Carmel Restaurant

Managed by the Hungarian Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic community, Carmel is one of Budapest’s few glatt kosher meat restaurants. During the meal a mashgiach – an official supervising rabbi – is present at all times to ensure that the Jewish dietary laws (kashrut) are observed. Carmel gets liveliest during Shabbat meals, that is, Friday's dinner and Saturday's lunch when joyful orthodox and ultraorthodox Jews from around the world, both Sephardis and Ashkenazis, congregate here. Guests must prepay the meals, which costs €35 per person.

The meals feature both Middle Eastern and Ashkenazi dishes: there are mezze plates of matbucha, eggplant, hummus, tahini, and also “Jewish" egg salad, gefilte fish, slow-cooked beef shank, cholent, and babka. On regular days, Carmel serves traditional, although unremarkable kosher Hungarian dishes such as a goulash soup and a beef stew (pörkölt).