Rosé Restaurant: This was the first restaurant we went to in Budapest: it had good reviews and Hungarian food, which is what we sought. The place was dark and reminded me a bit of a hunting lodge. I ordered peppered grilled chicken with steak fries. The fries were very well-spiced, and the portion size was huge. B got chicken with parmesan and parsley new potatoes. Overall, decent, but not life-changing.
Klassz Restaurant: This restaurant is known more for its drinks than its food, but we didn’t know that when we went. I thought that the cold fruit soup sounded interesting, especially given how much I had liked a cold, strawberry soup near a local Strawberry Festival. However, unlike the Wisconsin one, which was mixed with cucumber and only a bit sweet, this one was more of a dessert than a soup! It even came with a large, white scoop in it, which I initially thought was an unusual type of sour cream, but turned out to be ice cream! Yes, my appetizer was a scoop of French vanilla ice cream swimming in a diluted fruit syrup. Who wants anything afterthat? Luckily, I had ordered bruschetta as my main course, figuring I’d see how it compared to the Italian version. It wasn’t quite as peppery as advertised, sadly, but it’s hard to disappoint me with spiced tomatoes. My cousin and her boyfriend split the grilled cheese appetizer, which tasted like a slightly less-strong Haloumi. Then, she had the risotto, and he ate the lamb. B ordered stuffed cabbage. The others were too stuffed for dessert, and I had had mine already, so we departed. Pretty decent place, with a fairly literal menu.
Vintage Garden:We popped in here for a late lunch and were initially concerned, because it seemed fancy. However, it tuned out to be the decorations more than the patrons. A number of people there had big, fancy drinks in mason jars with big flowers in them, but we got hot tea instead. Along the same theme of recuperating from heavy Hungarian food, I ordered the mixed salad, and B got the Caesar salad. Both were of good quality and fresh.
Duna Park: We came here on our host’s recommendation, and got the sweets as take-away to get a discount. The inside was pretty fancy though, so you can play dress-up here. It was also the place where I heard the most Russian in Budapest. We split a Napoleon cream and a dobos torte and ate them in the park next-door. The former was a big blob of Napoleon cream, which felt like it needed something; that said, we had been warned about its layerlessness. The latter was pretty much a white cake with chocolate frosting layers, and a layer of hardened sugar on top. Despite the reviews, I could have skipped this place entirely.
Costes Restaurant: This was our splurge for the trip, and for the year, and for anything else I can assign to it. (Anniversary dinner, maybe? That’s this month – and next year too!) It’s a Michelin-star restaurant that goes all out: the waiters wear white gloves, they give you a completely fresh, rolled-up napkin when you leave the table, and no matter what you’re wearing, you feel under-dressed. A more in-depth pictorial demonstration of our meal is here.
Menza: This restaurant was recommended by my cousin’s friend who suggested Costes, so we went on our last night together. B ordered goulash, which was more of a beef broth soup than the turkey stew one I had in Krakow. Then, he got the special: a potato casserole of sorts, with new potatoes in a white, creamy sauce and slices of cooked ham on top. My cousin had that too, and she and her boyfriend split a small pickled veggie sampler. (I can’t recall what else he ordered.) I ordered a small plate of pickled cabbage, which came stuffed into a spicy light green-colored bell pepper. It still had many of its seeds inside, so it was very spicy; even I had to resort to pairing it with bread to calm my taste buds. I also got an appetizer as a main dish: a cheese soufflé, surrounded by a lettuce and grape salad. The cheese was much sweeter than I expected, resembling Eastern European cottage cheese, and the lettuce in the salad had a dressing on them that reminded me of sugar water! This is also where we tried palinka, the vodka-like drink that Hungarians claim is a digestive. It was very strong and came in plum, apricot, and a few other flavors.
Bordo Bisztro: We were ravenous, so we devoured our chicken dishes. Mine was Moroccan chicken on skewers, with a mini cucumber salad and usually-moist pita slices. B had parmesan chicken with farfelle pasta, and our host had paprikash chicken. The local pinot noir I tried was a little lighter than anticipated, but B liked his local beer. This place was originally a regular restaurant, but they opened a ‘patio’ in the former parking lot next door, which was great. It had a German beer garden feel to it, likely from the park-style benches and umbrellas – though the ground was covered in white pebbles, which I haven’t seen in Germany.
Kürtőskalács Stand: We visited this little stand at the Budapest Keleti railroad station, to finally try the renowned Hungarian treat. We shared a cinnamon-covered bread: the top was pretty good, but the bottom was too burnt for my taste. It’s worth trying this specialty, though I’d probably split it with a few people to keep insulin from spiking like crazy.
This was the first restaurant we went to in Budapest: it had good reviews and Hungarian food, which is what we sought. The place was dark and reminded me a bit of a hunting lodge. I ordered peppered grilled chicken with steak fries. The fries were very well-spiced, and the portion size was huge. B got chicken with parmesan and parsley new potatoes. Overall, decent, but not life-changing.
was our splurge for the trip, and for the year, and for anything else I can assign to it. (Anniversary dinner, maybe? That’s this month – and next year too!) It’s a Michelin-star restaurant that goes all out: the waiters wear white gloves, they give you a completely fresh, rolled-up napkin when you leave the table, and no matter what you’re wearing, you feel under-dressed. A more in-depth pictorial demonstration of our meal is here.
I ordered a small plate of pickled cabbage, which came stuffed into a spicy light green-colored bell pepper. It still had many of its seeds inside, so it was very spicy; even I had to resort to pairing it with bread to calm my taste buds. I also got an appetizer as a main dish: a cheese soufflé, surrounded by a lettuce and grape salad. The cheese was much sweeter than I expected, resembling Eastern European cottage cheese, and the lettuce in the salad had a dressing on them that reminded me of sugar water! This is also where we tried palinka, the vodka-like drink that Hungarians claim is a digestive. It was very strong and came in plum, apricot, and a few other flavors.
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