The 25 Hottest Breakfast & Brunch Places In Budapest

By Tas TobiasLast updated: Apr. 22, 2023

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Until recently, it was difficult to find a decent breakfast in Budapest because most locals eat breakfast at home. Thanks to the influx of tourists, though, several restaurants have opened where on-trend interior designs and chic waitstaffs go hand in hand with a well-prepared plate of eggs Benedict. Or avocado toast, in case you were wondering.

#1 À la Maison Grand Budapest

À la Maison Grand is a polished breakfast restaurant in the middle of Budapest's downtown, occupying the ground floor of a 1906 Art Nouveau building (take a glance at the striking glass mosaic perched atop the building). The owners spared no expense on the gleaming white, high-ceilinged interior that features plush chairs and comfortable, dusty-blue sofas. Chic, tourist-heavy crowds flock here for the breakfast-all-day and brunch offerings that include reliably prepared croque madame, eggs Florentine, waffles, and also zeitgesty things like acai bowl and avocado toast. Reservations are recommended.

#2 Solid

Chic breakfast venue in the morning, snug dinner destination and wine bar in the evening, Solid hides on the top floor of a small boutique hotel (Rum) in downtown. The views are striking – the many church spires and the Gellért Hill seem within arm's reach – and all tables provide panoramic views. For breakfast, the eggs Benedict with a side of smoked trout is the one to go for.

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#3 Portobello (Coffee & Wine)

Budapest has plenty of specialty coffee shops, several cool wine bars, and an increasing number of hip breakfast restaurants, but the tiny Portobello is the first that triples as all three at once. This pricey, high-ceilinged establishment is tucked away on a cobblestoned downtown side street, with a sleek coffee machine, blond wood, oversized windows, and a communal table dominating the polished interior.

#4 Szimply

Szimply is a highly popular breakfast-all-day restaurant in the cobble-stoned courtyard of a historic downtown building in Budapest. It's next to impossible to find an open table at this closet-sized breakfast nook. The short menu is a collection of on-trend international breakfast staples, most of which are pricey and expertly prepared. Naturally, there's avocado toast, strewn with chickpeas, beets, pickled onions, and ruccola. The menu changes seasonally but it's usually heavy on vegan and gluten-free options. In the name of good health, Szimply doesn't serve alcohol.

#5 Kaptafa

Akácfa Street in Budapest's party district is best known for Fogas ruin bar, but recently new places have popped up at a head-spinning pace. One of my favorites is Kaptafa, a hip breakfast-all-day restaurant. The high-ceilinged space used to be home to a shoe repair shop, hence "kaptafa," which means shoe tree in Hungarian. Yes, you could take issue with the cliched design elements – chipped walls and Edison bulbs – but effortlessly cool vibes suffuse the place nonetheless.

#6 Horizont Cafe

If the iconic New York Café, located right across the street from here, offers a journey back in time, then Horizont Café shows off Budapest's contemporary side. This hip café and breakfast restaurant with floor-to-ceiling windows used to be a movie theater's ticket office. Following a gut renovation, the round interior features mid-century modern and Art Deco furnishings complete with hanging globe lamps, vivid colors, and brass finishes. Central to the space is the coffee counter, where a couple of baristas ground, brew, and serve filter coffees and espresso-based drinks.

#7 Double Shot Partisan Coffee

Hiding on a quiet downtown side street, Double Shot is a chic breakfast-all-day restaurant and coffee shop in Budapest. The usual suspects of popular international breakfast foods and drinks appear on the menu, including avocado toast, granola bowls, and turmeric latte. They’re all reliably tasty and beautifully plated, even if a bit predictable. Cocktails, craft beers, and Hungarian wines are also available. Note that the prices reflect a bit of downtown mark-up.

#8 STIKA Budapest

STIKA is a hip breakfast restaurant in Budapest where tattooed servers scurry around a sleek space fitted with vintage light bulbs and greenery while fresh R&B tunes drift from the background. In Budapest, many places have tried to nail the concept, but STIKA, this pocket-sized restaurant in the old Jewish Quarter, was the first to get it right. The food is far from memorable, but the vibes can make up for it.

#9 Villa Bagatelle

You’ll need to leave downtown to experience this upscale, see-and-be-seen breakfast restaurant perched on the Buda Hills. Villa Bagatelle is located inside a nicely refurbished residential villa and takes less than 20 minutes to get to by public transport from Pest (you’ll likely be the only guest arriving by bus, judging from the Porsche-heavy parking lot). The food is predictable – egg dishes, frankfurters, breakfast pastries – but very tasty. There’s also a to-go bakery on the ground floor. Reservations are recommended; try to sit on the outdoor terrace in the warmer months.

#10 Lumen Café Budapest

Head to Lumen Café if you'd like to avoid the tourist-heavy streets of the Jewish Quarter but still get a cup of specialty coffee or craft beer in a hip neighborhood. With egg-based breakfast dishes, a full-service kitchen, and a sleek interior featuring plenty of greens, concrete, and wood finishes, Lumen is more than your average neighborhood café. But it's the patrons — students, artists, and local bohemians — who give soul to the place.

#11 Gerlóczy Cafe

Gerlóczy is a snug café and restaurant tucked away on an unusually quiet pocket of Budapest's downtown. The charming square outside the restaurant, surrounded by elegant pre-war buildings, is a well-kept secret of this otherwise tourist-heavy neighborhood. Gerlóczy's interior evokes French bistro vibes, featuring small round tables, leather banquettes, and a high ceiling. In the warm months, the outdoor terrace is especially enjoyable.

#12 Flow Cafe

Flow is a vegan breakfast restaurant right along Andrássy, the fancy boulevard connecting Budapest’s downtown with the City Park. Chickpea and linseed-based omelet, granola, breakfast pastries, cakes, fruit juices, and specialty coffee. Not all dishes are hits, but the service is kind, the location unique. If the inside is full, they might have space for you in the interior courtyard. After your meal, dart across the street to the University of Fine Arts, where students’ works are usually exhibited in the main hall.

#13 DOBRUMBA

When I'd like to impress my friends that Budapest has restaurants as hip as those in New York's East Village, I take them out to Dobrumba. With a chic crowd, effortlessly cool design, and a Middle Eastern menu, Dobrumba is a wildly popular place inside Budapest's buzzing Jewish Quarter. It's especially enjoyable in the warmer months when the oversized windows swing open and the ear-catching electronic music wafts into the street.

#14 Déryné Bistro

Curious where the top one percent of Buda residents hang out? Wonder no more. The owners of Déryné Bistro were ahead of the curve when in 2007 they opened this chic restaurant featuring a Balthazar-like interior as if straight out of the Keith McNally playbook. Back then, few places in Budapest offered this brand of casually hip but classy vibes. Déryné has managed to remain popular through all these years, even as comparable restaurants have sprouted up on the other side of the Danube with lower price points.

#15 Két Szerecsen Bistro

Opened two decades ago, Két Szerecsen is beloved neighborhood restaurant on Nagymező Street, located between Budapest's grand Andrássy Avenue and the Jewish Quarter. The space receives plenty of natural light through oversized windows and there are cozy nooks amid the tightly cramped wooden tables.

#16 Bambi Eszpresszó

If you're looking to immerse yourself in a deeply local, Communist-era neighborhood cafe and bar (eszpresszó), I can't think of a better place than Bambi on the Buda side. What makes Bambi the real deal? It isn’t trying to show off an artificial (retro), unremembered past – it’s a genuine throwback.

#17 Jedermann Café

Founded by the legendary Budapest restaurateur, Hans van Vliet, Jedermann is a snug, all-inviting café and restaurant for all to enjoy (hence "Jedermann," which translates to "everyone"). On any given day, tables might be filled with senior citizens fiercely debating Hungarian politics, students gossiping over a cup of coffee, and a theater director mapping out upcoming projects with the staff. Jedermann is buried on a quiet part of District 9, not far from the city center but away from the throngs clogging the party district.

#18 Csendes Társ (Outdoor Only)

Csendes Társ is an adorable outdoor-only café by Károlyi-kert, a pretty park in downtown Budapest known for its colorful flower beds and manicured lawns. The place is an unlikely island of peace and calm within the hustle and bustle of the city center. I like to come here for a late breakfast (they open at 10 a.m.), or for drinks in the evening when the neighborhood has quieted down and colorful lanterns provide soft lighting.

#19 Törökméz

Törökméz is a charming restaurant perched on Rózsadomb, the verdant hill on the Buda side of the Danube. They specialize in on-trend breakfast foods: shakshuka, eggs Benedict, savory French toast, you name it. Local bbers and wines are also available. Being on the Buda side, away from the tourist-heavy areas, means that Törökméz draws a mainly local crowd.

#20 Cinnamon

The Buda side of the city has begun to catch up to Pest when it comes to having chic, new-wave breakfast joints. New wave? The kinds of places that cater to global tastes with dishes that wouldn’t seem out of place anywhere from Sydney to San Francisco: avocado toast, eggs Benedict, omelets, pancake, granola bowl, you name it. There’s nothing memorable about Cinnamon’s all-day breakfast dishes, but they’re perfectly satisfying (a highlight is the apple-custard-filled cinnamon donut).

#21 Bartók

Bartók is a chic restaurant and café located on Bartók Béla Boulevard on the Buda side of the Danube. The interior fittings feature a little bit of everything that's been trending in the recent past: exposed brick walls, Edison bulbs, subway tiles, rustic table tops, and steel I-beams. The breakfast dishes include the usual suspects: eggs Benedict variations, scrambled eggs, bagels. In the afternoon, the place transforms into a bar and restaurant with a selection of Hungarian wines, draft beers. The crowd is mainly local and 30-plus. Once, here it's worth exploring this increasingly lively neighborhood with many treasures.

#22 Budapest Baristas

Budapest Baristas is a small specialty café and breakfast restaurant in Budapest's downtown. They serve seven kinds of bagels (yes, the boiled-and-baked version, but they aren't made in-house), including one with a classic smoked salmon topping. They're tasty, but keep in mind that Budapest is no bagel capital like Montreal or New York. There's also other on-trend international breakfast foods like pancakes, granola bowls, and eggs Benedict. Portions are on the small side — most people can easily handle two plates.

#23 Fekete Café

Escape the noisy downtown street and enter through the yellow ceramic tiles into the 19th-century courtyard of Fekete, a hip café and all-day-breakfast restaurant. The marble well in the center of the quiet courtyard is one of those Budapest surprises hiding behind many sooty facades. Fekete serves on-trend breakfast dishes, such as shakshuka, granola bowl, and various quiches. Pricey new-wave coffee, both espresso-based and hand pour-overs, are also available along with bottled craft beers to help lift the mood.

#24 Zoska Reggeliző Kávézó

For the longest time, Budapest had only a few breakfast restaurants even though we all know what a difference a plate of scrambled eggs can make to start the day off on the right foot. Part of this gaping void was filled in 2014 with the opening of Zoska, a shabby chic breakfast-all-day restaurant nestled on a quiet downtown street. The breakfast foods are low-priced and span ham and eggs, frankfurters, granola bowls, and savory French toasts. Also good are the toasted sandwiches.

#25 Sarki Fűszeres

Sarki Fűszeres is a cute café breakfast restaurant and specialty store in Újlipótváros, a fashionable residential neighborhood not far from the city center. Breakfast during the warm-weather months is the highlight here, when the trellised outdoor terrace has opened under a canopy of greens. The breakfast offerings feature all the usual suspects, including ham and eggs, frankfurters, and avodaco-slathered sandwiches.

Rankings are based on a combination of food/drink, atmosphere, service, and price. To remain unbiased, I visit all places incognito and pay for my own meals and drinks. I also never accept money in exchange for coverage. But this means I must rely on readers to support my work. If you've enjoyed this article, please consider making a one-time payment (PayPal) or becoming an Offbeat Patron.