As long as we are on the topic of unhappy experiences during last month's Torkos Csütörtök 50% off restaurant promotion day, we might as well tell our own sad "Gluttonous Thursday" story. Before going any further, let us first say that we didn't get Salmonella or any other bug from our dinner on at MO Restaurant & Bar. And we certainly didn't get sick from drinking too much wine. In fact, we didn't drink any wine, which was why our story is so sad.

As you can probably tell from the above pics, the recently-opened MO falls neatly into the category of what might be called a Tom-George "clone," meaning a sleekly-designed space with fancy-sounding food that aims to cater to Budapest's impervious-to-recession economic elite, as well as well-heeled (or careless) foreigners.

While there's no great scandal there - it's a free country! - on a day like Torkos Csütörtök you can't help but notice how frigging expensive places like this can be - even when compared to similarly sleek spots in much flashier cities around the world - and really get the feeling that it simply isn't worth it.

Lets do the food first. Since it was 50% off day, our boros malackaraj házi knédlivel, lilakáposztával (loin of suckling pig with bread dumplings and purple cabbage, up top) came in at Ft 1,895 (€7.15) after the "rebate," and the more exotic vajhal osztrigaszószos pappardellével (butterfish with oyster sauce pappardell) was Ft 3,890 Ft 1,945. Not bad - until you consider that on any other day, the price is likely to be double, and that the food itself was merely so-so. We also weren't particular happy that the restaurant, which has its normal menu lovingly posted on big boards out on the street, did a bit of a "bait-and-switch" in the form of a "special" menu for Torkos Csütörtök.

Meanwhile, the service was neither efficient nor particular gracious, and we waited upwards of 20 minutes just to have our drink order taken while a pair of staffers flirted by the door. Boo.

But none of this bothered us as much as the wine list, which struck us as no less than extortionate. The cheapest red on the card that night was a Gere Portugieser for Ft 7,900, or €30. (Or $45, for you shell-shocked suckers still holding USD.) And it gets worse, because that same wine, if perhaps of a different vintage, currently goes for a grand total of Ft 1,530 a few meters down Hercegprímás utca at the Bortársaság (Budapest Wine Society). Which is why we ordered beer, ate up, got our (thankfully) reduced bill, and bolted - and won't be coming back, unless they make every day Torkos Csütörtök, at least for the wine.