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

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Image by Szilva Eszter

Facades of classic cinemas with their black letters and neon commercials always impress me. The entrance of Szikra Cool Tour House opposite Nyugati station is one of these spots. The name of this complex institution is a Hunglish word pun: kultúrház (yes, to be pronounced Cool Tour House) means cultural center especially since the early socialist era where different events were organized from official celebrations to concerts of local choirs. Szikra’s programs are just as diverse.

Built in the 1920s, Szikra functioned as a cinema until the end of the 1990s. Its main sensation is the roof of its theatre room which can be opened and closed thanks to a clever machinery. When I was there last time at a Pecha Kucha night, the audience gathering to listen to designers and architects was just as amazed by discovering the starry night above their heads as cinema goers of the 1920s could have been. There’s something magical about sitting in a traditional theatre and watching the sky framed by golden stuccos.

Szikra admittedly goes against Budapest’s famous ruin bar trend by evoking a cabaret milieu. The ornate and shiny decors and the posh bar go perfectly with the atmosphere of the theatre. The program ranges from mainstream to alternative, from jazz concerts to independent theatre performances or DJ sets. The building houses a bar and bistro which you can reach from the street from as early as 8 o’clock in the morning. The snacks and drinks keep you sated until the show begins.

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Szikra | Art & culture, Bars, Cinemas, Music, Snacks, Theaters | Espresso HUF 250
Budapest, 1066, Teréz krt. 62. | Central Pest | +3619110911
Sun – Tue 10:00 – 02:00, Wed – Thu 10:00 – 04:00, Fri – Sat 10:00 – 06:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Budapest

Image by András Nagy

Narrow steps lead to the basement of an old house in Kertész street. Bricks and painted surfaces vary on the walls of this small bar. If you happen to speak Finnish, you’ll know that the bar’s name has a “slight” sexual connotation. Watch out, if you see pink lights and dancing girls, you’re on the opposite side of the street in the peep show basement. Vittula has some kind of artsy punk feel and I can imagine that in the back catacombs reach under the blocks to the edge of the city.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights alternately entertain with concerts and parties, other nights are for hanging out with drinks. Not Sundays though, that’s for resting. The connecting gallery, Contemporary Art Space presents, guess what, contemporary art, which means funny or confusing stuff worth to see.

Opening times are somewhat chaotic, Vittula might open at 18:00 or not, more importantly they stay open till the break of down, that’s the reason behind most of my visits this far.

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Klub Vittula | Bars, Music | Beer HUF 390
Kertész utca 4 | Central Pest
Mon – Fri 18:00 – 04:00, Sat 20:00 – 04:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Budapest

Image by Miklos Zsamboki

“Corvin roof” is a club and bar with an open-air area inside and atop Corvin Department Store, an ugly, grey, communist-era building at Blaha Lujza metro station.

Finding the place is a bit tricky, which lends it a sort of “hidden treasure” charm: you have to walk into a side street and look for a cargo elevator at the end of a short passageway, inside a fast food buffet with the sign “Corvin Kifozde”. You can’t call the elevator – it keeps going up and down every few minutes (or you can take the stairs to the top floor, but that’s much less fun). As a very friendly touch, really thirsty or impatient partygoers can buy some drinks from the friendly elevator attendant’s icebox.

In the club you can buy drinks, sit down at a table for a chat, or take to the dance floor. However, if you’re there during the summer and want to see what’s really cool about Corvinteto, you should look for stairs leading up to the building’s spacious rooftop with its own bar, plenty of seating, and much easier conversation without the loud music that plays sometimes. On a warm evening you can really chill out and chat away with a cool urban backdrop surrounding you – and if you get restless, the dance floor is right below.

Do note that the rooftop closes for the winter; no exact closing or opening date, it depends on the weather.

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Corvinteto | Bars, Music | Beer HUF 500
Blaha Lujza tér 1-2 | Central Pest | +36207722984
Mon – Sat 18:00 – 05:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Budapest

Image by Miklos Zsamboki

Kuplung is an indoors equivalent of the beergardens that became so popular in the last decade, and is an excellent place to go if you want to see the boho grungy side of Pest but it happens to be winter. The street entrance is a bit hard to spot – make sure you know the house number! -, but it’s worth the search.

Like many other venues of this style, Kuplung was once a run-down building – an auto repair shop, hence the name meaning “clutch” – that was fixed up, the walls graffitied in cheerful colours, some durable tables and chairs dropped in, and some clever decor added, this one dominated by a large paper whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling.

The main room, even though some other venues might beat it in total floor area, feels comfortably spacious, so you and your party can have some elbow space even when the place is full. There’s also a smaller room where they sometimes have concerts, and a third, more recently opened bar room with a generous size, but I just haven’t got around to drinking in that one yet, so opinion will be forthcoming later.

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Kuplung | Bars, Music | Beers from HUF 500
Király utca 46 | Central Pest
Mon – Sat from 14:00, Sun from 18:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Budapest

Image by Nyitott Muhely

Nyitott Muhely – “Open Workshop” – is one of the most unique spots in Budapest, a teahouse, performance venue, exhibition gallery, second-hand bookstore, netcafé, meeting point and (surprisingly) leatherworkshop in one.

Laci, the jovial proprietor, originally launched the place as a workshop (he is a leatherworker by trade). But then, to quote him, “culture kicked in the door,” and he gradually expanded it into many different functions. If you walk in today, you’ll find bunches of art magazines by the entrance, some exhibition or another on the walls of the back room, and quite often some sort of lecture, music jam, round table discussion or some other activity in progress. One corner still holds leatherworking tools and there are bundles of rolled-up leather on overhead shelves, reminding the visitor of the place’s original function.

Then there is the bar. One of the things Nyitott Muhely excels at is tea. There are dozens of different types, all in neat stacks of colourful boxes. You can also get something hot to eat in the evening, as Laci often cooks something on his stove both for the guests and himself – sometimes it’s goulash, sometimes it’s pasta or chicken legs; always a surprise. Those who don’t like the item on offer or arrive when there’s no hot food can always get sandwiches.

Nyitott Muhely is a performance venue first, and an eating/drinking place only second. Therefore, if you happen to drop in while there’s an event going on, you’ll be asked to keep your voice down.

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Nyitott Muhely | Art & culture, Coffee & tea, Music | Tea HUF 300
Ráth György utca 4 | Central Buda | +3612140676
14:00 – 00:00 daily

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Budapest

Image by András Nagy

The former Corvin Áruház hosts two spots at once: Jelen [present] on the ground floor and Corvintető on the top floor. This duality lets you combine alcohol and concerts, starting on the ground floor and going high or beginning at the top and slowly sinking down to the very bottom. It’s close to a major traffic conjunction still in a small street, a cozy and spacey pub at the same time with three rooms, as you can see on the photos.

I’ve been wondering why the concert room of Jelen is smaller than the actual pub area. The more the merrier? Indeed. All of my concert memories tell about a heavy crowd although there might have been only 50 people. Nice trick! However, they never charged me for a concert. Regarding the musical profile, I’d tick the ‘jazz’ and ‘world music’ boxes on the query.

The wine bar has a pretty solid assortment of wines from all over the country, also for take-away. Jelen feeds you bistro food, they have a brunch menu, a lunch menu and a la carte meals.

It’s an excellent stop on your downtown bar hopping tour, easy to reach and within a block you’ll have several other places to visit. Due to the late closing time there is no hurry, just make sure you find your way back home.

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Jelen | Bars, Coffee & tea, Music, Snacks | Soproni beer HUF 490
Blaha Lujza tér 1-2 | Central Pest | +36203443155
Mon – Tue 11:00 – 02:00, Wed – Fri 11:00 – 04:00, Sat 16:00 – 04:00, Sun 16:00 – 02:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Budapest

Image by András Nagy

Stuff, lots of stuff. On the walls, on the lamps, on the doors. This is the first thing you notice and the collection of Babos Zsili Bertalan grabs your attention for at least a half an hour. Funny reinventions of Barbie dolls, toys, signs, a bike or a lifebuoy stare at you all over the place. Even the menu is a bit special, blackboards are used in many bars but this one is simply enormous. Click for photos.

They have a wise choice of location: off Múzeum körút, just 50 meters away from one of the biggest university campuses in Budapest – the place is packed day and night. The chaos on the walls, the eclectic variety of furniture create a mellow atmosphere but Csendes is not really quiet as the name would suggest. Live music and live acts entertain the guests who, according to the owners’ plans can easily get to know each other and spend quality time together in the ‘living space’ as the place defines itself.

The days of the week are scheduled for various programs: Mondays for films and photos, Tuesdays for old Hungarian music, Wednesdays live music, Thursdays dj-s vs. instruments, Fridays Balkan music, Saturdays apéro i.e. warm-up with aperitifs for the night and finally Sundays literature or theatre.

Relax a bit in Károlyi Gardens around the corner before coming inside to join the company.

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Csendes Létterem | Art & culture, Bars, Cinemas, Music, Theaters, Festivals & events | Soproni beer HUF 480
Ferenczy István utca 5 | Central Pest | +36307588935
Mon – Fri 08:00 – 00:00, Sat 10:00 – 00:00, Sun 14:00 – 00:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Budapest

Image by Hélène Bienvenu

I’m definitely more a Pest girl than a Buda lady, however I reckon that Buda has nice little spots and Millenáris is one of them – along with Gül Baba türbeje.

So what’s so special about that place? Well, first, it’s worth underlying the very clever use of the old Ganz factory premises, which has been turned into a cultural center and a well-designed park. The park’s main attraction is not so much the greeneries but the wide pond. It gives the Millenáris park some Japanese garden touch. There is even a bridge to go over the water and observe the enormous fishes swimming behind you.

Second, it’s a lively place day and night. During the day and the week-ends lots of famlies come here as there is also a playground, besides the kids can explore the ‘palace of miracles’ (‘csodák Palotája’) which is some kind of interactive scientific exhibition hall. The ‘Fogado’, one of these huge former industrial buildings you see at the back, has very often exhibitions.

At night, you can head to the teátrum for a cool concert, a drink on a old tram seat or a theatre performance. It is truly one of Budapest best cultural venues!

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Millenáris park | Art & culture, Music, Theaters | Palace of miracles HUF 1400
Kis Rókus utca 16-20 | Central Buda
Palace Mon – Fri 09:00 – 17:00, Sat – Sun 10:00 – 18:00 | Garden 06:00 – 23:00 daily.

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Budapest

Image by Hélène Bienvenu

Trafó is the first name that comes to my mind when I think of alternative cultural centres in Budapest. It is located at the heart of the 9th disctrict (Ferencváros).

The place stands in a building which was once a power-station (a ‘Trafó’) left abandoned during Communism, to be squatted by French anarchists -well done guys!- at the beginning of the 90′s. The place got funding and official support later on: Trafó officially opened its doors in 1998.

The place really deserves its second name ‘the house of contemporary arts’. If you go downstairs, you’ll find an exhibition space, as well as a nightclub – Mappa (ex- bar-tango). Upstairs, that’s where the stage is.

Trafó has the most interesting and eclectic event-calendar ever. It works as a theatre, a concert-hall, a workshop area, a gallery… Contemporary dance companies regularly come to perform here, including Josef Nadj and Pal Franak. There’s been some concerns recently about Trafó’s ownership, hopefully there won’t be significant changes…

Though it hosts a variety of concerts, I’d say Trafó mostly features world and oriental music. Big names show up quite regularly actually. Last year I got to see Mohammad Motamedi (Iranian classical music), recently I saw the Gundecha brothers (on the picture) as Trafó and Tilos radio sometimes put together classical Indian music master classes.

There’s also a café (with wifi), where to have a drink before and after the shows. In fact, Trafó is an open-place, it has a bit of everything for everyone, not only for contemporary art freaks!

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Trafó | Art & culture, Bars, Music, Theaters | Ticket from HUF 1000
Liliom utca 41 | Central Pest | +3614562040
Box office Mon – Fri 16:00 – 20:00, Sat – Sun 17:00 – 20:00 (till 22.00 on performances’ days).

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Budapest