Image by Eszter Szilva

Although there were massive protests for saving Tűzraktér, a ruin bar and cultural center in the seventh district, the place had to go this summer because of severe disputes with the municipality. Fortunately, the crew did not give up their cultural mission and they transported the popular squat-like place into Buda’s Király Bath. Vízraktér is thus a fruitful marriage of Budapest’s two iconic features: ruin pubs (check the Szimpla kert article) and bath culture (check the Dandár fürdő article). I really hope that this one will last longer that Tűzraktér’s previous liaisons.

The organizers stick to the original idea of freedom of arts and culture, but they set off to create a whole new concept this time, merging alternative culture and the tranquil world of thermal baths. When you enter the place through the main entrance of the bath, you immediately feel the smell of the healing water and the warm steam. Turning left, there is a nice little terrace which leads to the Termál bár, a bar and café resembling a Turkish hamam. This place is simply magical (see some really nice photos here), something I have never seen before.

The programs of Vízraktér are versatile. They have really good film clubs screening rarely seen movies (for example Turkish films), theatrical performances, small concerts, public readings and literary events. Moreover, they have already organized a cookie baking contest for the local seniors! 

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Vízraktér | Art & culture, Coffee & tea, Music, Theaters | Espresso HUF 290
Fő utca 84. | Central Buda
Mon – Fri 10:00 – 23:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Budapest

Image by Eszter Szilva

This is a place which you’d probably never come across accidentally, unless you get lost on your way to the nearby Children’s railway which is a popular spot for relaxing. Located in Hegyvidék district up in the hills of Buda, Moholy-Nagy University of Arts and Design (MOME) is outside the regular path of tourists, but worth a trip, especially if you’re interested in arts and design. Or just want to discover the greener side of Budapest which makes a striking contrast to downtown’s bustle.

The campus is a nice park, which is full of surprises. No wonder, as there are lot of inspiring artists here. You can bump into photos or other art objects randomly displayed. Just as every university buffets, MOME’s canteen (open to the public) is also noisy, people sit by their laptops or chat with each other. The red wooden benches and the industrial design makes this place a bit similar to the popular bars in the Pest side. The food comes in menus, or you can order pizza as well. The walls are full of design related program flyers which might help if you’re up to an exhibition or a party. The place also functions as a café with a nice terrace decorated by colorful graffitis.

The canteen is actually the ground floor of the dorm, a building which reminds me more of a guest house in the mountains than a regular university building. It’s a perfect place to have a break and absorb the laid-back atmosphere.

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MOME Kantin | Art & culture, Coffee & tea, Snacks | Menu from HUF 650
Zugligeti út 9 | Outer Buda
Mon – Fri 08:00 – 22:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Budapest

Image by Eszter Szilva

After passing Oktogon and walking down Andrássy street, it’s not so easy to find a nice café. This problem is partly solved by Ecocafé which was opened this year on Budapest’s famous avenue. The name is telling, you’ve guessed it, the café offers organic and fair trade coffee plus healthy home-baked snacks. Budapest’s slowly discovering the power of organic…

Biking home from Városliget park, I came across this spot randomly as the little terrace with flowers caught my attention. Stepping inside, I was impressed by the large, bright and modern space. Although everything is new and look somewhat sterile (especially if I compare it to my favorite places in Budapest), the kind waiters, the peaceful music and the calming combination of white, green and brown colors always make me feel relaxed. The place is mostly full of foreign students studying in Budapest, or tourists and locals heading to Városliget for a relaxing stroll.

The coffee is excellent, a blend of Guatemalan, Brazilian and Ethiopian beans. Cappuccino goes well with some cakes for baguettes, all of them made here. Those on the healthy side can choose wheat grass juice, or ask for soy milk with the coffee.

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Ecocafé | Coffee & tea, Snacks | Espresso HUF 330
Andrássy út 68 | Outer Pest
Mon – Fri 07:30 – 20:00, Sat – Sun 08:00 – 20:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Budapest

Image by Eszter Szilva

El Rapido has introduced a pretty unusual combination to the bar scene of the seventh district. It’s a taco buffet and a deli upstairs, plus a flea market bar in the cellar where everything you see is on sale.

Located in the busy Kazinczy street, El Rapido offers cheap and fast tacos and other Mexican-like fast food. The target group is clear: mainly those who arrive late in the evening from the neighborhood’s clubs and bars. As El Rapido is a deli as well, the shelves are packed with international food such as curry sauces, exotic spices and Mexican beers. 

While the small buffet is mostly crowded with people waiting for their snacks, downstairs you’ll enter a much more tranquil place. The smoky cellar bar is full of old tables, chairs and seemingly useless but funny retro gadgets, books and other bric-a-bracs. It feels a bit like sitting in a storage. That sort of a storage where you can choose from forty different types of Mexican tequilas… The slogan is the following: you can buy anything here. So if you feel that your chair is perfectly comfy, you just have to bargain a nice price and be happy with your Budapest souvenir.

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El Rapido | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks | Taco al pastor HUF 600
Budapest, 1075, Kazinczy utca 10. | Central Pest | +36302792861
Mon – Tue 11:30 – 02:00, Wed – Fri 11:30 – 03:00, Sat 12:00 – 04:00, Sun 17:00 – 02:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Budapest

Image by Eszter Szilva

It’s originally from Krakow, speaks English, offers interesting books and serves delicious coffee and tasty cookies in the heart of the Jewish district. Any guesses? Ok, I’ll help. Massolit, a café and English language bookstore from Poland, has recently opened its doors in Budapest as well, for the pleasure of expats, exchange and local university students, and basically everyone who speaks English.

For me, someone who graduated in English Literature, Media and Gender Studies, this place is a heaven of books as Massolit is specialised precisely in these areas (plus politics, history, Jewish Studies and other social studies) and offers great academic titles at reduced prices. Besides non-fiction, they have a selection of fiction as well. Reading requires coffee, of course, and here I get it from direct trade and in various seasonal blends.

The café and store is situated on a ground floor of an old building. The turquoise wooden windows, the black and white granite tiles, the palm tree and the big bookshelves embracing all these create an antique but still cozy interior. Behind you’ll find a terrace located in one of the nicest backyards of Budapest, especially friendly during the summer days when the garden is lush and green.

Similarly to the Krakow store, the Budapest branch also organizes concerts, readings and other social gatherings. In the back room you might bump into English courses as well.

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Massolit | Art & culture, Coffee & tea, Shopping | Espresso HUF 300
Nagy Diófa utca 30. | Central Pest | +3617885292
Mon – Sat: 11:00 – 20:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Budapest

Image by Eszter Szilva

Retro style is in nowadays, but Bambi is not a neatly designed retro parlor, it’s just a simple café which opened its doors fifty years ago and has not changed much since then. Located in one of Buda’s nicest side streets just a few steps away from Margit bridge, Bambi is equally perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon coffee or some glasses of post-work beer.

Bambi has become an institution, where time literally stood still. However, it’s one of Budapest’s liveliest cafés always brimming with people. If I fancy freshly baked baguettes, sophisticated cakes or triple chocolate latte machiattos with rice milk, I don’t go to Bambi. Here, I get simple or double espresso in a glass, foamed milk comes in a red dotted mug and the classic hot cheese sandwich or debreceni sausage is served with mustard and ketchup. Everything is decent and affordable, but that’s not the point, Bambi is famous for itself.

While most people, especially the non-smokers, prefer sitting at the roomy terrace, regular guests tend to occupy the back corner of the café where they play domino, card or board games all night long. The interior is defined by red faux leather chairs, embroidery tablecloths and yellow-green mosaic pillars.

Bambi has its own rules that you can read in the terrace (only in Hungarian). For example, you have to pay as soon as you get what you ordered. Finally, when you hear a bell ringing, don’t wait for Santa Claus, it’s just the signal of the closing hour.

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Bambi Eszpresszó | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks | Espresso HUF 220
Frankel Leó utca 2-4. | Central Buda | +3612123171
Mon – Fri 07:00 – 22:00, Sat – Sun 09:00 – 20:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Budapest

Image by Eszter Szilva

Design shop, gallery, café and silkscreen studio – you’ll find it all in place opposite the old synagogue in Jewish district’s Rumbach Sebestyén street.

Printa is a concept-store, that is, everything they offer is centered around a concept, here, eco-friendly design. Thus, the coffee they serve comes from direct trade and the items you can buy are designed by Hungarian designers who work with recycled or eco-friendly materials.

Besides the exquisite coffee beans, the trained baristas also guarantee that you get wonderful coffee here. As one of them said, we put sugar in our coffee only because the coffee is not of the best quality. However, if you have a sweet tooth, don’t be afraid, you’ll find sugar here.

Printa offers goodies from jewellery inspired by the beautiful matyó folk art embroidery to funny bags sewn from vintage leather jackets or silkscreen T-shirts with the names of iconic Budapest streets. If you want to make your own silkscreen print, register to the workshops!

The minimalistic but friendly interior contains two big tables and some seats at the counter, however, in a sunny weather you can take your seat outside in the huge windows. You might bump into exhibition openings and other social gatherings as well.

Printa is a great place to start a stroll in the Jewish district. What’s more, they have made their own, nicely designed map to downtown Pest. Delicious coffee and some cookies in your stomach, Printa’s map in your hands – you cannot get lost, only if you want to!

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Printa | Art & culture, Coffee & tea, Shopping | Espresso HUF 300
Rumbach Sebestyén utca 10. | Central Pest | +36302920329
Mon – Fri 11:00- 19:00, Sat 12:00 – 20:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Budapest

Image by Eszter Szilva

Sarki Fűszeres (Grocery store at the corner) is located next to Szent István park in Újlipótváros (thirteenth district), embraced by impressive Bauhaus buildings. It’s literally a corner of a house, often compared to the Flatiron Building of New York, while others tend to think that this place is a piece of Paris in Budapest. I’d rather say that it’s one of Budapest’s nicest faces. You won’t see it as often as the courtyard houses of downtown Pest, but it belongs very much to the city.

Sarki Fűszeres is something between a grocery store, a bistro and a café. Besides coffee and tea, they sell freshly baked breads, croissants, delicious cakes (you might bump into traditional Hungarian sweeties like Rákóczi túrós made with sweet cottage cheese) and a nice selection of cheese and ham. The tall wooden shelves are full of wine. You can order your sandwich with the ingredients you see in the counter or ask for a cheese plate. They are specialized in hearty breakfasts as well.

Unlike most of the cafés here, the lovely terrace of Sarki Fűszeres is open during cold weather – the heaters and blankets guarantee that you won’t freeze. However, you might enhance the warmth by sipping mulled wine cooked at the terrace in a huge caldron. Take your seat and enjoy the sight of the red, old school trolleybuses turning here to Pozsonyi street at a relatively high speed. Noisy and also a bit terrifying for trolley-freaks like me, but definitely part of the Újlipótváros picture.

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Sarki Fűszeres | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks | Espresso HUF 390
Pozsonyi út 53-55 | Outer Pest | +3612380600
Mon – Fri 08:00 – 22:00, Sat 08:00 – 15:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Budapest

Image by Eszter Szilva

Huge windows, remarkable ceiling height, and an interesting mix of industrial interior and old coffee-house furniture . When 400 opened last spring, this spacious bar felt to be a bit sterile at first sight but now it has become cozy and welcoming. In the meantime, its neighborhood has grown to be the new centre of Budapest’ night life, with the highest density of bars per square meter. For some reason, 400 has become the centre of the centre, at least for me.

As the owners are originally from Serbia, 400 offers some traditional Balkan dishes such as pljeskavica and cevapi. A hearty sandwich called “Balkan burger” is a must if you’re really hungry but there are different tapas as well if you feel like nibbling on some snacks with your wine.

Even if there’s no real dance floor here, lot of Friday nights end up with dancing in front of the DJ. However, my favorite thing is just sitting at the monumental wooden counter which occupies the middle of the bar and spotting the people around.

And why 400? It has nothing to do with Sparta. The answer is much more simple: 400 is as big as 400 square meters. Impressive!

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400 | Bars, Coffee & tea, Restaurants (International) | Balkan burger HUF 1090
Kazinczy utca 52/b | Central Pest | +366207760765
Mon – Fri 10:00 – 02:00, Sat – Sun 12:00 – 02:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Budapest

Image by Miklos Zsamboki

Centrál is a very elegant, old style coffee house and restaurant, a bit on the expensive side, but worth a look if you want to know what Pest was like a hundred years ago.

Thanks to Hungary’s proximity and, let’s say, historical contact with Turkey, coffee culture has always been big around here, but probably never so much so as in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Coffee houses were meeting points of the intellectual elite and the regular haunts of artists and journalists, some of who actually lived in coffee houses. Centrál Kávéház already existed back then, and even though it fulfilled other functions during the communist era, the new management is reaching back to the golden age for inspiration, and as far as looks go, they’re doing a good job.

The place looks exactly as it must have looked back then, and the selection of freely readable newspapers by the entrance is also a fitting touch.

The place is divided into a restaurant area, and a coffee house which is more appropriate for sitting down for a bit of a rest while sipping some tea or coffee. As for the food, it’s always been good when I tried it, but a bit pricey. However, if you want to sit down somewhere in the middle of the day to chat and look at passersby, Centrál has the perfect ambience for that – and a few teas or coffees won’t break the bank.

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Centrál Kávéház | Coffee & tea, Restaurants (European) | Main from HUF 1300
Károlyi Mihály utca 9 | Central Pest | +3612662110
07:00 – 00:00 daily

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Budapest