Eat in Budapest

Review

Once entering the restaurant you are chez lui indeed: the small 2-floor house is located in a downtown residencial district stuck between much larger buildings but the house reflects the character of the neighbouthood and the owners did not change mch of the spaces since transforming this residential building into a charming French restaurant. The courtyard is small but very pleasant to stay in when the weather’s nice but the interior, the former rooms of flats is less friendly: they’re dark, hardly decorated at all and the toilets occupy the central area.

You must not be extremely lucky to get a table during lunchtime: we were the only guests on this late August sunny day. Perhaps the evenings are different but then you’re less likely to be served by Daniel himself. Her wife and Daniel were both present during my two visits and they’re friendly, nice people who make you feel like you’re at their home, with their dog taking central attention within the family. The easy-going, family atmosphere is supported by nice, but not outstanding French food with Provence’s influence being dominant.

The seafood and fishes are daily adjusted to the market’s offering, but the rest of the menu has been more or less unchanged for the last 3 years the waiter tells me.

Ráday utca used to be a rather bohemian street with bars and pubs filled with university students and recent graduates.

The landscape has changed since real estate prices soared because of the near universities, being in a relatively safe neighborhood and having affordable real estate prices. So did the nightlife and the day life: may new bars opened and lately restaurants too as the number of office buildings and consequently the number of yuppies started to increase in the area few years ago. Just recently LeRoy shut down only few months after its opening. Soul Café, its major direct competitor which open first, is still in place and remains the only relatively sophisticated and chick restaurant of the street (I must emphasize the word relatively here). During my last visit however, it was almost totally empty in plain lunch-time (Ok, it’s July, but still).

Based on three visits in 2 years I’m now able to tell that Soul Café suffers from the illness of most Budapest restaurants: after a good start and uprising beginning in popularity they (assumingly) change ownership or simply lose their momentum and fall into a mud of boredom and ordinariness. I thinkit’s at least partly due to the schizophrenia caused by their will to satisfy both low-budget tourists and yuppies in the same time. Soul Café is searching for its personality. The service people are a bit too formal for a casual place like this, the food is inconsistent and prices tend to be too high for the target market segment (better-paid office workers).

It’s very interesting how competition cannot increase quality in this part of Budapest, near the city center. This by the way is a typical Hungarian phenomenon which can be perfectly studied in Ráday Street.

So if you’re in a rush and you’re in the neighborhood Soul Café is a preferred choice if you want to eat in a fusion restaurant. If you have a few minutes more and open for something just a little bit less ordinary, then you’d better visit the Pata Negra tapas bar at Kálvin tér, which is the closest place of interest as long as eating is concerned.