Some cities are more known for the food than the attractions.  Budapest isn’t one of those cities.  So we didn’t have high expectations for dining in Budapest.  But we gained a new appreciation for Hungarian food after dining at some great places.  Here are some our favorite restaurants in Budapest…

We enjoyed the Blue Tomato Pub so much, we went back twice.  The corn soup was thick and chunky, filled with pieces of bacon and topped with toasted almonds.  My favorite dish was a heart attack waiting to happen: bacon-wrapped chicken served over cheesy potatoes.  Also delicious was the paper thin steak topped with an inhuman amount of friend onion strings.

Mátyás Pince is an elegant, old-fashion restaurant that serves huge portions and entertains guests with traditional music and dancing.  It was a typical tourist thing to do, but it never felt tacky and was actually really entertaining.  I’m not sure if I was more impressed with the performance, the King Matthais feast (beef sirloin, leg of duck, bacon wrapped goose liver, sausage, potatoes, cabbage) or the table of 50 Germans who seemed to know the words to every song.

We put off going to the Nagyi Nonstop Palacsintazoja until the second to last day in Budapest and we regret the days we lived without it.  Nagyi Nonstop Palacsintazoja is a 24-hour palacsinta shop offering over 100 types of crepes for less than a buck each.  It’s a chain with a bunch of locations throughout Budapest.  We had a cheese crepe, a sour cherry crepe and a chocolate crepe, and that was enough to keep us filled until lunch.

Our favorite restaurant in Budapest was a trendy placed called Menza.  Read our review here.

Blue Tomato Pub
www.bluetomato.hu
XIII. Pannónia u. 5-7
+36 1 339 8099

Mátyás Pince
V. Március 15 tér 7-8
+36 1 266 8008

Let’s be clear:  Budapest isn’t the culinary capital of the world.  But that doesn’t mean restaurants like Menza are any less impressive.

Menza is a moderately-priced, trendy restaurant in central Pest that serves contemporary Hungarian cuisine in a fun and open atmosphere.   Menza is so popular that it’s ranked #7 out of 501 restaurants in Budapest, according to Tripadvisor.

On our visit, the clientele outside was made up of mostly young, fashionable men and women, mixed with the occasional older woman dressed for her midlife crisis.  There was a line of people waiting to get in, and hip music played in the background.

But the staff, the food and even the decor wasn’t anything like the people craving attention outside.  The restaurant has a playful, retro look with orange walls, wood panels and puffy blocks that look like a soundproof wall taken out of a ’70s music studio.  The crowd inside was mainly families and older people, and the atmosphere was still lively, but calmer than the patio.

We started with an appetizer that was so delicious, I would literally jump on a plane right now to have it again (if I was rich and capable of doing that).  It was a creamy garlic soup accompanied by pastry that can only be described as a doughnut stuffed with sour cream and topped with cheese.  This savory doughnut complimented the soup perfectly, but was so dense, I could barely conquer half my meal.

The food stayed with the theme of contemporary Hungarian, which means the basic dishes of meat and vegetables spiced with paprika are presented with more flair.  We ordered the pan-fried chicken over pasta and tomatoes, as well as a grilled pork dish that came with stewed tomatoes and onions and a heap of soft, steamed barley.  For dessert, we had fried poppy seed dough balls covered with a thin vanilla cream sauce.

Every dish was deliciously dense, and the prices were surprisingly reasonable for such a trendy establishment (the garlic soup was only $3!).  We can’t wait to return, but next time we’ll consider buying an imposter pair of Chanel sunglasses to fit in with the crowd outside.

Menza
http://www.menza.co.hu/
VI. Liszt Ferenc ter 2
+36 1 413 1482
Metro: Oktogon