What Kind of Food Should You Expect?
Tasty food!

Budapest will offer you much of the same international fare you'd find in Chicago or New York City, all of which has a Hungarian touch.

This means there are McDonald's and Pizza Huts for your less adventurous eaters. It also means that there is Chinese, French, Italian and German cuisine. But you aren't coming a few thousand miles away just to eat a Big Mac, are you?

Your options include the world famous Gundel Restaurant, with very traditional dishes.

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The Development of Hungarian Cuisine
The way of making Hungarian foods has changed over the last few centuries. Some sources shows that before the Tenth Century foods from many sources became origins for today's Hungarian foods.

More or less "gulyas" is similar to the bean soup made by the "Osztjak" or the "jaska" made by "Azerbajdzsán". "Szárma" (grape or cabbage leaves stuffed with rice and meat cooked in oil or water) is the origin of the stuffed cabbage as is known today.

The Hungarian cuisine was affected by the mixing of Bulgarians and Turkish cultures. Migrant Turkish and Hungarians brought along egg barley, or "tarhonya" with dry dairy products and meat, to cook them anywhere.

From the time of King Matthias varied food was typical. Because of the Italian origin of the Queen (Beatrice of Aragon), the Hungarian aristocratic cuisine was effected by the Italian cuisine. The foods were made on prod, grill, in caldrons, kettles and pots. Almost every food was seasoned strongly.

Until the Fourteenth Century, they used bread to thicken the foods, like in the Rome or Transylvanian kitchens. Later they used flour, paprika and onion, as is typical nowadays.

At the second half of the Fourteenth Century, the German and French cuisine spread out across Europe. The Hungarians made and developed these foods for the Hungarian taste. more

Tom-George
8 Oktober 6 Utca
(36-1) 266-3525.
Open daily for lunch and dinner. A two-course lunch menu is $6.70 a person; about $97 for two.

Voros es Feher
41 Andrassy Utca
(36-1) 413-1545, fax (36-1) 413-1546
Lunch and dinner daily. About $97 for two.

Borbirosag
5 Csarnok Ter
(36-1) 219-0902
Monday through Saturday for lunch and dinner. There's a two-course lunch menu for $4.35 a person. About $49 for two.

Bagolyvár, Hungarian
moderate, 011-36-1-468-3100

Café Mûvész
coffeehouse, moderate,
011-36-1-352-1337

Gerbeaud
tea/pastry shop, moderate,
011-36-1-429-9000

Rosenstein
Hungarian, expensive,
011-36-1-313-4196

Tom George
international, expensive,
011-36-1-266-3525

Kis Buda Gyöngye
moderate, 011-36-1-368-6402.
Don’t worry if you can’t say the name of this place, just remember “Little Pearl of Buda.” Dine by candlelight under the branches of a gnarly old tree while savoring the special goose combination plate, which includes a roast goose leg, goose cracklings, and goose liver.

Náncsi Néni
moderate, 011-36-1-397-2742.
High up in the Buda Hills is this popular yet remote restaurant with live accordion music nightly. Of their typically Hungarian dishes, the cottage-cheese dumplings are said to be the best in town.

Ruszwurm Cukrászda
inexpensive, 011-36-1-375-5284.
This charming century-old pastry shop in the heart of the Castle District is owned by the masters of marzipan, the Szamos dynasty. Seating is limited, but worth the wait for tasty treats like the krémes, a crispy confection with vanilla cream filling, and the dobos torta, a multilayered cake with a thin caramel crust on top.