Where to Eat in Budapest: The Best City for Food I Have Found
After eleven months of travelling full time, Budapest is the best city for food culture I have been to.
I did not expect to say that. I expected goulash and langos and a nice time. What we found in a month of living there was a city where the cinnamon rolls, the cookies, the pizza, the tapas and the traditional Hungarian food were all genuinely excellent, and none of it was expensive.
These are the places we actually ate, in a month.
Where Should You Eat in Budapest? My Quick Answer
If you only do a handful, do these. Retro Langos for the traditional street food, Retek Bistro for a proper Hungarian meal, Rolly for the best cinnamon roll I have had anywhere, and Arquitecto Pitpit for a long dinner in a courtyard.
The Traditional Hungarian Food
Retro Langos
Langos is the one Hungarian thing everyone tells you to eat, and they are right. It is a disc of fried dough, and the classic version comes loaded with sour cream and cheese.
Ours had chicken, cheese, tomato, red onion and sour cream on it and it cost a few dollars. Retro Langos does elite versions of it, and it is the single easiest, cheapest way to eat something properly Hungarian.
Retek Bistro
For a sit-down Hungarian meal rather than street food, this is where I would send you. Some of the best traditional Hungarian food we ate anywhere in the city, in a properly cosy room with red check tablecloths.
BORS Gastro Bar
One of the best goulash soups and baguettes in the city, and it is a tiny takeaway place rather than a restaurant. You order at the window and eat it standing up, which is exactly right.
Getto Gulyas and For Sale Pub
Both are in our guide for traditional food. For Sale Pub does amazing goulash and the whole place is covered in notes people have left on the walls, which is either charming or unhygienic depending on your mood.
The Sweet Stuff, Which Is Where Budapest Really Wins
Rolly
The best thing I ate in Budapest and it is not close.
Rolly does cinnamon rolls, and the salted caramel one is a hundred out of ten. Some of the nicest cinnamon rolls I have ever had, anywhere. Get the salted caramel and the blueberry cheesecake, and if you are vegan they have options too.
If you take one recommendation from this entire article, take that one.
Cookie Beacon
The best cookie I have ever had. Flavours change but we had the velvet Oreo, the raspberry pistachio, the Lotus Biscoff caramel and the salted Nutella.
Pink Pistachio
An entirely pistachio themed brunch spot, which sounds like a gimmick and is not. The strawberry pistachio cup is what they are most famous for, and there is an avocado pistachio burger, pistachio pancakes and a caramel matcha.
It is the prettiest food in Budapest and it tastes as good as it photographs, which is rarer than it should be.
Deryne Kenyer, La Mousse De Lait and Giando
Insane croissants, famous pancakes and genuinely good gelato respectively. All three are in our guide and all three are worth a morning.
Pizza, Burgers and the Everyday Stuff
Crudo Pizza
Budapest has a surprisingly serious pizza scene and Crudo is the one we kept going back to. Perfect to take away and eat sitting across the river watching Parliament light up, which is a free evening that beats most paid ones.
Buddy's and Smashy
The two smash burger places, and this is the one thing Dan and I properly disagree about. I preferred Buddy's, he preferred Smashy. Go to whichever is closer and you will not be disappointed either way.
One night we got two burgers, two lots of chips and two drinks for about A$17 between us, and the cheesy fries were a ten out of ten.
The Nice Dinners
Arquitecto Pitpit
The best courtyard vibe in Budapest and excellent Spanish tapas. This is the one to book if you want a long dinner that feels like an occasion without costing like one.
Kiosk Budapest
They play vintage movies on a projector while you eat, which is a lovely thing to stumble into.
Coffee and the Famous Cafes
% Arabica
The Japanese specialty chain. I love finding these around the world and Budapest has one, so if you want a proper flat white rather than a grand experience, go here.
New York Cafe
The most beautiful cafe in the world, allegedly, and it is worth the hype if you go at the right time.
Go for the 7am opening. We got there at about ten to seven and there were four or five other people inside. By half eight it is heaving.
The eggs benedict was a ten out of ten. The porridge was about A$27 and genuinely bland, and I would not order it again. So it is not overpriced across the board, some things on that menu are just priced for the room.
Twenty Six
Beautiful, and I am going to be honest: definitely on the pricier side for what you get. A tiny smoothie was A$10. The Turkish eggs were the standout.
You have to book. The walk-in queue is constantly busy. My honest recommendation is to go for a drink so you can see the place, rather than for a full meal.
Cafe Gerbeaud
If the New York Cafe queue puts you off entirely, this is the alternative we have saved for next time.
Markets
Gozsdu Weekend Market runs Friday to Monday and it is a good one: records, posters, fridge magnets, vintage and digital cameras, jewellery. It is right by Twenty Six so the two make an easy morning.
Central Market Hall is the famous one, 128 years old, and I will be honest with you: we found it a little bit underwhelming. Worth twenty minutes for the building and the souvenirs rather than a meal.
Where we would stay if we came back for a few nights. We had a long-stay apartment for the month, and these are the two hotels we tried to book for a night in the middle of it. Neither had space, which is the most honest recommendation we can give you.
Hotel Oktogon Haggenmacher
Central Pest. One of the two we tried to book for a night while we had the apartment, and could not get in. The architecture is the reason.
Prestige Hotel Budapest
Also central, also gorgeous, and also full when we tried. If you are only in Budapest a few nights, this is the sort of building to stay in.
Our apartment worked out at A$36.28 each a night across thirty three nights, which is the other route: if you are staying a week or more, get a place with a kitchen.
So Why Is Budapest the Best City for Food?
It is not that any single thing is the best I have eaten. It is the range.
In one month, in one city, we had the best cinnamon roll and the best cookie I have ever had, a genuinely serious pizza scene, proper Spanish tapas in a courtyard, traditional Hungarian food that is worth eating rather than just worth trying, and a pistachio cafe that has no business being as good as it is.
And nearly all of it was cheap. We spent more on groceries than restaurants over the month, and I have written up exactly what a month in Budapest cost us if you want the numbers.
Still planning? Here is how we would plan the whole trip and what a month of eating there cost.
FAQs About Eating in Budapest
What food is Budapest famous for?
Langos, the fried dough street food, and goulash, which is a soup here rather than the stew you might be expecting. Retro Langos and Retek Bistro are where I would go for each.
Is food expensive in Budapest?
No, and it is one of the cheapest cities in Europe to eat well in. The exceptions are the famous cafes, where some items are priced for the room.
Do you need to book restaurants in Budapest?
For Twenty Six, absolutely. For most other places we walked in without a problem, though the popular brunch spots get busy at weekends.
Is New York Cafe worth it?
Yes, if you go at the 7am opening. It gets very busy from about 8:30am. Order the eggs benedict and skip the porridge.
What is the best thing to eat in Budapest?
The salted caramel cinnamon roll at Rolly. I have had a lot of cinnamon rolls and that one is the best.
Want your Budapest itinerary planned in a couple of clicks?
Tell it how long you have got, and it lays the days out from everywhere we actually went.
- Two lengths, a short trip or the full week
- Only places we actually went, never a generic list
- Walking times, and when the tram is worth it
- Share it to your notes or send it to whoever you are travelling with
