Amid a grand Budapest ballroom filled with master chefs and gourmet treats, Hungary’s most distinguished epicures gathered last night to celebrate the nation’s very best restaurants in categories ranging from fine dining to street food. This tasteful gala continues a long tradition in Hungary’s ongoing gastronomical revolution, reflected in the growing number of Michelin stars awarded to Budapest’s best restaurants in recent years.

For some two decades now, Dining Guide serves as one of Hungary’s most trusted arbiters of high-quality eating, and their annual awards that determine the nation’s best restaurants are highly regarded and extraordinarily influential; past winners went on to earn Michelin stars soon after scoring the Dining Guide “Restaurant of the Year” prize. During last night’s gala in the ballroom of Buda’s modern Larus eatery, most of Hungary’s premier chefs, epicures, and culinary journalists gathered in eager anticipation to learn which eateries would be honored for their delicious work in 2014 – and to feast on the smorgasbord of gourmet delights for enjoyment after the awards ceremony, led by Dining Guide editor Pierre Vajda.

Dining Guide confers prizes in two major categories – for street-food restaurants and fine-dining eateries – determined by an esteemed jury of connoisseurs that first whittles down Hungary’s impressive selection of culinary establishments to two “Top 10” lists. For their edible achievements in 2014, the street-food finalists were A Séf utcája, Bors Gasztrobar, Funky Pho, Gyradiko, Komachi, Padron, Pesti Burger és Bár, Pista bá’, Pizza Me, and Zing. Following up on recent successes that include earning last year’s Gault&Millau “Best Street Food” award for Budapest, Funky Pho again took the jury’s top honors, while Bors won recognition in a popular public vote.

Immediately after the street-food prizes were handed over, Hungary’s very best chefs took the stage as the fine-dining restaurants vied for the highest accolades. Budapest’s globally esteemed eateries that hold Michelin stars (Costes, Onyx, Borkonyha, and most recently Tanti) are removed from consideration by the Dining Guide jury so as to boost the prospects of other significant Hungarian restaurants, so the finalists for 2014 were 67, Alabárdos, Arany Kaviár, Baltazár, Csalogány 26, Laci!Konyha!, MÁK Bistro, Olimpia, Salon, and ZONA. Amid an atmosphere of palpable excitement, the chefs from each of these refined restaurants stood onstage as the announcer declared the winner of 2014’s Hennessy-Dining Guide “Restaurant of the Year” prize – ZONA, led by innovative Magyar chef Krisztián Huszár.

Other esteemed honors were won by Olimpia for its progressive kitchen and the Friscka Gasztropub for its extraordinary young chefs… but after the prizes were held by the grinning winners, all attention turned to the epicurean buffet provided for the audience, including French oysters, duck-liver bonbons with beetroot, roasted rabbit with Camembert-cream sauce, barbecued Hungarian sirloin, Chinese dumplings, and a huge variety of scrumptious sweets. With bellies full of the incredible cuisine, we congratulate all of the winners!