The below set of tips could help you to get the most out of your drinking and dining in Budapest.
#1 - Restaurants in the heart of the city center (District 5), especially those around Saint Stephen's Basilica, are mainly frequented by tourists and expats. You'll find more locals and lower prices in Districts 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, and 13. (By taking the mid-digits of the zip code, you can determine the district number; for example, a restaurant with a zip code of 1072 would be in District 7.)
#2 - In Hungary, it's customary to eat breakfast at home, but this tradition is changing with a rising number of tourists and foreign students. These days, you can easily track down an eggs Benedict in the city's trendier breakfast restaurants.
#3 - Except for fine dining restaurants, most places in Budapest don't employ hosts to greet and seat people, meaning that you're free to choose a table. At the same time, it’s nearly impossible to find open tables for walk-ins at peak hours in the 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 €10-12. Before choosing à la carte, it's 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'll serve and charge you for bottled water.
#6 - In Hungary, people usually eat dinner between 7 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 for 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. Kívánság is one of the surviving specimen. Note that étkezdes are closed on weekends.
#9 - Historically, Hungary has been a wine, rather than beer country. Today, still, the country has 22 wine regions. The most famous is Tokaj, in eastern Hungary, known for both its complex sweet wines – made with the help of a benign fungus – and lively dry furmint. For reds, try those from the Blaufränkisch (kékfrankos) grape. These are among the wine bars I like. (This doesn’t mean that craft beer bars don't exist in Budapest!)
#10 - The average quality of coffee is notably excellent in Budapest. Unlike in some other cities, such as Vienna, which doggedly – and adorably – sticks to its bland dark roasts, specialty coffee spread quickly into Budapest’s mainstream.
#11 - You're best off avoiding the dime-a-dozen downtown restaurants, many on Váci Street, which beckon tourist with special menus consisting of mediocre goulash soups and paprika-laced dishes. Instead, try these traditional Hungarian restaurants.
#12 - Unlike in Western Europe and the U.S., few long-standing, century-old restaurants exist in Budapest. This is in large part due to the Holocaust and the ensuing Communist regime. In the 1950s, restaurants were nationalized by the state, quality suffered, and most of them couldn't survive in the post-Communist period. Today, some of the oldest dining and drinking establishments in Budapest include Café Gerbeaud, Bambi, and Ibolya.
#13 - For historical reasons, Budapest has one of the largest Chinese communities in Europe, meaning that excellent Chinese food abounds. The best Chinese restaurants such as Hehe (casual eatery) and Spicy Fish (more upscale) are in Chinatown, known as Monori Center, on the outskirts of the city, accessible in 25-minutes by public transport.
#14 - Most of Budapest's fine dining restaurants specialize in contemporary French fare, with hat-tips to Hungarian classics and zeitgeisty Scandinavian and Asian techniques. Foie gras, sturgeon, mangalica pork, and vegetable purées are likely to appear in some form on their menus.
#15 - Main dishes in Budapest's restaurants usually range in price from €8-15. You can find many cheaper alternatives. Tasting menu price points at fine dining restaurants start from €65 and go up to €140 per person, not including tip and wine pairing. If money isn't an issue, I recommend you try Babel and Laurel restaurants.
#16 - 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.
#17 - 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.
#18 - Since 2021, all cafés, restaurants, and bars in Hungary are mandated to accept payments with a card. In practice, some places are still cash-only, so it’s generally a good idea to carry some money with you.
#19 - Thanks to Andy Vajna, the late Hungarian businessman with Hollywood connections, Budapest boasts Central Europe's only NOBU, the world's fanicest chain restaurant co-owned by Robert De Niro.
#20 - For 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.
#21 - Mentally prepare yourself for brusque service in Budapest. Waitstaff with an attitude is a general Central and Eastern European phenomenon – Vienna is a similar story (and due to a shortage of waiters, unlikely to change).
#22 - 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 try to go to Pizzica or Csirke Csibész.
#23 - Smoking has been banned since 2012 in all public and commercial indoor spaces in Hungary, including restaurants and bars.
#24 - 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 foreign diners who don't always realize that a no-show table is financially damaging for restaurants, especially during peak business hours.