Holy smokes sorry for leaving you waiting so long for another post, like some sort of Hungarian restaurant where the waiters stand around talking to each other while your overcooked goose sits in the kitchen getting cold. Anyway, the important thing is that we are back in business - unlike some others!

As you may recall, back in July of last year we published a review of high-end Italian eatery Donatella's Kitchen with an unusual editor's note disclosing a longstanding grudge on the part of this site's chief editor against one of the owners of the restaurant. (Peter Freed, a local businessman perhaps best known as the man behind the awful "Best of Budapest" PR machine.) As it turned out, the review was pretty positive, even though at least one of us here at Chew central had hoped it would have been a chewing-out. But apparently a good review - and the power of the "Best of Budapest" brand - wasn't enough to save Donatella's from recently shutting down.

It's not just our unapologetic schadenfreude that makes this particular restaurant-closing story noteworthy. The whole thing is weird. First of all, it was only last spring that Donatella's had moved from its still-newish location on Király utca in District VII to the downstairs dining area of the New York Kávéház in the (Italian-owned) New York Palace hotel.

Weirder still, following Donatella's move to the New York, the old space on Király utca played host to perhaps the fastest restaurant opening and closing we've ever witnessed, of a bizarre American-themed joint called "States." In fact, it was so fast we're not even sure the thing ever got around to serving its first burger before being replaced by a new branch of expat-fattening all-you-can-eat chain Trófea Grill (second from top).

We stopped by the New York the other day to try to see if there was anything beyond normal restaurant woes behind the demise of Donatella's. While the answer to that question seems to be no, we did find out that the downstairs space (top) it had occupied is now being used only for special events. Meanwhile, the handbag shop that had weirdly occupied a portion of the café area after the hotel emerged from its long and flashy renovation has been replaced by something called the "New York Salon Fine Dining Restaurant" (above).

A quick perusal of the oversized menu propped up on an easel outside the glass doors did not leave us wanting to venture in for a taste. Split into "hagyomány/tradition" and "evolúció/evolution" it mostly seems to consist of overpriced Hungarian standards, and overpriced updates of Hungarian standards. (From the traditional side comes "Stuffed baby chicken à la Gödöllő with rhubarb compote" and from the new "fish roll with dill, caramelized porcini, shrimp tatar and parsleyed potato roulade," both for the dubious price of Ft 5,900/€22.25) But note that this time, it's nothing personal. Back with more in a bit.