Arriba is a recently opened Mexican fast food restaurant which has rapidly become popular, especially with the yuppie crowd (as far as I observed) and American expats craving for their Tex-Mex fix. The food is very nice – maybe not up to what you’d get in Mexico or some parts of the U.S. (I wouldn’t really know), but certainly the best I or my American friends have ever had in Budapest.

The place operates on the same “pick your own components” system as, say, Subway: you choose the base for you taco or burrito, the type of meat, and hand pick from a selection of various sauces, spices and veggies. The food is accompanied by a very nice selection of drinks, including Horchata (rice milk with cinnamon), Margarita, and various Mexican beers you can only get in maybe two or three places in Budapest.

While Taquerias are traditionally takeaways, Arriba also has plenty of seating on two levels. It’s a delightful place to sit down for you meal, with warm, colourful tables and adorable „faux kitsch” murals that really add to the upbeat vibe. Just be aware that the place can get quite crowded, and you might have no option but to take away your order and eat it elsewhere. Personally, I’ve had good luck so far late in the evening and just after lunchtime.

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Arriba Taqueria | Restaurants (Mexican) | Burrito HUF 1100
VI. Teréz körút 25 | Central Pest | +3613740057
Sun – Thu 11:00 – 00:00, Fri – Sat 11:00 – 02:00

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

Csiga is a friendly, cozy café and restaurant with really nice cuisine, rather popular with local expats. A very nice place; not too big, but it always has a relaxed, laid-back atmosphere, and is a good place to visit with a not-too-large group of friends.

I can’t say I’ve tried everything on the menu, but what I’ve tasted so far has always been fine. If you’re going to stay in Budapest for a while, it’s worth checking back, as part of the menu – the one on the blackboard on the wall – sometimes changes.

They also have wi-fi, if you need it.

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Café Csiga | Bars, Restaurants (Various) | Main dishes HUF 1800
Vásár utca 2 | Central Pest | +3612100885
11:00 – 01:00 daily

Pótkulcs is a bar, club and restaurant popular with the bohemian crowd, full of laid-back vibes, but rather crowded sometimes. Located a few minutes’walk from Nyugati train and metro station, it has a garden completely separated from the street by a wall, as well as indoor seating – and some of the fussball tables so ubiquitous in these kinds of places.

Personally, I find the garden to be my favourite part of the locale. There’s nothing objectively special about it, but it’s cozy, charming, and has just enough grass that isn’t covered by chairs and tables. In fact, it has such a nice ambience that once I’ve stayed there late at night just to watch a game of Bridge unfold – and I can’t even play Bridge!

One thing that separates Pótkulcs from many similar venues is that you can get some hot food here, making it a good stopping point on a late night crawl. You’ll need to walk a few minutes from and back to the nearest public transport, but that has the added bonus of clearing a bit of the alcohol haze from your head.

Do note that this is a smokers-friendly place, and the air can get rather thick even in the garden, so if you’re sensitive to cigarette smoke, you might want to go give the place a miss.

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Pótkulcs | Bars, Restaurants (Central-Eastern Eur.) | Beer HUF 450
Csengery utca 65/b | Outer Pest | +3612691050
Sun – Wed 17:00 – 01:30, Thu – Sat 17:00 – 02:30

Szimpla is hands-down the best known and most popular of Budapest’s “kert”-s(“gardens”) – courtyards of condemned or just abandoned buildings transformed into outdoor summer pubs, originally catering mostly for a young, bohemian clientele. As such, it has all the typical accroutements: crumbling architecture, plain but sturdy benches and tables, beer, totally kooky decor, lots of noise, beer, heavily stickered and graffitied toilets, and beer.

While there are many establishments that follow the same recipe, Szimpla is unique for having its own open-air movie theater, where they often play art movies, sparsely screened documentaries and the like. In recent years, they’ve also covered part of the venue with a roof to let them stay open all year round, and expanded into the upper floor, where you can also get some hot grub with your drinks.

Recently, I’ve heard some friends complain that Szimpla is getting too popular and thus too mainstream these days. Well, maybe that’s true – sometimes the crowd and the noise does get a bit too much for my tastes -, but it’s still more than worth checking out if you’re in town. Loud, friendly, visually lush and exciting; a great place to go when the company you desire is more upbeat than sublime.

Also, it’s one of the very few places in town where you can get cider. Pretty expensive – low-quantity import is bound to be pricey -, but there you have it: if you really, really want the stuff, you can get it here.

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Szimpla Kert | Bars, Restaurants (Various) | Beers HUF 500
Kazinczy utca 14 | Central Pest
12:00 – 04:00 daily

Budapest is chock-full of gyros and falafel stands and many operate all night to service the roving bands of pub crawlers. Yet, I’m going to recommend Szinbád, which is an atypical example for closing late afternoon. “But Kalman, you dark horse, you,” – some of you readers might exclaim – “you got us all excited about the idea of nighttime cuisine! Why recommend a daytime-only place, then?”

Well, simply put, the food is just so much better than elsewhere. You see, the food in many of these gyros places just tastes samey. Not bad, just rather indistinguishable from the food in all the other gyros places. That’s because (at least so I hear) all these places buy their stuff from the same central distributor, from the meat on the spit to the spices and sauces.

And that’s where Szinbád is different. The Syrian owner and his sons make all the food themselves on the spot, from original raw ingredients (except the baklava, but even that’s from some special source); therefore, their stuff has its own distinguishable – and very good – taste. So much so, in fact, that there people coming here from the far end of the city, passing half a dozen other takeaways of a similar profile on the way.

Personal tip: try the grape leaves filled with rice and ground meat. Just be aware that it’s rather messy for finger food, so you might want to take it away and eat in in the vicinity of a bathroom.

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Szinbád Büfé | Snacks, Restaurants (Takeaway) | Meal HUF 500
Kruspér utca 6-8 | Central Buda | +36203545390
10:00 – 19:00 daily

Bangla Büfé is a tiny Bangladeshi buffet / restaurant that offers great value for you money. It’s a rather special place, since this cuisine is hardly represented in Budapest at all – at least I couldn’t name another venue, that’s for sure. It’s perhaps very Budapest-like, then, that the (probably) single Bangladeshi place is not some large, swanky restaurant, but rather a tiny, tiled, one-roof affair with only a small handful of tables and an old gas stove in the kitchen.

The menu is rather small – one single page -, but I warmly recommend every single item on it. The food is fresh, always very tasty, and just the right amount: you can have your fill, but you won’t end up overly satiated. For those unfamiliar with Bangladeshi cuisine, there are large photographs of every dish.

There are two notes I must add. One, Bangla Büfé also functions as a takeaway. Two, the cuisine is all Halal – following Islamic law. This is very lucky for you if you happen to be Muslim, but a tiny bit inconvenient for those who like their curry or biryani with beer, as Halal and alcohol do not mix. Still, such a tiny sacrifice is more than worth it at Bangla.

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Bangla Büfé | Restaurants (Bangladeshi) | Main dishes HUF 1000
Akácfa utca 40 | Central Pest | +3612663674
Sat – Thu 12:00 – 23:00, Fri 14:30 – 23:00

You’re walking on Kazinczy street (where Szimpla (check the Szimpla article) can be found too) and the color strikes you: striking pink and blushing green. Hard to resist the temptation, so you enter the bar which you thought was a candy shop judging by the color.

A welcoming and warm interior, comfortable couches await you and two rabbits appear frequently in different situations as part of the design. Many of you from the region surely remember Bob and Bobek from the Czech cartoon series. They started their day every time with some gymnastics after jumping out of the hat. Czech cartoons were frequent guests on Hungarian television in my childhood.

In such a cheerful place there’s only one thing you can do – smile. And then come food and drinks, daily menu or a la carte.

Bobek has a garden in the backyard for those hot summer nights, which turns into a heated winter-garden when leaves start falling. Don’t panic if there’s no place in the pink-green oasis at the front, just boldly walk by the bar and grab your chance outdoors. Still no place to sit? Come on, then grab a drink, think of the rabbits and keep smiling.

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Bobek | Bars, Coffee & tea, Restaurants | Ciabatta from HUF 790
Kazinczy utca 53 | Central Pest | +3613220729
Mon – Thu 10:00 – 00:00, Fri 10:00 – 02:00, Sat 11:00 – 02:00

Hungary – and especially Budapest- has a long tradition of coffee houses. Though I guess coffee beans have never been grown anywhere in Central Europe (!), coffee has been ultimately associated with Culture at the heart of Europe.

Hungarian writers from the end of the 19th century till World war II spent most of their time in coffee houses asking the waiters for ink! At that time coffee was even called “fekete leves” which basically means “dark soup”.

Though most of Budapest famous writers cafes had to close during communism – putting an end to this brilliant tradition of coffee as a fuel for writing – some famous cafes reopened such as Centrál Kávéház. And I don’t really know why but in Central Europe I still feel some kind of coffee cosiness, something that I haven’t really found in Paris (no wonder when you see the price of an espresso over there!). For instance, when I lived in Warsaw I used to spend hours in nice cafes, reading the press, meeting people, working…

Alibi cafe is pretty much like that. The design imitates some libraries, the space is intimate and the coffee excellent. The neighborhood is ultimately picturesque too, with the Law faculty nearby, and all those narrow streets full of shops and cafes, so typically “Belvaros” (the city-centre). At Alibi, they also serve pastries and light lunch offers. And yes, you guess, it’s a cool place for breakfast too!

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Cafe Alibi | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks, Restaurants (Hungarian) | Espresso coffee HUF 350
Egyetem tér 4 | Central Pest | +3613174209
08:00 – 23:00 daily

It’s actually hard to believe but Budapest ‘public canteens’ are still operating more than 20 years after the regime which was officially sponsoring them collapsed. Well, of course their ownership lies in private hands now.

My Budapest favorite is the castle district ‘self-service restaurant’ – as we call it here (‘önkiszolgáló étterem’). It is very centrally located on castle hill, just a few steps away from Mathias’ church. It is a bit hard to find, that’s probably how the place kept its local taste though it made it into some foreign guidebooks (I know what I’m talking about!).

The canteen is just above Fortuna passage. On Hess András tér – Fortuna utca, go into the yard at the beginning of the street (yellow building with Fortuna written on it) and right after that, climb the stairs on your the left. You will find yourself in a spacious and bright room, that’s the canteen! Everything is written in Hungarian but you can see what will get on your plate from where you order.

The daily offer for about 700 Ft (including a soup and an main course) is usually gone by 13:30, so be quick! Otherwise you’ll have to order what’s still available (a la carte, still cheap though)! Don’t forget to sort out your knife, fork, spoon, glass, plate and tray, there is a space for that purpose on the left. So nothing left to say, just enjoy your meal!

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Castle – district canteen | Snacks, Restaurants (Hungarian) | Meal HUF 800
Fortuna utca 4 | Central Buda
Mon – Fri 11:30 – 14:30