There is a girly series titled Gilmore Girls, which takes place in the small, fictional town of Stars Hollow. It is a place of fairytales, where secretly everyone would want to live. Stars Hollow is a melting pot of nice, friendly people and eccentric characters, who hold a festival almost every week. Stepping into Angyalföldi Street’s NoGlu confectionary gives the same kind of vibe, and not just because of the atmosphere, but because of its occasional themed festivals, as well.
The Gilmore Girls would come here, tooThat last sentence was not a typo, there really are occasionally themed festivals at NoGlu. They celebrated Fall with “grape days”; the confectionary shop awaited visitors with grape tarts, strudels and macarons. There were children’s days with face painting and glitter tattoos, and end-of-Summer ice cream days with discounted cold treats. Among these themed days there area also seniors days, lovers’ days and a strudel festival where visitors can choose from 60 to 70 strudel variations. The next event will focus on chestnuts, so fans of this dessert should definitely visit NoGlu in the coming weeks.
The store opened in May 2014, and specialised in ice cream back then: visitors could choose from almost 40 flavours - all lactose-, milk-, egg- and gluten-free, and made with birch sugar. Naturally, less sensitive people can browse through sweets made with traditional ingredients, as well. By the way, the goodies are not made in the shop, but come from about ten different suppliers.
As a kind of novelty, NoGlu started to make cakes as well, and as manager Nikolett Kenderesi put it: “we do not decline any request”, meaning that we can order cakes in the shape of Mickey Mouse, a car, a ladybug and more.Plum pálinka macaron
Based on feedback, the most popular is currently the muffins. They do quite well in terms of size and “sufficiency”, meaning that they can be a hearty breakfast even for a grown man. The macarons are pretty popular, as well, and soon they'll come in new flavours like blueberry yogurt. However, even now there are plenty of special flavours. We tasted the plum pálinka and chocolate macaron and while it's delicious there's no need to worry, as the sweet treat does not have enough alcohol in it to get detected by sensors.
Also included in the category of incredible treats are the 13 types of Mokambo coffee, flavoured like strawberry syrup. We can hold the sugar because this beverage is rather sweet and provides a bit of strange experience at first.
Speaking of drinks, NoGlu offers Tamás syrups in three different flavours and 100% fruit juices made without any additives. These have apple as their base, and can be spiced up with beetroot, sea-buckthorn, cranberry, currant and carrot. As Winter draws near, we have to mention hot chocolate, of which there are five varieties, the most Christmassy being the gingerbread and cinnamon flavoured ones.Fall-style cakes
Children pester their parents mainly for birch sugar lollipops and the chocolate lollipops, while the parents are tempted mainly by the strudels and cakes made with Graham flour. We were drawn in by the apricot mascarpone and toffee slices – both cakes get an A+ from us.
We have not mentioned the Stars Hollow-esque decorations. The shop is dressed in fall colours, with autumnal leaves and hedgehog figures on the walls. From November however, we can expect an Advent atmosphere. They will set up a pine tree in the shop, with slips of paper on its branches concealing all kinds of prizes.
There's good news when it comes to prices too. As the shop is relatively far from the city centre, our wallets will not be dead empty if we drop by every once in a while, and because the management thought of the people living in close-by housing estates, the prices are not really high at all. Indeed at 300-400 Forints for a slice of cake, NoGlu is definitely worth the visit.
NoGlu
Address:
1134 Budapest, Angyalföldi Street 24/b.
Opening hours:
Monday - Friday: 11:00-19:00 Saturday: 11:00-16:00
