Category: Restaurants

Il Terzo Cerchio Budapest review

Posted on by Budablogger

The seventh district in Budapest is getting more and more popular, and in the area where Il Terzo Cerchio is located you can find popular bars and clubs such as Szimpla Kert and Kuplong and some very nice hotels, for example Continental Hotel Zara which is the nearest neighbour of the restaurant.

Il Terzo Cerchio is thus not located by the shopping street, but a bit outside the main center of Budapest, but still in a popular area where lots of people walk around, for example looking for a restaurant after visiting the second largest synagogue in the world, also located in Dohány Utca. Sitting in the restaurant eating on a Wednesday evening it was obvious that quite a lot of people end up in this restaurant in this way, simply walking around and then they bump into this Italian restaurant. And as the restaurant looks good, many people make this their dinner place for the evening.

If you visit this Italian restaurant during lunch time you can get a three course meal deal for a great price. When coming for dinner the restaurant has quite a lot of dishes on their menu, so everyone should be able to find something pleased their tongue and stomach. They write about themselves that “It’s a bit more sophisticated than your typical Italian eatery, but the atmosphere is still homey and inviting.” Concerning the interior they describe Il Terzo Cerchio as a restaurant with “Large windows, plenty of space and a brick-covered, vaulted ceiling all contribute to a warm, rustic ambience.” I totally agree, and both descriptions suite the restaurant very well.

As a sophisticated Italian restaurant you will of course find lots of pizzas on the menu, lasagne, carbonara and other Italian dishes. There are also quite a lot of fish dishes on the menu at Il Terzo Cerchio and the price level is not to bad, though for sure not the cheapest in the area. When coming to the desserts they have some really good ones, and my personal favorite is the Chocolate Souffle (see picture).

Some price examples:

Dessert in Il Terzo Cerchio

Selection of bruschetta: 2150 HUF
Grilled chicken breast: 2450 HUF
Capricciosa pizza: 2550 HUF
Lasage: 2550 HUF
Chocolate Souflfe: 1200 HUF

Il Terzo Cerchio information

1074 Budapest, Dohány utca 40
+36 1 354-0788

Colombus Budapest review

Posted on by Budablogger

There are some restaurants in Budapest located on great places, and there are those with absolutely perfect locations if you want to enjoy good food accompanied by a beautiful panorama. Colombus is such a place.

Colombus is the name of a boat restaurant located on the Pest side of Budapest on the Danube. The boat doesn’t move, so it is lying still, but with windows looking towards the Buda side and with a terrace giving you a great view towards the Gellert Hill, the Castle of Buda, the Chain Bridge and lots of other Budapest attractions. The location and the view is perfect, but what about the food?

The wiener schnitzel, a traditional main course in Budapest

Colomus Budapest review

At the menu in Colombus you will find quite a lot of fish dishes and some traditional Hungarian dishes. We ordered a fajita with chicken and a traditional Hungarian wiener schnitzel, followed by two desserts. Service was good and the fajita and the wiener schnitzel tasted just the way they are meant to. For dessert we ate a chocolate mousse and a chocolate brownie (we do like chocolate). The brownie with ice cream was great, while the chocolate mousse was average.

Colombus is not only known for great panorama and good food, but they have live music available regularly, salsa evenings and other musical events. Many know the boat as a jazz boat, so if you want to combine good food with live music and wonderful panorama, why not choose Colombus. Next to Colombus you will find Spoon Cafe & Lounge, another restaurant boat. If I had to choose which place to visit of the two I would without hesitation choose Colombus, because based on my own experience I enjoyed my visit to Colombus much more than I enjoyed my two visits to Spoon.

The brownie was a good choice for dessert

The price for the one starter (the fajitas was only a starter), the wiener schnitzel with mashed potatoes and cucumber salad, the two desserts and two drinks was totally around 8500 HUF. I must admit that some people would pay that price for the panorama alone!

Colombus information

1051 Budapest, Vigadó tér, Peer 4

Panorama from the Colombus terrace

Have you been to Colombus yourself? Share your experience and write a comment/review. If you want to make a table reservation in Colombus, use the forms further down

La Perle Budapest review

Posted on by Budablogger

Hidden away in a cute little street in the fifth district of Budapest you will find Brasserie La Perle. The restaurant has some French inspiration to it, but it is just as much an Hungarian restaurant as a French. Should you consider La Perle as a restaurant to visit in Budapest?

La Perle is located just across the street from the far more famous restaurant Borsso Bistro. While the latter has been around for many years, La Perle has only existed for about a year and it is still fighting to get some regular guests coming by. A few days ago I went to the restaurant with my family and we had a great time and I can warmly recommend this place to others, just keep on reading.

The interior of Brasserie La Perle in Budapest

La Perle review

Entering La Perle the first impression was very good. I liked the interior and the atmosphere of the restaurant, and I even enjoyed the background music. There were no other guests in the restaurant as we entered, so we got all the attention of the waiter present. We ordered four different starters, two main courses and three desserts.

You can feel the touch of Hungary in the restaurant as you look to the starters. Here you can find for example traditional Hungarian Goulash soup in addition to smoked salmon, goose liver and some other snacks. All the starters we ate were great, so do not forget to order a starter if you visit La Perle.

Tasty starter in La Perle

We were not really that hungry, so as we entered the restaurant we hadn’t planned ordering any main course at all. Out of pure curiosity we still ordered two main courses, just to check the quality and to see what a main course looks like in La Perle. We ordered a traditional Hungarian Beef Stew (marha pörkölt) and a sirloin steak with green pepper sauce and some more snack. I tasted both and I enjoyed them both and if I had more space for food I would have loved to taste more main courses (they have goose liver available as a main course and lots of other interesting dishes).

Highlight of the meal

If you have read a lot of my blogs posts you know that I love chocolate and I love pizza. In La Perle I did not eat pizza, but they had some awesome desserts. The number one dessert was their chocolate souffle (it has another name, but still very similar to a chocolate souffle). It was simply fantastic, and I still long to eat it again. Besides the chocolate souffle we ate a kind of cottage cheese cake/ice cream and a Creme Brulee. Both tasted great and I would love to eat that Creme Brulee once more in addition to the chocolate dessert.

The chocolate dessert tasted 100 times better than it looks on this pictures

Short wrap-up

I think about my stay in La Perle with great joy. We had a great evening together, and that is not only because I spent time with some of the people I love the most in the world, but because the food and the atmosphere was great. I can warmly recommend a dinner in La Perle if you visit Budapest, both to taste some traditional Hungarian courses, and also if you want to eat some French cuisine. The price of our four starters, two main courses, three desserts and five drinks were totally about 16,000 HUF.

La Perle information

Kepiro utca 2. -1053 Budapest
Tlf: +36-1-266-6808

Pastabar – Eat the Street

Posted on by Budablogger

A few days ago we wrote an article about the soupbar between Kalvin square and Fovam square in Budapest. The soupbar turned so popular and therefore the owners expanded and has now opened a pastabar only a few hundred metres from the original soupbar. This time pasta is being served!

I first noticed the soupbar because of the crowd standing outside the place during its opening time. How did I notice the pastabar? In the same way! The pastabar has only been open for 6 weeks, but it has already turned into a success, at least based on what I have seen and on what the girl selling me the pasta told me. The concept is the same as with the soupbar, except from the fact that the Pastabar has 4 quite large tables located outside the bar making it easier for their visitors to sit down and eat their pasta in quietness and peace. If they get bored they are allowed to write greetings and make drawings on the tables which are covered with paper, so maybe this is the place where you can show the world the Da Vinci or Michelangelo hiding on your inside.

Pasta of the Day examples

I guess the answer is quite obvious, pasta! As I visited the Pastabar and ate there they had the following four pastas on the menu:

  • Mustar ezredes (chicken, cream, mustard, honey, peas)
  • O.G. (chicken, tomato, garlic, wine, basil)
  • Momofuku (chicken, carrot, leek, sesame seed, soya sauce, chili)
  • Bolognai (turkey, tomato, carrot, wine, oregano, basil)

The prices are easy to remember, because all pastas cost 990 Hungarian Forint. You can buy drinks to accompany the pasta if you are thirsty and ½ liter of Coca Cola cost 280 Forint.

If you want to eat the food right away you will find forks on the spot, but if you want to take the food away they have this special handle making it extremely easy to care the box with pasta with you.

In the vicinity of Kalvin ter today? Why not have some pasta for lunch?

Pastabar Budapest information

Opening times: 11.00-19.00
Address: Kalvin tér
Payment: Cash only

My Starbucks Budapest experience

Posted on by Budablogger

If you come to Budapest today you will find Starbucks at lots of different locations in town. Today it is a part of the city life that we have become used to, therefore it is strange to think of the fact that the first Starbucks only came to Budapest in 2010.

The first Starbucks opened in WestEnd Citycenter autumn 2010 and since then Starbucks have shown up everywhere in town. I will not write a number telling the amount of Starbucks cafes in Budapest, because in a month or two that number will for sure be outdated. But, if you are out there looking for a Starbucks cafe in Budapest, you can find Starbucks at the following locations in Budapest currently.

Starbucks cafes in Budapest at the moment

Starbucks Szena Ter, Margit krt. 91
Starbucks Mammut, Lovohaz Street 2-6
Starbucks Basilica, Hercegprimas utca 7
Starbucks WestEnd, Vaci ut 1-3
Starbucks Kiraly, Erszebet korut 53
Starbucks Fashion Street, Deák Ferenc u. 23, 1052 Budapest
Starbucks Arena, 1087 Budapest, Kerepesi út. 9.

If any of these cafes disappear or new restaurants are opened, please write a comment and I will update this list with the new names and addresses.

My own Starbucks experience

Starbucks has a name that makes it able to survive at most places in the world, so also in Budapest. Not long ago I visited the Starbucks in Fashion Street and asked the person to whom I paid how many locals and internationals visit the place. She said that 80-90% of the visitors are tourists, while the rest are locals. I guess this is the most touristic Starbucks location in Budapest, which means that the percentage of locals will be much higher in the other cafes, but it still gives a hint about the fact that Starbucks is expensive to locals. A coffee normally cost between 800-1200 HUF (depending on size and type) while cakes and sweets cost between 400-1000 HUF.

Since I am not much of a coffee drinker I rather drink a Frappuccino, and you can find those in lots of different version in Starbucks. The waffle tastes like Belgium and the hot chocolate feels like a cocoa, which is just the way I like it (I do not enjoy hot chocolate if I feel like I am drinking pure chocolate – well, that’s me!).

Some Starbucks price examples

Caffé Latte (smallest) – 690 HUF
Espresso (smallest) – 490 HUF
Caffé Americano (smallest) – 650 HUF
Hot Chocolate (smallest) – 890 HUF
Hot tea (smallest) – 550 HUF
Caramal Frappuccino (smallest) – 990 HUF

Starbucks shop

As in Starbucks all around the world you can buy lots of effects in the Budapest Starbucks as well. The most popular effect is probably the Starbucks Budapest mug, a really nice souvenir for collectors visiting Budapest.

Starbucks souvenirs in Budapest

Have you got any Budapest Starbucks experience you would like to share? Any addresses we are missing, or maybe some of the mentioned cafes have closed down (would surprise me). Share whatever is on your mind as you write a comment!

T-Bone steak at home in Budapest

Posted on by Budapest Guide

Last week I saw some articles on the web about Rob Longworth, a Canadian expat who has lived in Budapest since 1990 and who has a long experience in the restaurant and food business. Recently he opened a website named primecuts.hu and from that website you can order meat from Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada and the US.

Since Hungary has lots of poultry and pork Rob Longworth does not offer such meat on the webpage, but if you are interested in beef or lamb, then this might be interesting. The lack of consistency in the quality of Hungarian beef was the main reason for creating the webpage, and now you can get top quality t-bone steaks and other meet delivered at your door in Budapest.

Personally I do like meat and I am very happy if I get a good steak, but I am not so much of a judge to say whether a piece of meat is bad, middle class or super. Anyway I contacted Rob and ordered a large piece of Eye of Rump Beef Roast and a USDA T-Bone Steak. I was lucky because he had something ready to deliver, so within a few days I got the meat delivered and then it was time for a T-Bone steak at home in Budapest. The Eye of Rump Beef Roast was a large piece of meat so I thawed it, cut parts of it into small steaks and the rest I roasted. Since I am not at all a master of this I did not really know what to expect, but I can say that I was very satisfied with both the T-Bone steak, the Eye of Rump steak and as I roasted the other parts of the beef it was very tasty and nice.

I received some advices from some friends of mine who are meat lovers with experience on the subject of steaks and preparing meat, so maybe that helped me out, but at least I can say that I had some really nice meat for both lunch and dinner the last days and I enjoyed it a lot (and so did my family).

If you know more about meat than I do and would like to have some premium quality delivered at your door in Budapest, then head over to Prime Cuts and place your order today!

 

Central Bistro & Bar Budapest review

Posted on by Budablogger

Last Saturday I went with my wife and son to Danube Palace to listen to what Dr. Robi Sonderegger had to tell about family life and the importance of it. It ended at 13.00 and we then walked to Central Bistro & Bar to grab a quick lunch before we went home (we told the waiter upon arrival that we wanted a quick lunch). Well, seldom has a lunch succeeded as bad as this one!

We sat down and asked for a chair to our soon two year old boy. Unfortunately the restaurant had no such thing, so he had to sit in a mix of our laps, run around and the trolley. Most restaurants at least have the cheap IKEA chairs for children, but these were all missing. We sat down, looked at the menu and decided to go for a steak and a hamburger. But, none were really interested, so we had to wait a long time before the waiter even came over to take our order (remember: quick?!). We placed our order around 13.30. Around 14.00 the waiter finally came with our lunch, or at last what was supposed to be our lunch. My hamburger was very well done, and the hamburger bread was black on both inside and outside. Not totally burned, but you could really feel the taste of coal as you ate it.

My wife ordered a well done steak. After thirty minutes of waiting the steak was served, but not at all well done. Parts of the steak were in fact raw. She was starving, our son was starving and so was I. We therefore ate the over fried hamburger with the burnt hamburger breads, while we sent the steak back to let them do some more work on it. After 10-15 more minutes it was returned, but still not well done at all. So, once again it was returned and after 10-15 more minutes it was served for the third time. This time it was well done, and the taste was in fact good together with the mushroom sauce it was served together with.

During lunch time on a Saturday Central Bistro & Bar was quite well visited. I am not sure if that was the problem, but there were only two waiters working and they might have had a lot to do. But, if a restaurant is not capable of receiving a half full restaurant during lunch time the result will be like with us… unhappy guests who will never return. And then again the next time the restaurant will not even be half full.

The price for the steak was about 3000 Forints while the price of the hamburger was a bit less than 2000 Forints. Our original plan was to eat some desserts as well, but at 14.45 we were so fed up and our boy was so tired that we just hurried and payed the bill and jumped in our car and drove home. Somehow the experience remained as one of our worst Saturday lunches in a very long time…

It looks nice on the inside of Central Bistro and Bar

Central Bistro & Bar

Nador utca 13
Tel: +36 1 328 3460
Open: Monday – Sunday from 11.00-23.00

Torkos Csütörtök 2013

Posted on by Budapest Guide

In 8 days you are invited to eat in Budapest restaurants at half price. Not all restaurants participate in this campaign, but quite a lot do.

The exact date for Torkos Csütörtök in 2013 is January 31st. Do not forget to book a table if you want a reservation on this date. Unfortunately we are not able to help out with bookings on this date. Some of the restaurants participating are: Karpatia, Matyas Pince, Nobu, Nador Winerestaurant, BorLaBor, Sercli, Baraka and many more.

For more information about Torkos Csütörtök you can visit Budapest blog or visit the official page.

Christmas in Budapest 2012

Christmas in Budapest 2012

Posted on by Budapest Guide

In ten days people all around the world celebrate Christmas eve. The same is true in Budapest. What is going on in Budapest during Christmas? Here comes information about programs, activities and other Christmas activities in Budapest.

Christmas in Budapest 2012If you want to visit a museum while in Budapest, most museums are open on December 22nd and 23rd. On December 24th and 25th the museums are closed and then they open their doors again from December 26th.

Most restaurants are closed on December 24th, and many also on December 25th and December 26th. There are though some exceptions and you can find more information about restaurants in Budapest open during Christmas time at this page.

Shops are open until 13.00 or 14.00 on December 24th and then they are closed until December 27th (most shops open 10.00 on December 27th).

The popular baths of Budapest are open every day during Christmas. The Szechenyi bath is open from 6.00 until 14.00 on Christmas eve. It will be open from 10.00-18.00 on December 25th and from early morning until 20.00 on December 26th.

The public transportation will be up and running as normal during Christmas time. Most hotels have open restaurants during Christmas, so if you have nowhere else to dine, eat in your hotel!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

If you know someone who is going to Paris for Christmas or New Years Eve you can find useful information about programs, restaurants and activities there in the Paris Guide.

Fresco Café at Franz Liszt square

Posted on by Budablogger

Not long ago I got the chance to grab some pizzas in Fresco Liszt Cafe located at the Liszt Ferenc tér (Franz Liszt square) in Budapest. This square is one of the most popular places to grab a bite to eat in Budapest and with the Christmas market located at the square at the moment it gets even more crowded.

Fresco Budapest with good international food

On a nice summer day Fresco Café has a nice outdoor area where you can sit and enjoy your food while enjoying the beauty of the square, watching people run to their trams, buses and metros, listen to singing birds and maybe feel the smell of some delicious food in the making. As we visited Fresco it was -5 Celsius outside, so we moved on to the inside of Fresco to grab something to eat there. The interior of the restaurant is in fact very big, and it looks and feels good. This is a nice place to drink a hot chocolate and enjoy a chat with your best friend, and this is also a place to fill your stomach with some more serious stuff.

On the menu in Fresco Café you can find traditional Goulash soup (990 HUF), Caesar Salad with Chicken (1890 HUF), Wiener Schnitzel (2390 HUF), Rib Eye steak (5900 HUF), Beef fajitas with four kinds of salsa (3890 HUF), Beef stewed in red wine with butter dumplings (2550 HUF), Brownie with vanillia ice cream (950 HUF) and much more. This is a perfect place for families, because everyone can find something they like and if you long for a pizza they have quite a lot of those on the menu as well varying between 1500-2000 HUF.

We ate two different pizzas as we visited Fresco, one with ham and mushroom and the other one a traditional Hungarian with some spicy paprika, onion, salami and mushroom. The pizzas were large, so if you are not a big eater, then you can safely order one pizza for two persons. They tasted good and we were completely satisfied. I am not sure if this is normal or not, but when we visited Fresco they even had an offer saying that you got the second pizza at half price if you ordered two of them, so that was nice. All in all we paid less than 4000 HUF for two pizzas and two drink, and then the service fee was already included on the bill (they automatically add 12%). Not bad at all 🙂

If you walk around at the Christmas market at the Franz Liszt square, why not make a stop at Fresco? Good food, average prices, smiley service and good location!

Fresco Liszt Café & Lounge

1061 Budapest, Liszt Ferenc tér 10.
Tel: (+36) 1 411-0915
Open: Monday – Sunday from 12.00-24.00