But will you?

The place can be best described briefly as a caricature of Hungary’s trendy places, being one of them itself. After the success of the neighbor Déryné (a rather funny but peasant place with unmemorable food and full of hipsters) the owner decided to open a place just around the corner combining tapas bars’ portions, running sushi’s’ service methods and so called new European cuisine. The result? as I said before.

The service is funny: young boys and girls, one of them acting with gestures like in an ancient Greek theater playing for people up to 100 meters away to stay visible. Others are simply ignorant, but they’re polite if you manage to talk to them. They’re very badly organised as well.

Most scary about Mini (even more than some of its guests) is its wine list, with 300-400% uplift against retail prices.

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!

Here we are, the restaurant I most frequently visit but never have written about. In fact, I’ve become regular at Gold because of their very affordable lunch menu on weekdays. It’s a bit ironic that I’m thinking about having a break of it. The reason is twofold: first, it’s become very crowded lately and with the opening of new nearby office buildings I predict an increase in demand for table and consequently in price, followed by an inevitable fall of quality. Secondly, there are already signs of decline: the waiters have never been skilled or particularly keen to serve you (I’m told off every time) so I’m almost used to it, but the food’s quality’s become volatile too: it happened to me one weekend that the tuna salad which, according to the waiter was made of sliced fresh tuna during the week, became canned tuna by the end of it. I was also served bread which was dry on one side and fresh on the other. Why did I go back after such disappointments? The answer is simple:

They have a lunch menu which is the best value for the money in Buda, by far. Although the creativity in the kitchen’s a bit over the edge now (mixing Asian with Mediterranean but not in a very good way), their duck specialties are most often than not very good.

Of course I could complain a lot more: from using cheap, salted olive instead of marinated olive and so on, but you know what, it wouldn’t be fair. For HUF 1 500 you get 3 courses and if you’re lucky, at least one of them is way out of the league even of most more expensive places.

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:

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!

The service is quick and casually simple and to my biggest surprise, instead of overpriced mineral water the serving of sparkling water is automatic and free. Believe me, in Hungary that’s something to be mentioned.

The guests  usually can chose between 2 starters, 3 main courses and 2 desserts. The 2 and 3 course menus are a bargain.

The chef uses good, fresh ingredients for all the food which vary between simplistic, home-made basic meals and elegantly dressed, complicated items, sometimes found on the very same plate in the same time.

Good quality material and reliability are the key strengths of this restaurant in this corner of Budapdest.

The price of food here is very funny. My lunch plus the parking fine I had to pay combined were still cheaper than most restaurants of similar quality, and the regular menu’s just above a Big Mac menu’s price.

The food is decent home-made style International and Hungarian made of perfectly fresh material. And this is one of the key aspects of M, the other one being the charming, friendly atmosphere created by the poor illumination and the handicraft wallpaper decoration covering the entire space. The prices are reasonable, even tourists on a budget will be satisfied with the bill.

They have a short wine selection of the lower-medium segment.

I went there for a business lunch and stayed there until 18.30 without noticing that the usiness lunch place close at 16.00 for two hours until reopening as a chic trendy restaurant at 18.00. Part of the crew were very polite and attentive but still I’m afraid we were only allowed to stay because we were drinking non stop.

The food was delicious, although the fois gras mousse with baby beetroot salad (EUR 9.8) had such a small portion of mousse that is outrageous even by high-end gastronomy standards. But it was amazingly light and fresh, although not to be compared with Ráspi’s fois gras mousse (I’ll post about it soon).

The filet of trout with cauliflower and pearl barly risotto (EUR 9.6) was not just wonderfully good looking but also very tasty: thin slices of fish perfectly firm (or soft, from another angle) and very well spiced, although many may think it had too much spicy on it (I’m not one of them).

Their wine recommendation (Chateau Kajmád Cabernet Sauvignon 2006) wasn’t the best especially considering that we picked a far more sophisticated St. Andrea Áldás Cuvée (2006) before. But it was alright, we finished off the whole Áldás cuvée and then just ordered glasses of Cabernet wihch they opened in front of our eyes (a major achievement in Hungarian hospitality).

The restaurant is perfectly located ta the end of váci street just 100 meters from Fővámtér ’s touristic market.

More information: http://www.babeldelicate.hu/

Ideally hidden from the tourist trails and businesses in one of the ugliest areas of the 1st district, Csalogány 26 mostly attracts people who would like to eat well. The slightly pretentious service is in contrast with the honestly ugly, although new interior. You wouldn’t guess from that that Csalogány 26 was recently chosen one of Hungary’s top 10 restaurants.

Their wine list suggests good taste and I’d say that you can pair relatively well with most items on the short and frequently changing menu. I scored at first: Ráspi’s Sauvignon Blanc from 2007 is truly amazing. About the wine, please see the full review and other here.

The shrimp carpaccio with wasabi and mango sauce was fresh and tiny. The service guys new exactly when was appropriate to offer more wine (we only ordered one glass each of us (2) but ended finishing off a whole bottle).

It was sort if interesting to see on a plasma screen how the chef was preparing my fish, which was btw wonderfully cooked, spiced and served.

The goat cheese cream was very tasty and lightweight but the plum ice cream didn’t taste plum at all.

The bread which is served abundantly during and in between courses was fresh and excellent.

I paid HUF 5 500 for the 3 courses and it was well worth it.

Advance booking is recommended.

It’s a top pick for everyone, but only because of the food. Location is poor, interior is ugly and service staff is mixed.

It’s been more than 2 years ago when I read the first acknowledgements about Momotaro Ramen which captured my imagination through its originality and good value aspects, according to the late matula.hu fanzine. 2 years used to be more than sufficient with Budapest standards to experience major degradation in food and service and general quality decrease in any restaurant in Budapest but I have good news: despite some minor faults Momotaro Ramen is still an authentic place to eat relatively quickly.

The interior remained unchanged since the socialist era and the service is a bit old-fashioned too (in Hungary it means harsh).

Portions are huge, the only disappointment was frozen sea-food mix used for the soup.

Due to its quality, location and affordability I’d recommend this place to tourists and locals, those who are looking for authenticity in eastern cuisine.