Eat in Budapest

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.