After a few years of observant eating at traditional Hungarian restaurants in Budapest, it's hard not to come to a few basic conclusions/rules. Among them are 1) when it comes to value for money, you almost always do better at lunch than dinner; and 2) you almost never do very well at places that place among their most prominent offerings live Gypsy music. Now, I actually am among the seemingly few who actually love a good Gypsy band, assuming they spend most of the night confined to a bandstand, rather than trolling the room for tips from terrified patrons. But what to make of a lunch at a restaurant famous for its Gypsy music when there isn't a band playing, or a discounted lunch menu to make up for it?

I found out the answer a few Fridays back after leaving the office early and heading for a late lunch at the Rézkakas Étterem. Granted, I had a slightly bad feeling about the "brass rooster" even before walking in, as the menus posted outside made it pretty plain that there was not going to be anything in the way of a napi ajánlat. But I took comfort in some of the good things I'd heard about the place, both through the grapevine, and on the user comments for the restaurant over on Caboodle.hu, including this one:

A real nugget this one. Looks like a stiff white tablecloth establishment on entering, but staff are friendly and helpful, food is traditional but with some inventive touches, and the gypsy band actually do not suck. All in all, a delightful place to take out-of-towners, or for an intimate date.

Since it was lunch, the indeed friendly and helpful staffer who greeted us at the door steered us away from the very atmospheric "dinner" dining room towards a smaller "lunch" room (below), which he said is sometimes used at night if the main room fills up. (He also said that the place does in fact fill up most nights, so if you want to be in the same room as the band, or just be assured of a seat, make a reservation.) He then brought us some rather stiff-looking menus that seemed to be in about five languages.

Interestingly, the page of the menu headed "Chef's Choices" consisted mostly of non-Hungarian dishes, including such things as fillet of salmon on a bed of spinach served with green "rockets" (probably arugula) and potatoes, for Ft 4,400 (€17), and Chateaubriand, for Ft 7,900. We picked a pair of soups off this menu, and then turned to the Hungarian pages for our mains and desserts.

Curiously, our "international" soups - libaleves maceszgombóccal (goose soup with matzo dumplings, above, Ft 1,400) and erdei gombaleves grizgaluszkával (wild mushroom soup with wheat grit dumplings, Ft 1,500) - both seemed pretty Hungarian. Anyway, both were also tasty, especially the gombaleves, which is pictured way up top.

Then came the mains: töltött paprika fűszeres paradicsomszószal (stuffed peppers with spicy tomato sauce, third from top) and mangalicaszűzérme dödöllével füstölt marhanyelves laskaraguval (tenderloin of mangalica pork with dödölle, served in an oyster mushroom sauce with smoked beef tongue, above). Both went for Ft 3,900, and both were also quite yummy, especially the latter.

It being a lazy Friday afternoon, we both had dessert: I went for the túrókrémes palacsinta kajzsibarack szósszal (túró-filled crepes with apricot sauce, Ft 1,400) and my companion the Somlói galuska grillázskehelyben, keserű csokoládé öntettel (Somlói galuska in a "nut brittle cup" with bitter chocolate sauce, Ft 1,300). Both were eye-catching updates on very traditional Hungarian standards - note how the palacsinta has been molded into a little timbale - and both were pretty super.

As for drinks, the regular wine list (one of those slightly embarrassing ones that has the labels of the various wines laminated onto pages) had a relatively nice selection, and several decent offerings for less than Ft 5,000, including bottles of Weninger & Gere Villányi Rosé 2006 (Ft 4,400) and the Sebestyén "ICZE" Cuvée 2005 (Ft 4,900). Meanwhile, they are still running with the "Tokaj Off the Beaten Path" promotion from last year, which led my companion to spring for a glass of István Szepsy's amazing dry Furmint (Ft 1,900). I, however, settled for a nice cold beer.

So all in all, even without the restaurant's renowned Gypsy band, it was a rather nice lunch - at least until the bill came. With the addition of an "automatic" service charge of 10%, it all added up to just over Ft 18,000.

To be fair, aside from that 10% szervízdíj, the restaurant doesn't seem to be going out of its way to screw over its customers. For example, while both of the bottles mentioned above retail for around Ft 1,500-Ft 2,000 at area wine shops - indicating a markup of around 200% - at least they are not pulling the trick of starting off the list of reds at Ft 7,900, like some other local restaurants we know.

Still, Ft 18,000 (which now equals well over $100, for all you suffering Americans) seems like a whole lot of money for a relatively standard Hungarian lunch, without any fancy extras - such as a Gypsy band, which, as I said that the beginning, I sure hope sounds as good as I hear.