d probably enjoy it more. The problem is that, even if everything had been perfect, I don’t think I’ll be rushing back anytime soon. And this is for the same reason I don’t think I’ll be rushing back to visit Belgium the country anytime soon. No hard feelings, but with so many things to eat, and so many places to go, it’s just not a priority, time or money-wise. On the other hand, given the ongoing lack of casual French bistros, Thai restaurants and other obvious culinary holes still to fill, a better class of Belgian is a nice consolation prize.
Nice to see you back to working on restaurant reviews.
Moesselen also features limp, lifeless frites/friet. Drives me nuts! Where does a person get decent fries in this city, if not at Belgian restaurants?
Nice post… but on an unrelated note, why, oh why, haven’t you guys visited that Brooklyn-style Italian eatery in Szondi utca yet? I cannot wait to have to wait in line just to get inside.
That place deserves all the publicity it can possibly get.
It’s on the list, with some good advance buzz regarding the pizza
ahh, good to hear that
I had a canneloni there last week, it was out of this world.
What’s the name of the Italian restaurant on Szondi?
The problem is you Yanks were brought up on the sort of frites horrors served in McDo”s and cannot appreciate the real thing.
@Julian: Hahahaha – you aren’t totally off the mark there, because when I ate the fries at first I thought to myself “well maybe they are supposed to be cold and limp…” – and then a non-Yank went “yak – what the hell is this” or something to that effect.
It’s Freedom fries, or no fries for me!
I’m gonna go see if I can find the Italian place on Szondi now… is it strictly a sit-down place, or do they do takeout?
@Julian: the McDonald’s french fry actually isn’t all that bad, all things considered.
Nothing doing, Julian. Belgian fries are supposed to be very crisp
after cutting a potato up and double-frying it. Not one Belgian
restaurant in town does it right, yet even the cheapest street
vendors all over Brussels (and all over the Netherlands too, for that
matter) do it perfectly. Here they all seem to come out of a package
from the freezer.
- a Yank who knows proper frites
This just in: New York Pizza, at Szondi 37 near the corner of Rozsa, is an excellent find. I’ve never seen such a perfect Hungarian translation of a Very Good American Thing — in this case, the homestyle Italian eatery. The dude who runs it lived in the States for ten years and he’s gotten every detail right, down to the parmesan shakers on every table. I had the 990ft lunch menu — Caesar salad, baked ziti, and tiramisu — and I’m stuffed. Somebody please start talking this place up on the Chew homepage and get more people in there… I don’t want this place to go under!
Ahh, thanks Sean, for backing me up here.
Wow!!! Italian restaurant serving Mexican food (Caesar Salad)… Is it another “turista csapda”?
Or just a place to be “stuffed” (?!?) after eating?
Fugheddaboudit man, Szondi utca’s New York Pizza ain’t no tourist trap. It’s as authentic as you can get on this continent.
(and by the way, Caesar salad is indeed Italian – depending on how you look at it, as it was first made by an Italian guy who happened to live in Tijuana back in the 1920s. more info here: http://members.cox.net/jjschnebel/caesrsal.html )
@Gladio: No self-respecting turist ripoff artist would set up shop deep in the backstreets of outer District VI. This place looks like a labour of love, and during his time in the States the owner obviously grew to love enormous portions of good, cheap, tasty Italian-American home cookin’. I just hope that Hungarians learn to like it too.
I’d also like to note that they have Buffalo Wings in mild, medium, and hot, complete with celery and blue cheese dipping. And burgers. Somebody please check out the burgers and let me know how they are!
BTW, Caesar Cardini, who’s usually credited with creating the Caesar salad, was Italian-born. Just sayin’.
word to Sean
@SFBP: in lieu of any Belgian restaurants doing fries properly — are there any *other* restaurants in town making an edible fry? For example, that hole-in-the-wall fries-and-sauce joint on Raday used to do them well, but now they’re terrible.
Another place where you’d expect decent fries is Pampas, but sadly, theirs too seem to be of the frozen McCain’s variety.
If you want to make real fries from local potatoes, Hungary has the wrong kind of potatoes. They are good for baking or mashing, but the wrong starch content for a decent fresh-from-scratch frite. (our krumpli are yellow, ferchrissake!)
I read an story in NepSzabi about Phillipe, who said he imports all his beef from Belgium because Hungarian beef is not up to par (very true.) I can’t really imagine him importing spuds, though. Same applies to the BP hamburger problem: good restaurants may import foreign beef, but nobody would think of importing ground beef or tossing that imported sirloin into a grinder.
@Dozsa: Agreed, the variety of krumpli available in the local market may be a serious limitation. But in this case they probably wouldn’t have gotten a bad mention if they had not been lukewarm and limp. On the other hand, given the place’s price point and the fact that the Belgians are the proud fathers of the modern fry, they might think about trucking some special spuds in, if that’s what it takes to make a frite that really sings.
Compare the cost of a truckload of spuds vs. a truckload of prime quality beef. It ain’t gonna happen. Until there is a domestic market for Non-Yellow-Doesn’t-Cook-in-Five-Minutes potatoes, we are not gonna have any good fries for the next couple of decades. The Produce market here is just not developed. The day we get fresh okra and collard greens in winter, come back to me and I’ll concede.
Don’t start me on burger meat. Just don’t. I’m depressed enough as it is.
Tha “Caesar salad” is a Mexican dish, as “spaghetti with meat balls” is an American dish, as “milanoi spaghetti” is an Hungarian dish and all of them are officially Italian (?!?).
AH, AH, AH!!!
Please, gentlemen, let’s talk about French fries.
I would like to know if this a forum or an advertising web site.
Have a nice WE
This might sound like a dumb idea, but — if trucking in potatoes is too pricey, and the Hungarian consumer remains content to eat just one lousy variety of potato, why don’t all the restauranteurs out there who should be serious about fries get together and lease a dozen acres out in the sticks and plant it with Yukon Golds?
@Dozsa: I think you might be a bit too pessimistic about how long it’ll be before we have a choice of potatoes. Look at how much the produce market has changed here in the last few years — I remember back in 2002, there was no rucola to be had anywhere. Now, it’s everywhere.
Sean: People don’t grow potatoes as a hobby in Hungary. I have occasionally seen non-rozsa spuds for sale at Bosznyak ter, but on a commercial level here is no market for them, so it isn’t likely that anybody will sacrifice good land for something because a couple of chow houses want a few white fleshed frites.
As for Arucola… my downstairs neighbors stopped pulling up the Arucola plants in the common garden area as weeds when the corner started selling those plastic containers of Arucola for FT 400.
What is that in the last photo taken?! Looks like a waterfall or shower of some sort next to a decorated chicken lying in a bed of straw?! Pleae explain!
@TT: Hahah – I was *hoping* someone would ask! The thing in back is some kind of device in which mussels are stored and “spritzed” to stay fresh. And in front is some kind of ceramic chicken. Go figure.
>>>>The problem is you Yanks were brought up on the sort of frites horrors served in McDo”s and cannot appreciate the real thing.
julian at April 16, 2009 9:39 AM<<<<<<
I know it is tremendously uncool to stick up for McDonald’s — but McDonald’s fries are fantastic.
Whether you want to admit it or not, Mickey D’s presence in Budapest is a net plus.