What to Eat in Budapest, Hungary?

Let's get this right - You google food to try in Budapest and Google yields results of "10 Hungarian dishes you must try" or "Top 15 Hungarian Restaurants to Check Out". Though this simple and direct guide is helpful to help you derive to a decision, but in practical it is hard to try all of the food mentioned, considering time and money are 2 big hindrance. 

Therefore, we listed what we have tried during our 3 days trips solely in Budapest, Hungary. Hope it helps you to make a decision! 

We fall in love with the Langos after trying them at this shop - Retro Langos Bufe, somewhere near to St. Stephen Basilica and Arany Janos metro station. The taste was amazing and captivated our appetite well, to the extent we came back again on the next day. 

On first night, we had the simple version of Langos, topped with sour cream, cheese, bacon and onion. The sour cream and cheese gave a slight pleasant salty taste and red onion further elevate its overall flavour. However on the next day, we went greedy and have Full House Langos, only to find that the flavour became too complex. Sausage was too overwhelming in taste and conceal the awesomeness of other toppings. 

The front part of Retro Langos Bufe was still having construction by the time we visited in 2019 but it should done by now. Not necessarily you have to come here for Langos, but this snack definitely deserve a position in your must try list in Budapest!

Address: Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út 25, 1065 Budapest, Hungary

Operation hour: from 10am onwards

Deak Ferenc Ter, the bustling square in the center of Budapest has a number of chic clubs and bars that millennials love going. However, there also lies a conventional Hungarian restaurant - Gettó Gulyás, which serves the traditional food such as Pörkölt (beef stew), goulash, Túrógombóc and many more. 

Apparently reservation is required to dine at Gettó Gulyás and we were fortunate to get a table on Thursday evening. 

The beef texture of Vörösboros marhapörkölt is lovely! It is cook to perfect tenderness, well accompanied by flavourful sauce attributed to usage of wine. The same great lamb texture is achieved by the chef on their Bárányleves vajas galuskával, which is served with goulash alike flavourful stew. However, the vajas (butter noodles), which tasted like macaroni are plain in taste and not appealing to our taste buds. Perhaps we being Asians find it hard to get accustomzied to such taste. 

Gettó Gulyás

Budapest, Wesselényi u. 18, 1077 Hungary

+36 20 376 4480

Operation hours: 12pm - 11pm Daily (till 12am on Friday)

Paprika Vendéglő is located not far from the prominent tourists spot such as Heroes Square and Szechenyi Thermal Bath. It is a restaurant with strong identity, using timber furniture to give it a rustic view and make us feel like dining in a log house. The restaurant serves Hungarian specialty dishes, along with a range of roasted items. 

We thought of having everything on a plate, thus we had a Paprika Plate (6480 HUF) with a lot of grilled and roasted items:

- Beef & Pork Medallions 

- Breaded Turkey stuffed with sausage and cheese

- Slices of Fried Potatoes

- Steamed Red Cabbages 

Every items listed are delicious and both of us had our stomach satisfied to the maximum here! 

For dessert, we had Somlói Galuska (900 HUF), a decadent Hungarian trifle. It appears to have a combination of carrot cake with resin with a slight rum flavour, topped with rich chocolate sauce and paired with whipped cream. The taste is heavenly delicious that we had no problem stuffing the whole trifle despite the full stomach! 

Overall, Paprika Vendéglő is worth the trouble to get here (as it is about 1.5km from Heroes Square, so you might need to catch a bus). Make it here for your lunch or dinner if you happen to be nearby. 

Paprika Vendéglő

Budapest, Dózsa György út 72, 1071 Hungary

+36 20 294 7944

Operation hours: 12pm - 11pm Daily 

Kürtöskalács, a sweet and truncated cone shaped snack rolled in granulated sugar is one of the snack that you must not miss out when you visit Hungary. It is often sold in fun fair or street shops, but the mecca of Kürtöskalács is located at Molnár Kürtöskalács.

Molnár Kürtöskalács serves up to 8 different types of Kürtöskalács, such as cinnamon, dark chocolate, coconut, almonds, cocoa, poppy seed and vanilla. Although you often see Kürtöskalács is topped with ice cream but the original version are baked dough coated with sugar and toppings. Although you can have top with ice cream here.

It ain't cheap though, as the kürtöskalács in the picture cost 1200 HUF! 

Molnár Kürtöskalács

Budapest, Váci u. 31, 1052 Hungary

+36 1 407 2314

Operation hours: 9am - 10pm Daily

Jégbüfé

Budapest, Petőfi Sándor u. 3, 1052 Hungary

+36 1 318 6205

Operation hours: 7am - 9.30pm Daily (till 8.30pm on Wednesday)

Last but not least, remember to check out the strudels selling at the center alley in Budapest Central Market Hall. It is one of the best strudels we had thus far.

Budapest Central Market Hall (Nagyvásárcsarnok) 

Budapest, Vámház krt. 1-3, 1093 Hungary

Well, that sums up the food we had during our 2.5 days spent in Budapest. Though there are many more that we would love to try out but time has impose a great limitation. Wish there are chances we could go back to Budapest again, and we would definitely seek the opportunity to purchase some fresh produce in Budapest Central Market hall and season them with the Hungarian specialties paprika, while buying many traditional Hungarian desserts that we have missed out.

Of course, we also had fun purchasing items from the supermarket. One of the great item found here is Cheetos!