contributors: matt ellis
Dec 23 '09
Finally, a Budapest Restaurant Concept to Sink Your Teeth Into
It is one of those ideas that seems so obvious, you can’t believe it hasn’t been done before: take a traditional Hungarian butcher shop, add a few up-market flourishes, and emphasize the pre-prepared food rather than the meat counter....
Oct 27 '09
Cracking the De Fincsi Code at the "Historic" Leonardo Pizzeria
It has been a pleasure, over the years, to watch the short, picturesque District VIII street - Krúdy Gyula, named after the writer known as the "Hungarian Proust" - transform from a rutty, pockmarked side-street, to the macadam, chic...
Oct 16 '09
Sushi Sei: Say What?
On display at the recently opened Sushi Sei Sushi Bar in District VII are enormous, glistening pieces of yellowtail, being cut and rolled expertly into huge hand-rolls. There are also fat udon noodles in a savory made-to-order soup. In...
Sep 30 '09
Back to the Future at the (Red) Star of City Park
There are a lot of reasons to go to Pántlika, which sits behind Petőfi Csarnok in the Városliget. Foremost is that the weather is changing, and the City Park in the Zugló section of Budapest actually gets nicer as...
Sep 17 '09
Budget Budapest: All Hail the New King of Szerb-Burgers
It is pleasing to write - during this period of culinary constriction - that there are a few recently opened budget establishments worth your attention, especially if you like grilled meats. One of them, the Burekkirály (Burek King), on...
Jul 21 '09
Építészpince's Garden is Built to Please
It is hard not to be predisposed to enjoy Építészpince (follow link for contact details and user feedback). What's not to like? The "Architects' Basement," which occupies a part of the headquarters of the Magyar Építész Kamara (Chamber of...
Apr 20 '09
Go Ahead and Get "Trapped" at Silenus
It is easy to approach the Silenus Pub (follow link for contact details) with negative preconceptions, given its location on the outskirts of Budapest's top tourist rip-off district. Okay, Petőfi Sándor utca may be the poor tourist hustler's Váci...
Mar 05 '09
Budapest Finally Gets an African Oasis
I have to admit that I was so excited to discover Savannah Africa, a cavernous new restaurant-café-nightclub near Teréz körút, that I immediately blew my cover as a food reviewer, and thus can't promise that your experience will be...
Jan 08 '09
A Genuine Transylvanian Love Story Turns to Horror in Final Scene
For a city with so many Hungarians originating from Erdély (Transylvania) there are precious few restaurants in Budapest specializing in the hearty fare from that region. And if you have been to Transylvania, you know just how good the...
Dec 30 '08
Thai Game on Teréz Körút
The restaurant now known as Buddha Coffee & Bar (follow link for contact details and user feedback) has been through any number of names and guises over the years. It began way back when selling funny grilled sandwiches called...
Dec 09 '08
Mmmmm. M. is Back
The restaurant known only as M. (follow link for contact details and user feedback) and its tiny District VII storefront made a quiet splash when it opened seven years ago, earning a following with its inventive comfort food, frequently...
Nov 18 '08
Budget Budapest: Tacos Locos
If I owned a restaurant, I am not sure I would put the cans and packages of my ingredients in the street display window. It is sort of like saying, "you could actually make this stuff at home, if...
Sep 03 '08
The Early Bird Gets the Strudel at Rózi Néni Rétesei
When you think of Budapest, great street food does not immediately come to mind. More often that not, you are either stuck with the omnipresent gyros-stand, or, as of late, an American Hot Dog cart, looking like some misbegotten,...
Aug 26 '08
Budget Budapest: Extremely Budget
There is a certain satisfaction to buying food in the same place where it is made. Generally, the fewer steps from its origin to your mouth makes for a fresher and less expensive experience. You can find just this...
Aug 25 '08
Kortyolda and Sör Forrás: Miskolc's Macro-Micro Miracle
My expectations for dining in Miskolc couldn't have been lower, partially due to the prevailing opinion amongst Budapesters that Hungary's third largest city is the arm-pit of the country: something like America's Pittsburg during the '80s. Well, Miskolc may...
Aug 01 '08
Budapest Burgerwar: We May Have a Winner!
Nothin' but the Blues, a one-time hot-spot on Krúdy Gyula in District VIII, was moribund for years before being renovated and re-opened sometime recently under new management. Despite having lived within a block, I had not ventured into the...
Jul 23 '08
Budapest Asian Invasion: Service Charge Burn Nearly Ruins Spicy Fun at HanKukGuan
Here is a technical term we don't get to employ too often when writing about dining in Budapest: fun. The fun factor is dismally low at most local eateries, as the surprises usually come in the unpleasant form of...
Jul 15 '08
Budget Budapest: The Polo Pub Söröző
Every now and again it actually happens that you stumble into a place that reminds you that there are still hidden gems in this city, places you hesitate to publicize because you want to keep them to yourself for...
Jun 04 '08
Budapest Burgerwar: A Perfect Cheapo Burger Opportunity Ruined at Grund
It doesn't take a great restaurant to make a great burger. It doesn't even take a restaurant at all: some of the most lauded State-side burgers can be bought at stands or drive-thrus. It is such a simple equation,...
Jun 02 '08
Time Traveling at the Baross Étterem, Breakfast Included
Food-wise there is no real good argument for the Baross Étterem (follow link for contact details and user feedback). It is your standard Hungarian fare, with no bells and whistles, unless you count those on the departing trains of...
May 27 '08
Feeling Diner: Homesickness Should Never Feel Like This
The first thing I noticed about the Feeling Diner, a new themed restaurant on Király utca in a bustling part of District VII, is the overly-bright sterility of the place. If an expensive private hospital ever wanted a 50’s-themed...
May 13 '08
Budget Budapest: TV Dinners for the Bollywood Set
Indian food being what it is in Budapest (fairly mediocre and unpresuming) many foodies I know prefer to make their own. If you are too busy or lazy, it is still possible to enjoy a good Dal Palak (various...
May 07 '08
Bar Ladino Brings Service With a Smile to Jewish Quarter Dining/Drinking
If you have ever been short-changed, chewed-out by, or deemed beneath the attention of the bar staff at Ellátó and always seem to end a night out at Sark Presszó then a nearby alternative like Bar Ladino is very...
May 06 '08
Good Golly These Gofri Are Yummy!
Food lines in Budapest are pretty much a thing of the past, unless you are talking about the one which regularly snakes down Kossuth utca outside the portal of a window at the Jégbüfé (follow link for contact details,...
Apr 24 '08
Kohinoor: Diamond in the Rough, or Just Another Indo-Pak Étkezde?
What do the Indian restaurants in Budapest have in common with the city's étkezdék, or traditional Hungarian diners? The answer is, of course, not much, except everybody has a favorite they swear by. There seem to be lots of...
Apr 08 '08
I Primi: Where Ravioli and Disappointment Never Sleep
My most recent forays into Pest's budget-priced underworld have all taken place in what is known as the "Palace District." And a royal blend it's been: from the vaguely schizophrenic (Archívum) to the medicinal (Jelen Bisztró) to the studiously...
Mar 19 '08
I Can Tell You Everything About Keret, Except Its Address
The part of downtown Pest known as the Palace District, which covers an indeterminate tangle of streets behind the National Museum, used to be called "Chicago." While it probably got this handle due to the thuggish atmosphere that still...
Mar 13 '08
APA Cuka Mastering the Art of the Budget Meal
Anybody fed matzo ball soup as a child either looks upon the dish as a meal-time chore or a novel treat. About the size of a snowball, and highly throwable, the matzo ball easily doubled as a weapon. I...
Feb 27 '08
Sziasztok Szerbek (II): The Return of the "Serbo-Hungarian" Hangover Killer
Perhaps thanks to the opening last year of the super-cool Corvintető club/disco on the roof of the old Corvin department store, the entire area around Blaha Lujza tér is becoming a bustling hive of ethnic eateries and new bars....
Feb 18 '08
Budget Budapest: Kiadó Kocsma
The first thing you notice about the Kiadó Kocsma és Étterem ("Publisher Pub and Restaurant") is that there are always bicycles stacked thick around the doors, sign posts, anyplace they can be propped and locked. Welcome to little Amsterdam...
Feb 13 '08
Budget Budapest: Archívum Étterem és Kávézó
Though I must have passed Archívum a thousand times on the way to Kálvin tér, there was never a good enough reason to go in: nearby APA Cuka has a more tempting menu for food, and Prága Café, two...
Jan 11 '08
Budget Budapest: Falafel Falafel vs. Hummus Falafel
At one time, Falafel on Paulay Ede utca was a rare safe haven for vegetations looking for a quick bite in Budapest. Primarily a salad bar, they also served homemade soups and fruit shakes. It was very forward-thinking at...
Nov 26 '07
Budget Budapest: Be Happy at Fruccola, or Else
My favorite thing about Fruccola, which opened a few months back on Arany János in District V, is the orange juice squeezer. It is worth going just to watch it in action, robotically juicing orange after orange and spitting...
Nov 16 '07
Deep-Fried Friday (II): Going Mad for Transylvania's "Angry" Donuts
Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvár is a city on the move, as only a town with three names can be. Part of a booming portion of formerly Hungarian-ruled Transylvania, it is the seat of a young but burgeoning wine industry, a hot-spot with...
Nov 15 '07
Czech Crocodile Thrashes Slovak Leopard in Foreign Sandwich Face-Off
There was a time in Budapest when sandwich options were easy, and very home-grown: There were the open-faced canopies served at few select büfés, or the meleg szendvics (which appetizingly translates as "warm sandwich"), an increasingly endangered species usually...
Oct 29 '07
Café Snail Sets Pace for Budget Artisanal Eating in Budapest
What does it say about the Csiga Café that the same three servers who were working there on its opening night almost six years ago were still behind the bar when I ate there after its recent reopening? One...
Oct 11 '07
Budapest Burgerwar: The Pár Perc Cheeseburger
This may be the first instance in the Budapest Burgerwar™ in which the burger has served as a trimming rather than an entrée. Pár Perc Krumpli ("Few Minute Fries") is, after all, a Belgian fry stand that also offers...
Oct 09 '07
Caffe da Carlo, the Crème de la Crema of Budapest Cafés
There is a scene in David Lynch's Mulhulland Drive where an Italian movie producer asks for a linen napkin with his espresso so he can be prepared to spit out the swill an American mogul had taken great pains...
Sep 27 '07
Paris Beats Vienna for "Frozen Fresh" Bagels in Budapest
Where can you get good, locally-baked bagels in Budapest? Easy answer: Nowhere. This is not to say that you can't get a decent bagel in Budapest. You can. But both places I routinely buy bagels from actually import their...
Sep 19 '07
Budapest Burgerwar: The Vista Café Vista Burger
Like the nearby travel agency that shares its name, the Vista Kávéház és Étterem has something for everyone. There is an elegant front room restaurant with a gallery, a comfortable, clubby backroom, and a few computer monitors for those...
Sep 11 '07
Budget Budapest: The Glorious New Age of Old Amsterdam
Don't you love it when things get better? Despite what you may think, this actually happens in the world of Budapest dining. Old Amsterdam was, when I arrived in the city so many years ago, a dingy pub that...
Sep 06 '07
Budapest Burgerwar: The Gerbeaud Pub Burger
The first 20 pages of Arthur Phillips' famous but divisive novel Prague is an ode to lounging at the Gerbeaud Café on tourist hub Vörösmarty Square, and considering the adjoining Gerbeaud Sörház offers a burger, I was hoping to...
Aug 27 '07
Budget Budapest: Feeding the Party Animals at Marxim
When I was a teenager in Chicago, there was a restaurant called Ed Debevic's, which was a 50's-themed burger diner with sock-hopping waitresses, jukeboxes and enough 50's paraphernalia to outfit Grease III. As a kid, I got a subversive...
Aug 08 '07
Kultiplex Serb Grill Shrugs Off Burgerwar Disqualification
In the seasonal round-up of beer gardens, for some reason, Kultiplex often gets left off the list. But not only has Kultiplex long had one of the city’s liveliest summer kerts, in the context of late-night dining, it also...
Jul 30 '07
Budapest Burgerwar: Menza Still Hasn't Ground What I'm Looking For
A glance at the user comments for Menza in the Caboodle directory shows it to be one of those places that has as many detractors as it does fans, not to mention a definite downward trend. When it first...
Jul 27 '07
Relocated Eckermann Brings Breath of Fresh Air to Ráday utca
Ráday utca is a street burgeoning with restaurants, but I can count on the fingers of one hand those I would eat at. There are still fewer that I do eat at. Topping the list is Eckermann Kávéház, the...
Jul 24 '07
Mezcal's Almost Holy Mole Defiled by Service "Mexican Standoff"
Every other Mexican restaurant in Budapest has let me down in one way or another, so I went to Mezcal, a newish mexikói eatery in the up-and-coming ninth district, determined to hate it. I left determined to hate it...
Jul 19 '07
Budapest Burgerwar: The Lazza Pizza Guru "Big Burger"
When I agreed to volunteer for the duty in the ongoing Budapest Burgerwar™, I did so on certain conditions, the first being that I wouldn't have to pay Ft 3,000 for a burger at some high-end joint, even if...
Jul 12 '07
Budget Budapest: The Bangla-Dish on the Bangla Büfé
There's a buzz going around the budget-minded foodies in Budapest, and I don't mean the attendant flies that tend to follow them like pilot fish on a famished shark. Rather, the noise is excited talk of a new hole-in-the-wall...
Jan 04 '07
Accessible Caucasus (III): The Khinkali at Mirázs Suck, But No Problem
It was with some trepidation that I went to Mirázs, the only restaurant in Budapest that bills itself as being Georgian. I had recently visited Georgia, and didn't want my culinary memories of the trip to be spoiled. On...
Dec 20 '06
A Speedy (Negative) Review of Budapest's First Fast-Food Mexican Restaurant
A fast food Mexican restaurant in Budapest seems like a no-brainer. Taquerias successfully became a cheap alternative to franchise restaurants in California, and the chain Fresh Tortilla spread across New York with such muscle that with you'd have thought...
Nov 10 '06
Everyone Head to the Pierogi Party!
Despite the conventional wisdom, if you are from Chicago and no longer live there, it is not pizza that you miss but Polish food. My favorite hometown restaurant, The Busy Bee (now closed), was a family-owned Polish restaurant under the...
Oct 11 '06
Subversive Foreign Food Influences Seen at Nationalist Demonstration
As snapped by contributor Matt Ellis at a recent gathering in Budapest of right-wing anti-government demonstrators, many of whom are convinced that the United States is unfairly supporting the hated Socialists currently running Hungary - and who never miss...
Oct 02 '06
Serious Reservations About Native American-Themed Teahouse
In case you hadn't noticed, there's a tea war brewing in Budapest, and Jókai utca is the front line, with no fewer than five teahouses on the relatively short street that runs from Andrássy to Nyugati tér. One of...
