Budapest City Guide for Eaters, Lovers + Dancers
What is now the Hungarian city of Budapest was once two distinct cities — Buda and Pest — divided by the desolate, brackish green Danube river. The hilly Buda is home to a variety of architecture with influences that hark back to the Ottoman Empire and Turkish or Russian occupation, while others belie the Habsburg imperialism of the grand palace, Art Nouveau, and Moorish architecture. Other buildings offset these with no-frills beige starkness of the Communist era.
Budapest. Image © Sara Jayne Crow
Pest, meanwhile, is an urban nucleus centered around the West side of the city, with all the din and clamor of recent economic upsurge echoed in restaurants, bars, clubs, co-working spaces, galleries, operas, and boutiques. In 1873, under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, unification of the two very separate cities took place.
As you walk around Budapest, you notice that many Hungarians (especially those of older generations) have a hard, blank look, while the eyes of others darken with a flinty and impenetrable stare. If you examine the shiny veneer of high-rise buildings and opulent architecture, or the ornamentation of the Széchenyi Chain Bridge linking Pest to the palatial Budavári Palota (Buda Castle), a thick layer of grime and soot mucks up the luster. Budapest is just 27 years free of Communist domination, and scars of occupation and oppression — first by Mongols, then Turks and Russians — are still present. After all, the Iron Curtain was breached not in Berlin, as many believe, but on the Hungarian-Austrian border, and great change has transformed Hungary over the last three decades in all arenas — social, cultural, political and economic.
The Danube’s physical division of the original Buda and Pest manifest divisions that the city still bears. The city straddles various eras: the slow emergence of free markets from Communist oppression is stark as technology surfaces from antiquity. A burgeoning cosmopolitan lifestyle rises alongside the provincial, and new prospects also appear to be multiplying.
The Danube. Image © Sara Jayne Crow
And prospects, Budapest certainly has. It’s possible to eat French food in cozy terraced courtyards under the stars, to bathe in mineral springs dating from the Ottoman Empire, dance to DJs poolside, enjoy a Pavarotti opera in stately chandelier-lined halls, and network among a growing number of start-up tech companies in modern coworking spaces.
Detail from Gellért Spa © Sara Jayne Crow
Budapest’s tourism industry has skyrocketed with more than 3.3 million visitors in 2015, evident in the clamor that echoes around the city’s gritty beauty, affordable luxury and earthly delights. The city is worth a visit for music fans, spa seekers, and foodies alike. Here are some of our favorite haunts.
Image © Sara Jayne Crow
Music Venues and Clubs
Akvárium straddles an open-air stepped courtyard and an indoor massive dance floor that’s adjacent to an outdoor pool piped with speakers. Performers vary from British hip-hop acts to German techno DJs and Swedish metal bands.
Great food and live classical and jazz in a superlative architectural building designed for optimized sound quality? Yes, please!
Restaurants
Originally built in 1914, Déryné Bisztró bears all the opulence of the pre-prohibition brasseries of Paris. Red velvet draperies offset lounge seating and black-and-white checkered floor tiles in the main dining lounge. Palms reside in elegant woven wicker baskets. A horseshoe-shaped bar with brass and leather fittings and marble countertops segues into a sort of living room area with an immaculate overstuffed leather sofa and fireplace.
Déryné Bisztró © Sara Jayne Crow
Here, modern design meets comfort and amenities — this is a place to spend hours in conversation while sipping a cucumber gin fizz or herb mojito. Downstairs, atmospheric lighting accents the building’s original brick archways. And the food: artisan-crafted, preservative-free pastries and breads, fresh whipped butter (topped with hand-stamped parchment), buttery puffed croissants, and savory cream-of-mushroom chive tarts. And those are just the baked goods, of which there are more than 40 varieties every day. The classic French cuisine includes soupe à l’oignon and consommé and steak frites, while Hungarian staples include goulash and sztrapacska dumplings.
Déryné Bisztró. Image © Sara Jayne Crow
Trendy meeting place Mazel Tov serves traditional — if somewhat basic — Israeli cuisine. The destination isn’t necessarily for the food, but rather, the lively atmosphere, with its rustic brick dining halls updated with modern, austere lighting and an indoor garden.
Image © Mazel Tov
The superbly named Meat Boutique is a carnivore’s haven located on a picturesque cobblestoned boulevard adjacent to the Danube River and the Chain Bridge. Every cut of beef is available, as outlined on a massive meat mural painted on the restaurant’s interior wall: New York strip, T-bone, tenderloin and filet mignon.
Like Déryné Bisztró, Centrál marries Hungarian and French cuisines in an opulent bistro setting. The menu offers affordable luxury, especially for the large breakfasts with fresh orange juice, mangalica sausages, bacon, eggs, and vegetables.
The pattern repeats: French food is a hit in Budapest. Café Gerbeaud was founded in 1858 by Henrik Kugler, the descendent of a confectionery dynasty, who later partnered with an heir to a Swiss confectionery. And the confections are divine — long display cases are lined with an assortment of rainbow-hued macarons, lavender truffles, raspberry shortcakes, and orange caramel cream cakes. With a grand dining hall with tall ceilings and glinting chandeliers, two restaurants and the confectionery, Gerbeaud redefines French luxury.
Bars
It’s more than a bar: Púder is a “ruin pub” and kaleidoscopic bevy of entertainment, fine food and cocktails. Ruin pubs are a trend in Budapest in which enterprising would-be bar owners set up shop in abandoned buildings throughout the old Jewish Quarter neighborhood, most of which was an unattended wasteland following the ravages of WWII. Typically, ruin bars are underground pop-up spaces furnished with thrift store finds and eccentric decorations and thrive, rent-free, until an investor buys the building in which they’re housed. Púder has a rotating program of entertainment, including puppet shows and improvisational comedy.
Szimpla Kert is the original ruin pub and has remained in business since 2001, unlike many of the other similar bars whose temporary locations have been uprooted by the growing economy and rising property values in Budapest.
Image © Hello Jetlag
I originally wrote this city guide for Napster back in 2016. This version is slightly different from that original in that I updated based on clubs that have since closed, and tossed out some edits I didn’t care for.
Image © Think Hungary
