One Night in Budapest

[Hallie]

Right. We've got one night in Budapest this weekend and want to have a truly memorable Hungarian meal at a top-rated restaurant. I'm trying to avoid Gundel as I've been told its a tourist trap.

So, what is the best restaurant in Budapest? Money will not be an obstacle.

[Gifted Gourmet]

This list has the very finest of Budapest restaurants ... .. check out links which interest you most ... when I was in Budapest, I enjoyed Gundel but many of these excellent restaurants would be next on my personal "must try" places to dine ...

Rivalda's menu has a number of excellent dishes ...

Fortuna is positively elegant ...Fortuna's menu and wine list are long and enticing

Cafe Pierrot has a menu here but in Hungarian ...

The Dominican

Robinson Restaurant

Edited September 5, 2006 by Gifted Gourmet (log)

[John Talbott]

Evan Rail in the NYT Sunday wrote an article on "36 hours in Budapest" that mentions Dio, Csalogany 26 + Callas Cafe, the latter for a hearty breakfast.

[zaelic]

Bock Bisztro is probably the ruling choice among many of my friends. Excellent wine selection (it is the Budapest outpost of the famous Bock winery) and =rare for Budapest - high quality choice of ingredients for a Hungarian menu. Gundel... its been a joke for years.

A more updated list of non-tourist-trap restaurants can be found at www.chew.hu.

Also, mention of that NY Times article had me and my girlfriend - we both do travel and food writing - desparately trying to prevent our heads from exploding. The Dio, for example... a fine old resto trying something "new and radical" to survive on a street of incredibly expensive and very trendy bad restaurants. When you can find ginger home fries or anything with cilantro on a Hungarian menu it does not mean the chef is aiming at a creative fusion. It simply means he worked for a half year in a German hotel. "Asian fusion" means a handful of ginger and a few sprigs of cilantro bought down at the Asian specialty shop at Vamhaz market in the moring...

The Times wrote a story about two years ago on fusion cuisne in Budapest which had us locals rolling in laughter - it was essentially a listing of some of the worst and most expensive eateries on the most expensive boulevard (Andrassy) all of whom "fused" ginger and cilantro into chicken breast salads to get the per plate price up. The simple fact is that they also source their meat and veg from the same markets that the school cafeterias do.

Edited August 15, 2007 by zaelic (log)

[Man]

How nice, I came here to ask for restaurants in Budapests (which I'll visit in a week) and found this thread all ready...

Zaelic, does Alabardos fall in the tourist trap category too?

Thanks,

man