Hungarian food & Restaurants
Budapest (and Hungary) has made considerable improvements in the past couple of years regarding its fine dining restaurants and eating out in general. Prague received its first Michelin star in 2008, and back then, everyone in Hungary was thinking that there was no way that in the foreseeable future Budapest could catch up. And here we are in 2011, despite all the economic troubles, with our second Michelin star. (The two restaurants in question are Costes and Onyx.)
And all this thanks to a fine dining movement, which has started less than a decade ago, led by ambitious chefs, entrepreneurs, bloggers, and reviewers, who have been educating the Hungarian public tirelessly about curiosity, creativity, and high standards for years, reinventing classic Hungarian dishes from around the turn of the century. Meanwhile, they have pulled the rest of the food industry along, which is why now you will eat better in Budapest than ten, five, or even three years ago.
Apart from high-end restaurants, there are a number of places where you can expect excellent food and a great atmosphere for slightly less money. Your hosts will take you out when you come, but these are places we can recommend if you decide to, say, come back here for a second helping.
Apart from high-end restaurants, there are a number of places where you can expect excellent food and a great atmosphere for slightly less money. Your hosts will take you out when you come, but these are places we can recommend if you decide to, say, come back here for a second helping.
For good, modernized Hungarian food, check out Bock Bistro, 21 a Magyar Vendéglő, Aranyszarvas, or Csalogány 26. These kitchens are run by chefs who are working hard to preserve and reinvent Hungarian cuisine. Walking around Budapest you will see a lot of restaurants with Gulash soup and strudel on the menu. All we can say is: as a general rule, avoid restaurants in front of which somebody is standing outside, trying to lure you in.
For a good Wiener schnitzel: Hungarians, maybe as a result of decades of scarcity, have acquired the bad habit of breading and frying everything - meat, mushrooms, cheese, cauliflowers, broccoli... you name it. Sometimes it is not even indicated on the menu that "stuffed mushrooms" will come in breadcrumbs. But a crunchy Wiener schnitzel can also be an experience that you will never forget, if it's done well. According to Dining Guide, a Hungarian food review site, the top four places to eat schnitzel, or "rántott hús" are: 67 (in Székesfehérvár) Vár a speiz, Bock Bistro and, funnily, Rosenstein, a restaurant dedicated to Jewish home cooking.
If you'd like to experience what it would be like to eat in someone's home as a guest, go to M étterem. It is a small place, usually full of locals and French expats, where the owner/chef, who speaks fluent French and good English, is almost always around. The menu changes daily, with dishes that are inspired by French and Hungarian culinary traditions equally.
For a nice Italian dish, go to Trattoria Pomo D'oro for a very good pizza or pasta. (It also has a separate ice-cream shop on the opposite side of the street.) It is also a beautiful venue in a small street leading up to the Danube. Osteria Fausto's, facing the Synagogue is also a place that we can highly recommend.
If you wonder what Hungarian-Jewish cuisine is like, with items on the menu (next to lots of goose dishes) like pork cutlet marinated in milk and garlic, you should go to Fülemüle or, for a more traditional, but otherwise hard-core version, Rosenstein.
If you miss a good American meal, Ring Cafe has the best hamburgers in town, while in Pastrami, among many other items, you can get an excellent (and the only) Reuben sandwich in Budapest.
For a post in the New York Times magazine about where Hollywood stars like to eat while in Budapest, click here. For more about the Hungarian culinary scene, see chew.hu