Eat in Budapest

I’d been complaining a lot about Budapest restaurants not having been keen to offer customers decent meals at affordable prices in these turbulent economic environment. I finally found a couple of good choices in different parts of the town which I now would like to share with you.

Csalogány 26 has probably been offering their daily lunch menu for some time but I never noticed (I paid full price in the evening). I recently tasted their pork medalion which was simply fantastic plus they have a house’s wine which was quite good as well (a  simple but acceptable cuvée  from Malatinszky’s of Villány) for only HUF 200/100 cl. Check out their weekly lunch menu here but note that it’s quite unreliable since items tend to change by when you get there.

In the east bank of river Danube, Borbíróság decided to give a 50% discount for those who download their voucher from their website. Borbíróság may not be the best restaurant in town but it has a cosy atmosphere and a decent wine cellar. It’s also ideally located for those visiting the Vásárcsarnok or work in the neighborhood but they’re tired of the usual suspects of Ráday utca.

Noir et L’Or has a business lunch menu for HUF 990 for 2 courses and that’s quite fair: food is simplistic but well made and fresh and the service is polite. The interior is a bit cheaper answer to Donatella’s Kitchen the opposite side of the road, but the golden putto heads are a little bit over the edge to my taste. But it’s not only the interior design: as Donatella’s getting more and more expensive, Noir et L’Or’s getting to be a more and more viable option to many. They also have some good, rare wines such as Ráspi Irsai Olivér and Máté cuvée for instance.

Their Sunday Gluttonous day with its 50% off offer is a good alternative to Sunday Brunches.

Being a highly ranked restaurant and located in the very center of the city, Onyx restaurant represents a more luxurious option. With their lunch menu however, Onyx targets those who would like to break their daily monotony by a 45 minutes lunch. If 2 courses+coffee wouldn’t be served within that time period, the lunch’s on the house!

Now it’s official. There can be no doubt that Costes is de facto the best restaurant in Budapest and in the whole country.

Unfortunately Costes will close soon, or at least I’d bet heavily on this if I could. Much to my sadness, I must say, since Costes is by far the best restaurant in Hungary. Why? Let me see:

-         It runs a creative, trend-setting cuisine that has no peer in Hungary

-         It uses excellent materials, including a carefully made selection of Hungarian wines

-         It has a stylish, modern, although too smart atmosphere, good interior design

Anyone thinking about trying out Costes should consider the business lunch which is a more affordable option to Á la carte. The tasting menus are excellent and the food pairing’s almost perfect. 2 complaints I had: i) Chateau Kajmád Cabernet Sauvignon paired with a fish course was very strange. Ii) I’m not a local patriot or anything but offering Port Tawney for dessert…

I have no idea how Costes managed to bring here a Portuguese chef, indeed such a good one. Head Chef Miguel Rocha Vieira had previously worked in Maison Pic and prior to that, in El Bulli. It’s not that I know any of these but some of you may. The empresarios behind Costes are making the utmost to call the attention of Michelin Guide and GaultMillau’s, and Mr. Rocha Vieira’s keeping Costes on the right track if you ask me.

Here’s one of the Tasting Menus (my favorite, by wine pairing too), click to see them all:

Announcement: from now on I’m using scale of 20 for scoring restaurants of Budapest based on a more standardised approach. The reason is threefold: i) to allow more differentiation between restaurants ii) for better international orientation and iii) for better domestic comparison. What does this mean? Now my system is more in line with Gault Millau’s system and consequently, more in line with “Étterem és Bor Kalauz”, possibly the only reliable printed restaurant guide to Hungary. However, I must emphasize that there are similarities as well as differences too so equal points do not necessarily mean identical judgment.

The new system will result in 3 scores:

1. Food score

2. Restaurant score

3. Price weighted restaurant score

1. Food score

The total of 20 points can add up as follows.

Material: the quality and freshness of ingredients has the second highest weight.

Technical skills:another important factor is how the materials are used in the preparation process. It’s easier to point out mistakes here than to appreciate outstanding performance.

Harmony and the big picture: It speaks for itself. This end result has slightly higher importance even than the materials.

Style: this relates to the exploration of a certain style of cooking or its reinterpretation. This part also incorporates the creativity factor. This has a relatively moderate contribution to the total points.

Reliability: although an important factor, it’s underweighted in the overall score.

2. Restaurant score

The overall restaurant score takes into consideration, besides the Food Score, the following aspects: service, wine list and ambience, the first two having equal weight, slightly more than the latter.

3. Price weighted restaurant score

You’d be surprised by this one. Although this factor will have a total effect of up to only 10% of the total final score, many value restaurants will outperform much more expensive restaurants when this factor is taken into account.

Please note that I’ll continue to visit and review restaurants recommended by reliable sources, so don’t expect reviews with scores less than 9, these will be the exceptions. And watch out because coming up soon: Gold Bistro and Costes! And Normafa Grill, but you’d better forget that.

Every restaurant that achieves 10 points in Price weighted restaurant points, is recommended for visit. However, I still suggest that you check out the price/value indicator of each restaurant!