With top wines from micro wineries, wine cocktails and a renewed menu, N28 Wine and Kitchen is making a splash in the city centre

“We have entered the field of renewal with our wine range. Although we have been looking for wineries that are at the essence of the country’s top gastronomy, we are now focusing on micro batches from small wineries that will be exclusive to us. A good example is Zsolt Palkó, who is known to many as the head winemaker at Villa Sandahl, but few know that he has his own wine and vineyards in Badacsony since 2019,” reveals sommelier Tibor Tamás. And the new domestic batches inspire exciting dishes that could transport us to the seaside this summer. The grilled octopus arm with fennel salad and garlic chilli, the sea bass fillet with broccoli and garlic butter, or the gambas pil-pil all represent the Mediterranean side of the restaurant’s Catalan-Basque-Hungarian cuisine.

“The grilled octopus arm is a real novelty on the menu, and based on the feedback from the guests, it was a good choice. I would like to work with more seafood in the future, to introduce our guests to more types of fish, more types of shellfish, which are currently available in only a few places” – said Ferenc Ács, chef of N28. The Catalan line is further strengthened by a strong pintxo offering, which has been a feature of the place since the beginning. In addition to the menu’s new additions of ‘Smoked salmon pintxo with lemon mascarpone’ and ‘Luxury angus steak pintxo with baby romaine lettuce’, a seasonal item has been added to the menu, which will feature the current chef’s offerings in a fortnightly rotation. The dessert menu has also been changed, with the sunny season calling for lighter desserts, so a ’Cold cottage-cheese dumpling with Pedro Ximenez marzipan creme’ and ’Catalan chocolate ganache with Maldon salt and Arbequina oil’ will always be a good choice.

“In creating the new menu, the main focus was to create more complex dishes than before, both in taste and in presentation. The most important thing I keep in mind with my dishes is to use only the best quality ingredients and to pair them to the wines we offer in the restaurant. There are several ingredients on our menu that have been awarded a gold ribbon and we are constantly increasing the number of them,” says Ferenc Ács.

As the hours of sunshine increase, people are looking for fresher, refreshing drinks and it’s no different with wines. “At this time of year, fresh, reductive, airy white wines tend to be more popular, but rosés and light reds are also in demand. We also have a lot of cocktails with wine as the main ingredient, such as the New York Sour with a Malbec float on top. Together with our general manager, Zsolt Mihály, we would like to make this line a little more Hungarian and make it our own by basing these international flavours on Hungarian wines, thus creating the N28 summer cocktail menu,” said sommelier Tibor Tamás about the new features.