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Hungary
Hungarian food is simply great. I spent a week there and was really impressed. My favorite is the paprikas! It's a juicy Hungarian dish you shouldn't miss.
hungastro.com/2008/03/21/paprika-chicken-a-traditional-hungarian-chicken-recipe/#more-21
This website is about the real Budapest, and gives very interesting background details about the history, culture and architecture of this beautiful capital which is slowly losing some of its unique features (old presszo bars, neon signs, dingy borozos) as it changes into a modern European metropolis. Written by a Hungarian speaker, the articles featured go behind the facade and into much more detail than a guide book could manage.
It has a wealth of information for people who really love Budapest and want to know the city better.
Check out the recent story on the Trabants - really interesting!
Auguszt Confectionary is a charming little cafe in the downtown of Budapest. They are friendly and polite, it is as if you stepped back in time. Not to mention their excellent sweets, cakes and coffee!
Downtown Budapest, between Ferenciek tere and Astoria metro station.
Kossuth Lajos street 14.-16.
www.augusztcukraszda.hu
Under its dazzling coloured tiled roof and ironwork is a huge array of specialty foods and preserves, liqueurs, caviar, berry jams, and some tourist tat. Wander round the many stalls, and if nothing else, at least buy a colourful string or two of chillies to take home. Take a little care of your possessions, but get stuck in.
Vamhaz korut, right by the river across the green Szabadsag Bridge from Gellert
A tiny cosy traditional patisserie and coffee shop on Buda hill in the castle close to the exuberant neo-gothic Mathias church. After a walk round the Royal Palace or the cobbled streets and quirky aristocrats' houses, indulge in a cherry brandy chocolate and cream coffee, with raspberry torte, and drift back a century or two. Especially nice in winter, and more chance of getting a table.
Szentharomsag Uta, opposite St Mathius church.
www.frommers.com/destinations/budapest/D42331.html
Great restaurant in a good location, not far from Octagon. Food is fantastic, atmosphere great. Two people, two courses, best bottle of wine on the menu; £45 - bargain. It's full of locals too - a good indication.
6th district, Liszt Ferenc ter 2
A reasonably priced and enjoyable restaurant on the Pest side and just south of the popular tourist areas.
Home-brewed beer, which you can have in litre sized glasses if you want (and at about £2.70 a litre at May 2007 exchange rates). Ask the band for your favourite tune.
www.kaltenberg.hu/angol.htm
Kinizsi utca 30-36.
Metro Ferenc Krt.
or short walk from the tram which runs along the banks of the Danube
Several others have quite rightly recommended www.pestiside.hu, but it is temporarily, I hope, on a hiatus.
Chew is the site's specialist food site and is much better for finding good places to eat of any food category.
The European flagship of the Four Seasons chain. Recently renovated to its glorious, Art Nouveau best.
Stunning all the way I'm sure, but I've only been in for tea, as I'm a poor student and not a millionaire, like you. I ate in the bar area, which is beautiful, and the food was good and the service impeccable.
Wish I could afford to stay there. Donations on a post card to...
Roosevelt Tér 5-6. 1051
Budapest
Hungary
Tel: 36 (1) 268-6000
Fax: 36 (1) 268-5000
This was recommended by our hotel receptionist and was brilliant. It is a pub with great food and atmosphere and clearly was the place to be. It gets pretty packed, mind.
Address : VII. Akácfa u. 13.
Tel : (+36-1) 322 7645
Open daily :15:00-04:00
except:
Friday: 15:00-04:30
Saturday: 15:00-04:30
This is an excellent Italian restaurant on Dohany Utca near the main road Rakoczi Ut. The food is of good quality and the portions impressive. Try one of their pizzas, almost impossible to finish. The staff are friendly and the atmosphere good. It's also reasonably priced.
1077 Budapest, Dohany Utca 40. Tel 354-07-88
Best flea market, along with the monthly market in Pecs, in central Europe. Eat, drink and be fascinated.
A very good place to eat, in Buda. Easily reached from Moskva ter by bus 22 or tram 56. The conservatory is particularly pleasant, and the daily specials outstanding. I was there (several times!) in the autumn, but apparently in the season the garden is open and the barbecue going. One of my favourite restaurants in a city of excellent food.
1021 Budapest, Budakeszi street 5
Moszkva tér with Tram #56, and Bus #22 (black).
Telephone: 06-1-275-1396, 06-1-394-1896
Mobile: 06 309 995 131
Fax: 00 36-1-200-3843
E-mail: remiz@remiz.hu
www.remiz.hu
They have an extensive selection of Hungarian, French, Italian, Far-Eastern dishes and wide range of Hungarian and international wines, drinks and cocktails.
Budapest, Nyári Pál u. 9.
+36 1 266 3277
www.avocadorestaurant.hu
Immense indoor market featuring local specialties, exotic fruits and vegetables, etc. The top floor has several inexpensive places to grab a bite, and lots of souvenir stalls.
vamhaz korut 1-3
In the lobby of the Marriott Hotel is an 'all you can eat' dessert bar, which costs roughly £4 per head. The selection is fantastic (they had 3 different kinds of strudel the day we went). However, coffee, tea etc is extra.
· Apaczai Csere Janos u. 4, on the riverbank of the Pest side, just north of the Elizabeth bridge;
· tel: 36 1 266 7000, (or toll free 008 001 1998);
· marriott.com/property/propertypage/BUDHU
The Soul Cafe is a restaurant on Raday Utca, serving superb food in pleasant surroundings. They have everything from soups and sandwiches to mains etc. We had lots of lovely meals in Budapest but this was the best. If this restaurant doesn't tempt you, there are dozens of others on this street, which is near Kalvin Ter metro station.
Raday Utca 11-13;
tel: 217 6986;
www.soulcafe.hu
To be honest, we weren't expecting that much from Hungarian cuisine, and sadly on the whole we weren't disappointed. During a 6-day stay we were often left with a heavy, ponderous and slightly queasy feeling as if we'd just been given some bad news, having consumed what we took to be typical dishes (stews, side orders of pasta, lots of meat and few vegetables). Tellingly, this also sums up the facial expressions of many of our fellow diners at a number of eateries.
Lucky breaks came at two main venues: one being the grill houses set up at the open-air wine festival between Deak Ter and Astoria (duck leg, crispy red cabbage, mixed veg), but most significantly (and reliably, as the wine fest isn't an ongoing feature) the fine restaurant Cafe Kor on Sas Utca. We found the place on our penultimate day and had lunch and dinner in there - two meals at one place in a day is something of a first for us.
The restaurant is billed as offering “quintessential Hungarian dishes with an international twist” and this seems to sum it up nicely. The food we had was uniformly excellent, well-presented but not fussy, substantial where necessary but not overbearing - various salads, freshly- and lightly-cooked vegetables, creamy sauces that weren't cloying and drowning the meat or fish. Service was great too - friendly, attentive and relaxed. (We were juggling space on our table at lunch and they offered us somewhere else to sit before it had even crossed our minds to suggest it).
It's quite pricey by local standards, at least compared with the 1000-2000 HUF prices we'd been paying for mains elsewhere, but still very good value. (The wine ramped up the cost of dinner quite a bit, but it still came to about £45 for two - a shared starter, two mains, desert, wine and coffee. Lunch - two salads and asparagus, plus a couple of glasses of wine - was about £18).
It was very busy at lunch and dinner midweek, and they recommend booking. I'm sure there must be many other sources for great Hungarian food, but do check this place out.
Pest V, Sas utca 17;
tel: 311 0053
An asian/italian/fusion restaurant where I ate possibly the best chocolate cake of my life : chocolate lava cake. The decor is amazing, music just right, and is the type of place that if it opened in Bucharest would be heart-breakingly expensive, but it's in Budapest so it's not.
Andrassy ut, before the Oktagon
The name is - fortunately - nothing to do with János Kádár, Hungary's last Communist leader, the surname Kádár is quite common (and means 'cooper'). Kádár Étkezde (bistro) is a fabulous little lunch venue in the heart of the historic Jewish district in central Pest. It's packed with locals enjoying the non-kosher Jewish home cooking; great matzo ball soup, crisp duck leg with spicy red cabbage or boiled beef with a range of fruit sauces (gooseberry, sour cherry, horseradish) served on a ceramic all-in-one airplane style plates. Uncle Tibi personally greets regulars from the neighbourhood as they pile in and tots up the bill at the end. The walls of the crowded room are crammed with photos (many autographed) of Hungarian actors and athletes as well as other fans of the bistro including Marcello Mastroiani. Sip málna szörp (raspberry cordial) at this non-alcoholic eaterie or help yourself from the old-fashioned soda water bottles on every table. The waitresses are the kindest and most efficient in Budapest, the menu is only in Hungarian, and you'll have to share a table but that's part of the atmosphere. The last time I ate there, the elderly lady sipping soup at my table had numbers tattooed on her arm. This was a sudden, brutal, unexpected reminder of Hungary's shocking history.
Kádár Étkezde
Klauzál tér 9
District VII
Budapest
Open Tues-Sat 11.30-15.30
Tel: (+36 1) 321 3622
To get there: Take tram 4 & 6 to Király utca stop.
Prices: Soup 300 forints, main dishes 500-800 forints, cash only, no CC.
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