Budapest is packed with restaurants and bars
Budapest was once the glittering Paris of Central Europe. After throwing off the doldrums of the 20th century, the city is now experiencing a renaissance, with its luxurious Art Nouveau palaces morphing into luxurious hotels, and a gourmet revolution sweeping the city. From expensive restaurants to street stalls, here’s the definitive foodie guide to Budapest.
Discovering Budapest’s Gourmet Scene
Hungarian cuisine is distinctive, with slow-cooked meats, fresh fish, sour cream, onions and paprika dominating the menus, which also highlight delicious cakes and desserts. For anyone with an interest in the city’s food, Budapest’s Liszt Ferenc tér is the place to start (take the metro to Oktogon). This on-trend square is crammed full of cafés and restaurants at a range of price points, and remains consistently busy from breakfast to late-night cocktails.
For a more casual vibe, ruin pubs are a Budapest peculiarity popping up in every abandoned Soviet factory and dilapidated courtyard. Some might be hard-hitting Pest party venues with outrageous décor and themes, but they all serve up decent craft beers and rough local wines against a backdrop of live music and graffiti. Try Bobek Garden on Kazinczy utca in the Jewish Quarter for a relatively reserved atmosphere in a tree-filled garden, where you can snack on plenty of tapas-style dips and pita breads or lángos fried snacks.
Now one of Budapest’s most popular visitor attractions, the monumental glass-and-steel Central Market teems with shoppers buying from hundreds of stalls. Wares include goose and duck foie gras, paprika, chiles, wild mushrooms, smoked meats, giant freshwater fish in glass aquariums and row upon row of pickled cucumber, cauliflower and tomato chutneys. The top floor of the market is given over to cheap and cheerful cafés serving up gulyás soup, főzelék vegetable stew and halászlé fish soup.
Goulash is one of Hungary’s most popular dishes
Yet another great Budapest institution is the coffeehouse; before World War I intellectuals would gather and talk their lives away at several venues around the city. Centrál Kávéház on Károlyi utca is one of the grandest of those that remain, still doing a great espresso with a slice of rétes (apple strudel) or dobos torta sponge cake — and it’s surprisingly affordable.
At the upper end of the scale, Budapest has four Michelin-starred restaurants, with Borkonyha Winekitchen on Sas utca the most reasonably price, aiming for a bistro-style, casual and family-friendly ambience. Try the local Mangalica pork tenderloin or market-fresh fish washed down with a glass of red from the extensive list of mainly Hungarian wines.
Central Market is Budapest’s biggest food-shopping center
Five Dishes to Try in Budapest
Goulash is the definitive dish associated with Budapest; it’s on almost every menu, served up in metal bogrács (pans). When prepared well, gulyás (goulash) is not a stew but rather a thick, robust and filling soup, best served with crusty bread or with rice and sour cream. Its main ingredients are peppers, fried onion, oil, potatoes, carrots and tender pieces of beef. The smoky-sweet taste comes from paprika, which is grown on the rural plains in the south of Hungary. The perfect accompaniment to goulash is a glass of full red from the Etyek wine-growing region.
Főzelék is another popular Hungarian dish, and one that vegetarians will welcome; it translates roughly as ‘creamed vegetables’ and can be made out of a variety of vegetables, from Hungary’s delicious sweet peas to spinach, squash and lentils. It’s often served to kids at school, and it’s also a healthy option for a quick and filling lunch. In addition to the star vegetable, ingredients include onion, oil, sour cream and flour to thicken the sauce. Paprika, dill, pepper or garlic can be added as seasoning, and főzelék is often served topped with fried eggs. Pair the dish with a light Hungarian craft beer.
Fresh farm-grown veg at Central Market in Budapest
Lángos is a superb hangover cure for anyone who has overdone it the night before in one of the city’s ruin pubs. Available throughout the city as a street snack, it’s basically a round, deep-fried flat dough that looks something like a donut, and is made with flour, yeast, salt and water. This calorific treat is often served topped with sour cream, grated cheese or even chopped garlic. Traditionally, lángos was served as breakfast in Hungary’s rural south and goes well with a strong black coffee.
Halászlé is a Hungarian celebratory dish often served on Easter or Christmas, although you’ll find it on menus all over Budapest. It is a tasty soup traditionally made with catfish, carp, perch or pike (or all four) pulled fresh out of the Danube River. It can be made in a variety of ways, but all recipes contain onions, tomatoes, green peppers and paprika, as well as a mixture of fish for taste. Sometimes the soup is served with bread or over pasta, or sour cream is added for a creamy smoothness to the broth. It’s best complemented with a white-wine spritzer (kisfröccs).
Paprika peppers are grown on Hungary’s southern plains
Dobos torta is the tastiest of cakes in a city renowned for its patisserie, and is named after its creator, pastry chef Josef Dobos. Sneakily designed to look like a run-of-the-mill sponge cake, it has seven layers separated by thick chocolate buttercream, and it’s topped with decorative, hard caramel. Made with egg whites, sugar, egg yokes, flour and milk, it is flavored with lemon rind or vanilla beans. Try it with a sweet Tokaji dessert wine.
The Definitive Foodie Guide to Budapest from Budapest Things to Do
