7Stand Restaurant
Stand Restaurant is the fine dining project of local celebrity chef-duo, Szabina Szulló and Tamás Széll, and follows the success of Stand25, their highly acclaimed casual restaurant on the Buda side of the city. Here too, their success was almost immediate: accolades quickly poured in, and the restaurant won a Michelin star in 2019, less than a year after opening.
Stand serves the usual suspects of fine dining, including foie gras and venison loin, but it's the updated Hungarian classics that stand out from the eight-course tasting menu. The fish soup, a traditional peasant fare in Danubian towns, is especially memorable: the flavorful and mildly spicy paprika-laced broth comes drizzled with tortellini-like pasta stuffed with smoked carp. The prettiest dish is the sterlet, a small species of sturgeon. The delicately rolled-up fish is topped with roe and drenched in a luscious clam sauce. You can observe the meticulous prep work that goes into these elaborate plates via the see-through kitchen where an army of cooks scuttle about.
Overall, Stand offers an all-around reliable fine dining experience, with kind and informed service. Nevertheless, I was wishing for even more dishes that burst with flavor — like the goulash and the fish soup — and deservedly elicit oohs and aahs from diners.
The eight-course dinner tasting menu runs €110 per person (€170 with wine pairing), similar to comparable fine dining restaruants in Budapest. For lunch, three and four-course options are available (€40 / €55). The wine program, overseen by head-sommelier János Gervai who is a winemaker himself, features bottles from the major Hungarian wine regions.
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