Overheard late the other night at a pub in Buda:
Young Hungarian Guy (with a German-speaking friend, poring over a Budapest map): “Can you recommend a few places downtown for my friend to get good Hungarian food – and not the Mátyás Pince?”
Waiter: “Hmmm….that’s difficult, very difficult. There aren’t many, I can’t think of any besides Kárpátia.”
This exchange was quite sad and disheartening to hear for several reasons. Firstly, because it’s true. This has come up several times recently in conversations that I’ve had with other Budapest residents.
Considering that we are in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, there is a noticeable dearth of Hungarian restaurants, the kind that serve plain, honest, good, reasonably-priced food. Yes, there are quite a few of these restaurants around in Budapest, but shouldn’t there be more in the center of the city? Secondly, it was sad that these two restaurants, which are widely considered tourist traps, were the first to come to mind. So, to all of the restaurateurs and potential restaurateurs out there: Please, rather than gimmicky, over-priced, Tom-George clones, can we please get some more simple Hungarian restaurants in town? I promise, people will come.
Check out “Pozsonyi kisvendéglő” in the Pozsonyi utca (XIII. dist.) near Jászai Mari tér. You’ll find very good traditional hungarian food, reasonable prices, uncomplicated environment. You shoud try the bone marrow, “csülök pékné módra” and the sweet cheese dumplings.
It’s true, that there are by far not enough traditional hungarian restaurants in Budapest, although it isn’t impossible to find, e.g. Náncsi Néni, Bock Bistro. Nevertheless I would appreciate new places in town…
A new Hungarian restaurant is opening soon near Central Kávéház at Erzsébet Hotel (Károlyi Mihály utca 11.-15.) called Chef Gallery. The chef is János Cseh who is a well known chef in Hungary. He previously worked at Sofitel Budapest and Gundel.
This is his first restaurant and hopefully he will suprise us again!
Check out about his philosophy at http://www.modernmagyarkonyha.hu
(website is Hungarian only)
definitely Pozsonyi kisvendeglo (their matzo ball soup is second only to mine), also the Tukory on Hold u., Lugacs on Bajcsy Zs. Ut, and Hunyadi Kisvendeglo on Hunyadi ter (vorosmarty u. side)
I was also going to recommend Pozsonyi. We use to live on that street several years back and used to refer to it as “Cheapos”. It used to be filled with locals and had delicious authentic food with cheap prices. Also, they have house wine by the glass at about 180-200 huf a glass.
The place has since been renovated and has made its way into a few travel guides, but the food is still great and the prices still decent…
Any étkező or kifőzde at lunchtime!
“This exchange was quite sad and disheartening to hear for several reasons. Firstly, because it’s true.”
Sorry but this statement is just false. As was mentioned there is Lugas on Bajcsy Zs. Ut, Greens on Dob ut, Kek Rosza on Wesselnyi, Fritzi Papa on Kiraly (how this was left out of any ‘cheap eats’ section is a major oversight), Trombitas at Moszkva ter (ok, its outside of the downtown but it has the best gulyuas in the city for next to nothing), I could go on….
St. Jupat by Moszkva ter should be on this list. The prices have gone up in recent years but it offers huge portions of good, if not exceptional, traditional Hungarian cuisine. Open very late.
TG has some traditional Hungarian specialities on its offering…
A second for Hunyadi Kisvendeglo. The only problem I have is that when I’m entertaining out-of-towners and I take them there for dinner it’s always near-dead. The hospitality and quality of the food are quite good and the prices are a better value than Pozsonyi. (except for the house wine)
My two favorite places to take foreigners to are: BorLaBor in Veres Pálné utca and Kiskakukk in Pozsonyi út.
In the three categories that matter to me (atmosphere, food, service) both score 10/9,5/10.
They serve what I call Budapest food: Austro-Hungarian/Slovak/Czech dishes with a touch of Jewish.
And please don’t forget about Kéhli in Obuda. I always bring my guests there first to show a good hungarian cuisine.
http://www.kehli.hu
Try Rézkakas at Veress Pálné utca!
St. Jupát? You kidding me? A couple of years back I went in with a friend, who wanted to chug down a beer. I was neither thirsty nor hungry, so I didn’t order anything. The waiter said I must order somehting or we should leave. And this was late night when the place wasn’t even full.
Muzeum Kavehaz, Rezkakas; both tourist/expat business places
and pricey, but excellent renditions of traditional Hungarian
food; Borbirosag behind the Central Market, excellent, not only
tourists, and very good regional dishes as well; Cafe Kor does a
not bad job on the traditional part of its menu and that’s a
substantial section of its offerings; in general, it’s not clear to
me that there is a large market for this kind of menu outside
tourists and expats, so the clientele is likely always to tilt in that
direction; Pozsonyi Kisvendeglo is very good, but not exactly
central; nearby, and closer to the Korut, perhaps Norbi Etkezde
on Tatra; and actually, Vista on Paulay Ede is not bad as tourist
dives go, Wall Street on Andrassy has decent csirke paprikas, the
Gerloczy and the Central Kavehaz have very small but very good
traditional offerings, the Castro has wonderful Hungarian soups
in among the Serb offerings, and the new Reuben incarnation of
Old Amsterdam, on Magyar utca, may be worth watching; for
Jewish/Hungarian dishes, Fulemule and Rozenstein are both not
exactly central but very good…
Never had a bad meal at Bem Söröző on the Bem Rakpart, honestly-priced Hungarian food, and always well-loved by any guests I take there.Also the downstairs restaurant at Borpatika on Bertalan Lajos utca used to be a regular haunt, and that’s still going.
I second Muzeum Etterem (next to Muzeum Kavehaz) on Muzeum Krt close to the Nemzeti Muzeum. Service was impeccable, food was great, there was a bar pianist and even the coat attendant was very nice. We had a memorable evening with my sister. I’d take a foreign guest interested in Hungarian food any time. It was a perfectly pleasant experience (unfortunately could be rarely said of a dining experience in Budapest.)
i like Menza right now and Polo pub (without the smog). there are lot’s of good places in this city, i can imagine that waiter was pretty dumb, Déryné is getting better, i had a fantastic foie gras appetizer overthere, i agree, we need to focus on our traditions, gastronomy, produce etc.
a new casual hungarian restaurant – called “21″ – has just opened
up in the castle by the Vienna Gate on Fortuna Str (#21). A bistro-
like eatery for locals in a neighborhood usually not for locals. It
tries to take an original approach on hungarian cuisine and it seems
people like it.
It is a hungarian restaurant but without the boring tacky hungarian
clichés and without being cool and trendy. The wine list is quite
unique – lot of limited titles, and prices overall are surprisingly low.
Recently I asked Hungarians for some advise on a forum regarding restaurants worthwhile to visit while in Budapest. We’re specifically interested in traditional Hungarian cuisine as anything else we can have any time where we live. The recommended restaurants were almost exclusively pretentious, over priced, so called “modern Hungarian cuisine” restaurants that serve scarce amount of food, although it is arranged artfully. So while locals seem to favour the obviously fashionable, allegedly “gourmet” style Hungarian restaurants, tourists are likely looking for something affordable and authentic. Food for thought for restaurateurs, especially in an economic recession.
How about Alföldi Vendéglő at Kecskeméti utca 4, district V.
I first ate there in 1989, the first place I ate in Budapest. The staff was kind and friendly and put up with my poor attempts at Hungarian. At one time I was fortunate to travel to Budapest at least every 2 years and always made a point to eat here. Each time was as good as the first and everything I tried was good. When I was there it seemed to have more locals than tourists, and some students also. I don’t know what people who live in Budapest think of it. It’s also the first place I had Hungarian pogacsa and paprikalekvar!