A Guide To Budapest's Restaurants

#1 - Restaurants in the historic city center (District 5), especially those around Saint Stephen's Basilica, are mainly frequented by tourists and expats. You will find more locals and lower prices in Districts 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, and 13. The middle digits of a postal code denote its district number; for example, a restaurant with a postal code of 1072 would be in District 7.

#2 - In Hungary, it is customary to eat breakfast at home but this tradition is changing with a rising number of tourists and foreign students. These days, one can easily track down an eggs Benedict in the city's trendier breakfast restaurants; on the other hand, these places can often feel bland and formulaic. When I go out for breakfast, these are usually my top choices.

#3 - Except for fine dining restaurants, most places in Budapest don't employ hosts to greet and seat people, meaning that you are free to choose a table. At the same time, it can be impossible to find open tables for walk-ins in many traditional and fashionable restaurants, so try booking in advance.

#4 - A wallet-friendly weekday lunch prix fixe is available in many restaurants, usually ranging in price between €10-15. Before choosing à la carte, it is worth inquiring about a set meal.

#5 - Free water and free refills are largely unknown concepts in Budapest and greater Hungary – you should specifically ask your server for tap water (to which they may react with mild annoyance), otherwise they will serve and charge you for bottled water.

#6 - In Hungary, people usually eat dinner between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. and it's the main meal of the day. For the best experience, try booking a table for 8 p.m. Most fine dining restaurants turn only one table an evening, meaning that you should be able to score an 8 p.m. reservation.

#7 - Many Budapest restaurants are closed on Sundays, sometimes even the whole weekend, so be sure to double-check the opening hours before you trek across town. Fine dining restaurants are usually closed on Sundays and Mondays.

#8 - In Budapest's ever-more international restaurant landscape, étkezdes are among the last bastions of local dining. These no-frills, lunch-only eateries – similar to osterias in Italy – serve low-priced everyday dishes to neighborhood residents. Öcsi Étkezde is one of the surviving specimen. Note that étkezdes are closed on the weekend.

#9 - Historically, Hungary has been a wine rather than beer country. Today, still, the country boasts 22 wine regions. Most famous is Tokaj, in eastern Hungary, known for its complex and completely delicious sweet wines made with the help of a benign fungus. For reds, try those from the Blaufränkisch (kékfrankos) grape. Here, some wine bars I like.

#10 - Unlike some other European cities with extremely deep-rooted local drinking and dining traditions such as Rome and Paris, Budapest is usually quick to adopt global trends. This has been the case with specialty coffee which quickly spread into the mainstream. It is a positive that delicious coffee is to be had in most Budapest neighborhoods, but I wish that these coffee shops tried to show more sense of place rather than simply imitating a global trend without much of a local context.

#11 - Unlike Western Europe and the United States, Hungary has few long-standing restaurants. This is in large part due to the double-calamity of the Holocaust and the ensuing Communist period. First, many small business owners were part of the half a million Hungarian Jewish people killed in Auschwitz. Second, the Communist Party nationalized almost all restaurants in the 1950s, which resulted in a dramatic decline in quality. These establishments then couldn't survive in the post-1989 free market enviornment. Today, some of the oldest dining and drinking establishments in Budapest include Ruszwurm pastry shop, Café Gerbeaud, Bambi Eszpresszó, and Mátra Borozó. 2025 August update: due to a legal dispute between the local municipality and the owners, Ruszwurm is currently non-operational.

#12 - For historical reasons, Budapest has one of the largest Chinese communities in Europe. It follows that excellent Chinese food abounds. The best Chinese restaurants, such as Hehe (a casual Sichuan eatery) and Spicy Fish (more upscale), are located in Chinatown, known as Monori Center. Chinatown is reachable in twenty minutes by public transport from the city center.

#13 - Budapest's Michelin-starred restaurants serve high-end dishes within a framework of French fine dining traditions with hat-tips to Hungarian classics and zeitgeisty Scandinavian and Asian techniques. Foie gras, sturgeon, and mangalica pork are likely to appear in some form on their menus. They often pair their dishes with an all-Hungarian wine selection.

#14 - Main dishes in Budapest's restaurants usually range in price from €10-17. Tasting menu price points at fine dining restaurants start from €65 and go up to €150 per person, not including tip and wine pairing.

#15 - Despite being part of the EU, Hungary hasn't yet switched to the euro currency, instead still using the Hungarian forint. Given the weakness of the forint, most prices run into the thousands, ten thousands, so be sure to double-check the zeros on your bill before paying.

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#16 - As for tipping, ten percent is the standard and expected in Hungarian restaurants and bars, with up to fifteen for exceptional service. Lately, some places have begun to add an automatic service charge to the bill (usually 10-12 percent), and your server may or may not draw your attention to this.

#17 - Since 2021, all cafés, restaurants, and bars in Hungary are mandated to accept card payments and almost all of them do.

#18 - In line with the city's adFor reasons that are specific to the region, Budapest has become a bit of a pizza capital in recent years. The Naples-style pies – charred on the edges, soupy in the middle, a pliant dough throughout – are especially popular. You could try Pizza Manufaktúra or Moto, for example.

#19 - Mentally prepare yourself for brusque service in Budapest. Waitstaff with an attitude is a general Central and Eastern European phenomenon (or European?). This is unlikely to change due to a shortage of waiters.

#20 - We all know how rewarding a late-night meal can be, be it after a long shift in the office or a night of debauchery. Unfortunately, it’s hard to find places in Budapest that serve solid hot food past 10 p.m. Almost no sit-down restaurants cater to night-owls and your best bet is the dime-a-dozen gyro or pizza joints swarming the city. I usually go to Pizzica or Csirke Csibész.

#21 - Smoking was banned in 2012 in all public and commercial indoor spaces in Hungary, including restaurants and bars.

#22 - Finally, let me kindly ask that you refrain from booking tables to multiple restaurants for the same time. Unfortunately, this is a common practice among tourists who don't always realize that a no-show table is financially damaging for restaurants, especially during peak business hours. Happy eating!