Today’s earlier review of a supposedly great Balkan restaurant up in Szentendre has left me feeling really hungry for food from the meat-mad lands just south of Hungary, and pondering this question: with Serbia so close, and so many Serbs living in or passing through Budapest, how come I don’t see more sights here in BP like that in the picture above, which I snapped a few years back while visiting a shadowy Serb friend in the capital city known to many Magyars as “Nándorfehérvár”?
I haven’t been to the supposedly quite fine Jelen Bisztró (follow link to review). But I have been two of Budapest’s better-known Balkan joints on several occasions: Castro (link to directory information) and Kafana/KaФana (review).
Though I don’t have any big complaint about either, whenever I’ve ordered the big “pig-out plate” – above is Castro’s, and below is Kafana’s – I’ve always felt slightly underwhelmed, at least compared to the savage, multi-meat assaults I’ve seen unleashed in Belgrade.
So the question is, are there any other Serbian places in town I may not know about where I might find a brutal Balkan platter-for-two that doesn’t include suspiciously Hungarian-seeming sausages and other indications that it isn’t the real deal? And if not, how do you say “where can I buy some antacid” in Serbian?
No, because as we have discovered with the burgerwar, this country is useless when it comes to anything coming from a cow that doesn’t require long, slow cooking. And yes, I don’t give a damn that they can’t cook foszelek in Serbia either.
Jelen, sadly, has changed their menu. They now feature hot sandwiches and a few salads. Don’t look there for a step in the right direction.
I’ve never eaten there, but what about the Szerb Vendéglő on Nagy Ignac utca, near Nyugati? It doesn’t look like much from the outside.
I’ve been there only once, several years ago, and it was an experience I would not want to relive. But maybe I’m wrong.
I was pretty happy with it – about the same quality as you would expect from similar places, but a good deal cheaper.
From “Serbs of Hungary” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbs_of_Hungary ) :
“The only settlement with an ethnic Serb majority in Hungary is Lórév/Lovra on Csepel Island. This small village of 307 people had 180 Serb inhabitants in 2001 (and 202 people with a Serb “cultural heritage”).”
180 Serbs is enough to support a restaurant, surely…? Who wants to go investigate?
And by the way, over the last couple of years both the Castro’s and the Kaffana’s take on pljeskavica and cevapcici has steadily gone downhill. Nowadays, both places serve something that tastes like little more than unseasoned, dried-out, grilled hamburger meat.
Well, sure, but there are zillions of Vietnamese, and not so many good options in that dept. Not to mention all those Norwegian med students…
Good point – likewise, there’s only one respectable burger to be had in this ‘burg, despite the several hundred North Americans running around town.
Anyhoo, speaking of all things Vietnamese, the Hanoi’s pho bo has been getting better and better lately. And the service is consistently quick now, even for non-Vietnamese patrons. You heard it here first!
@Sean
Unfortunately there are more than 180 Serbians are in Hungary…