Arán Bakery

Arán, which means "bread" in Old Irish, is a wildly popular craft bakery in Budapest's Jewish Quarter run by Kinga and Attila Pécsi. The couple spent a decade living in Ireland and it was there that Kinga mastered her baking skills. Arán lives up to its moniker: the whole wheat, rye, and white breads are all wonderful, imparting the slightly sour taste of long-fermented sourdough. On Fridays, they also make kalács, a sweet roll similar to a challah.

Bread is the specialty here, but the morning pastries are also good, especially the chorizo and jalapeno-stuffed croissant and the seasonal stuffed pastries. Despite numerous requests that I have launched, Arán unfortunately doesn't make traditional Hungarian classics such as túrós batyu (cottage-cheese bun) and kakaós csiga (chocolate roll).