Best of Budapest

I won’t waste time describing the place. It’s pretty much the way it always has been, and the quality is just as sensational. There are very few restaurants in the neighborhood that can be taken seriously. Laci, however, is one of the country’s finest restaurants. It’s fantastic. They offer a dinner menu with five courses at a discount price, but for two people you should count on HUF 16-18,000, just as you would at any other place of the same quality. A two-course lunch costs HUF 2200, and add another thousand for dessert. The whole thing will run about HUF 3,500 a person with drinks.

This isn’t cheap, but, as in the past, Laci’s lunch menu is one of the best in Budapest. My lunch consisted of risotto with bacon and chestnut and neck of veal with hulled barley and savoy cabbage. It was finished off with blueberry cake and sour-cream ice cream. This is what it looked like:

And it was fabulous. All of it. Laci is special because they not only use the finest ingredients and perfect technique in making each course; they experiment more courageously than almost any other restaurant in Hungary. They come up with something new here every day, and the constantly changing menu lets them try out the most daring combinations, gradually perfecting each course. You don’t need to be clairvoyant to imagine how Hungary’s topnotch chef is experimenting with ingredients and techniques. I could be wrong and maybe there’s a fascist mini-state in there where everything is being centrally controlled, but the real thing is that in the end you only feel the playfulness and the kind of amusing creative process that isn’t possible at either a slightly higher Michelin star level or at a slightly lower level.

Laci!Konyha! continues to provide me the finest quality whenever I want to eat something really good (that is not sausage with pickles). I can’t recommend it highly enough. But be sure to make reservations in advance because it may be hard to get a table, even at lunchtime.

Laci!Konyha!
1133 Budapest, Hegedűs Gyula u. 56
Mon–Fri: 12.00–15.00 and 18.00–23.00
+36-70 370-7475

Translation provided by Helpers Business and Immigration Services. Find us at www.helpers.hu

Zazzi has always been a special place, but a lot of the pleasure was ruined by the hour-long trip to get there. And when you feel like eating some kind of sweet treat, it’s not like you want to wait an hour for it. If your carbohydrate overdose is more than ten minutes away, you’ll pull a chocolate bar out of the cupboard. You’re not going to travel out to Solymár.

Well, you’re in luck because Zazzi has moved into Budapest, and thousands of people are going to get to know its name now. You only have to go as far as Kolosy tér or, more precisely, Bécsi út 57-61. But even this is tricky because the entrance is from Dereglye utca. This is what you need to find:

You walk in the door, and right away you start salivating buckets when you see the cakes and macaroons they make in the back kitchen. The goods aren’t cheap. Before I could even open my mouth, they started to explain that the pastries cost HUF 550-650 because the ingredients are so special and expensive. But once you finally make your choice, you can see why they cost so much.

Of course, even something that looks nice can be revolting. But not here. Not at all. The raspberry chocolate cake and the cranberry cheese cake are perfection. The one beguiles with the way the fresh raspberry filling plays with the 70% chocolate mousse, while the other astonishes by how much the cheese cake itself has to offer. These are all flawless culinary gems.

Check it out!

Translation provided by Helpers Business and Immigration Services. Find us at www.helpers.hu

The guys who make the food are very nice. They’re friendly and you can tell they are really into their business. They have a lot more respect for their guests than most places, and they seem to be proud of their pho, which is obvious from the way they serve it. Look how nice the soup is:

Let’s take a closer look at it. On the left, you can see some sour carrots, which are very nice and go well with the soup. On the right is the homemade chili, a real killer, a bastard, tenacious, mean and invincible. This is how it looks close up:

The guys told us it’s brutal and a quarter of a spoonful is enough for the soup. I scooped up a bit with the tip of the chopstick and had a taste of it all by itself. Don’t ask me how it was. Bottom line is: you can trust Funky Pho. If they say it’s hot, you know it’s hot.

The soup is really cool. Before I added the carrot, I felt it was lacking a little substance. But once I put in the carrots, the chili and a bit of lemon, the flavors became stronger and I enjoyed it immensely. Everything is just right in this pho, and it’s a good size portion too. This, then, is another place here in the city that definitely beats a fast food restaurant. Go here instead. You don’t pay more, don’t expect more, but what you get is incomparably better.

Funky Pho
Budapest, Mozsár utca 7
Tues–Sat: 11:30-22:00

Translation provided by Helpers Business and Immigration Services. Find us at www.helpers.hu

It’s great that the city is full of breakfast places, but many of them don’t open till 9 or 10 am. Everybody is already at work or school by then, and you could have a thousand reasons why you can’t plant yourself down for a bite. This is one of the most important things Sonkapult (Ham Counter) has going for it. It opens at 8 am, so you can easily pop in for breakfast on your way to work.

But later is okay too. They have ham on tap till late afternoon and some days till midnight.

The atmosphere is really great. The place is full of old stuff, with an antique ham slicer and an Italian scooter set up as a plant in the window. You got to love a place like this. The best time to come is Thursday evening, when you can get all the regular sandwiches as well as ham tapas and all kinds of other things for the same money. The place is packed, and people are even eating ham out on the street. The whole neighborhood has a Mediterranean feel at these times.

But even on slower days there’s no need to worry, because they always have a wide selection to choose from. 

They have good, carefully selected ingredients. The sandwiches are baked and served on a sheet of drawing paper. It matches the atmosphere:

The final result is exquisite. The baguette, which is good, tends to dominate the flavor of the North Italian ham, which I felt was also a bit overwhelmed by the olives and dried tomatoes. But taken altogether, it’s superb as it is.

The Sonkapult is particularly good for breakfast and before or between drinks in the city center.

Sonkapult
Budapest, Rumbach Sebestyén utca 7
Mon–Wed: 08:00–18:00
Thurs–Fri: 08:00–24:00
Sat: 10:00–24:00
Tel: 06-30-713-1958

Translation provided by Helpers Business and Immigration Services. Find us at www.helpers.hu

I wrote a post recently /Hungarian site/  about the newly renovated Hunyadi Square. I also mentioned the market, but I didn’t provide any details. But now I have to. This is going to be my regular hangout.

In the first place, it’s got atmosphere. This is the closest outdoor market to the city center, practically in the neighborhood of the Nagykörút (Grand Boulevard). And Hunyadi Square looks good too (now). The market isn’t big. In fact, it’s kind of small. Two rows of tables with less than twenty vendors in each row. You can find a few greengrocers, some fruit vendors, three beekeepers, one cheese seller, a florist and a butcher.

All of them grow their own produce and sell it at nicely arranged tables with signs displaying their name and the place of origin. And all of my experience tells me you can’t go wrong here.

Especially because you can taste everything, and you really must. One vendor (Mrs. László Bányánszki) even sets out a knife so you can slice the peaches.

Two of the places at the market let you taste their honey.

I bought melilot honey from Gábor Gohér of Gödöllő. The stuff was so thick it wouldn’t come out of the pump in the cold air at seven in the morning. This is a pleasant honey, by the way, with a mellow flavor. It’s not overwhelming, but it’s nevertheless special. You can use it for anything.

I did take a chance, though, and bought some of József Ország’s acacia honey without tasting it. When I opened it at home, I could see it was thick, sufficiently acidic and not at all watered down.

Gábor Góhér, by the way, is easy to get along with. He’s a nice guy and straightforward, and, of course, he’s always happy to recommend his friends’ tables. I bought green peppers and tomatoes at the table next to his. They were tasty and ripe, absolutely superb.  Even in the autumn.

My real favorite, though, is Ferenc Törőcsik, a butcher from Cegléd. He’s got incredible stuff, really. The last time I ate his Kolozsvár bacon, I felt like I was eating freshly butchered pork at a village barbecue. It’s been a really long time since I tasted anything like it. This is the kind of pork you get from pigs fed corn twice a day. Ferenc also has abált szalonna (boiled bacon coated with garlic and paprika) that’s out of this world. And his sausage and liverwurst are to die for. 

One of the vendors has sweet corn for sale, and this deserves a word or two. It’s brilliant. Especially when cooked.

I got home at eight in the morning, and lo and behold, here’s my breakfast on the obligatory red and white checkered tablecloth:

Really fine.

The best time to visit the market is Friday and Saturday morning, when most of the vendors are there.

Today is Friday.

Translation provided by Helpers Business and Immigration Services. Find us at www.helpers.hu