It’s very likely a drastic simplification to reduce Mexican cuisine to the burrito. Still, in the world of culinary exports simplification goes a long way and that’s probably the thinking behind Burrita, a fairly new outfit that adds to the already good number of joints catering to office workers and tourists in District V. It… Continue »

When given the choice between a bucket of water and a bale of straw, Buridan’s donkey was unable to make up his mind and, famously, died of hunger and thirst. Had it had the option (or the brains) to choose both in sequence, it would have lived longer and an occasion would have been missed… Continue »

Palatinus – in the centre of Margitsziget (Margit Island), renovated a few years ago, this is the biggest and one of the most popular, with several huge pools, twisting slides and fountains. palatinusstrand.hu Római strand – a large complex of pools, fountains and slides set in grassy, leafy surroundings up near the Római part (Roman… Continue »

After an unusually late end to winter we can finally start thinking about dining al fresco. If fact, now we are sweltering under an unusually early summer, Budapesters can head to the strand (literally “beach”, actually an open-air bathing complex or lido) of their choice – see below for a list. Even a few of… Continue »

We live in a single European market, not to mention a global village, so perhaps it is surprising that there is still a huge variation in the types of goods on offer in shops and supermarkets across the continent. Of course, this is a good thing and part of what makes living in a different… Continue »

Of the various members of the Gerbeaud family that dwell in the imposing white building on the north side of District V’s Vörösmarty tér, Gerbeaud café at the front is undoubtedly the most venerable and popular, Onyx restaurant to the right when facing the café the most gourmet and Michelin-starred, and the party catering service… Continue »

Ecocafe easily enshrines within its name the two basic ideas that lie behind it, the one being that it’s a café and the other that it relies on an organic mentality which extends from atmosphere to products (edible and drinkable as well as for the place’s own housekeeping requirements). Under the café heading, then, comes… Continue »

With Italian-themed eateries already dotting Budapest like olive trees on a Tuscan hillside, it is presumably no simple task for newcomers to find their niche in the market. La Coppola easily solved this problem when it opened in late 2011 by raising the flag of its owner’s Sicilian roots as the restaurant’s trademark. The new… Continue »

A spíler is, in Hungarian slang, a good guy, a cool guy, someone who likes music, party and sports, just like the cap-wearing hipster on the logo of Spíler, the self-styled gastropub that opened last year in District VII’s Gozsdu udvar. In the evening there are usually plenty of spíler lookalikes among the waiters and… Continue »

Between Liszt Ferenc tér (square) and the State Opera House lies the new and only Brazilian restaurant in Budapest, casabrasil. Two large windows, which are opaque from the exterior, provide a view of Andrássy út and conceal the modern restaurant within. Walls with a brown linen finish, decorative framed coffee bean sacks, rectangular and round… Continue »