Stand25 Bistro

When in 2017 Szabina Szulló and Tamás Széll, the latter a European Bocuse d'Or winner and celebrity-chef in Hungary, announced they were leaving their Michelin-starred restaurant to venture out on their own, one didn’t need a business degree to predict success. The concept of Stand25 was to prove that traditional Hungarian fare can be more than the gut-busting, high-carb, greasy affair this country got used to during the Communist period (1948-1989) and well past that.

Indeed, the restaurant's success was immediate: a well-off local crowd fills Stand25's tables every day for lunch and dinner. Stand25 doesn’t so much reinterpret the classics as it elevates them. The paprika-hued goulash soup arrives with tender cubes of beef nicely crusted through the Maillard reaction. The sharp taste of the paprika is brightened with chopped celery roots, celery leaves, and hints of lemon peel.

The Jókai bean soup, the catfish paprikash, the wild boar stew and the other dishes receive similarly focused attention. Stand’s other claim to fame is the sweet noodle plates that people in Hungary – and the former Habsburg crown lands – eat after a hefty soup or as a dessert. I’m thinking of the túrógombóc, fresh curd cheese dumplings anointed with sour cream and cherry preserves; the diamond-shaped potato dumplings coated in butter and sugary ground walnuts (diós nudli); the rolled palacsinta (crépe) filled with an incredible hazelnut cream. Worth any sugar-induced guilt that might overcome you.

With €20-28 mains, Stand25 is very pricey, especially by local standards, which means the crowd leans corporate, although local families also appear (in 2018, the chef duo opened a fine dining temple on the Pest side, Stand, which boasts two Michelin stars). Stand25’s disciplined professionalism, which can be observed through the open kitchen, has set a new standard in Budapest and other places have since found inspiration in its approach to traditional fare and all-around hospitality.