Budapest’s District VIII is not exactly known as a hotspot for international gastronomy, but now we can find a variety of authentic Gallic flavors presented with unpretentious panache just a few meters away from the Uránia Cinema. L’Hexagone Bistro is not a restaurant with designer furniture and uptight waiters, but a petite place where the French chef cooks and serves high-quality simple dishes with pride, and even chats with guests if he has the time. Fans of French cuisine need look no further for a favorite lunch spot in Budapest.
Some believe French people subsist on buttered croissants for breakfast, escargot for lunch, and Paul Bocuse creations for dinner. Perhaps the first stereotype is true, but French cuisine encompasses much more than expensive ingredients and hours-long complicated cooking techniques. Usually, guests who walk into a corner café or bistro in Paris will find fine-yet-simple food – simple in the best sense possible.
The goal of Nicolas – the French restaurateur behind L’Hexagone Bistro – is to provide something like that in his adopted home of Budapest. He studied to be a chef and a pastry maker in France; then he worked in Savoy, Bretagne, and Normandy before moving to Hungary, which was four years ago. He claims that he doesn’t speak Hungarian well – although he says that in Hungarian with near-to-perfect pronunciation. Of course there is a lady behind it all – cherchez la femme!
You’ll find Nicolas smiling behind the counter, with his daily specials on the wall next to him, and the standard menu (consisting of various quiches, baguettes, and salads) to the left, while a map of France is on display above it all. The map also symbolizes that guests here can eat French cuisine from almost every region of the Gallic nation.
For our meal, we begin with a velouté Dubarry (cauliflower cream soup) and a minestrone, then move on to a really light quiche Lorraine with salad, and an item from the daily menu, which is a summer-compatible Basque chicken with the taste of olives and tomatoes. Then we finish lunch with an Alsatian cake and the apple-cinnamon-raisin Bettelmann cake.
Nicolas experienced a fair share of working at fine-dining restaurants with expensive ingredients, but he did not transplant those old price tags to his own bistro. L’Hexagone is in fact a place with friendly prices: the daily special that consists of a soup, main course, and dessert costs only 1,390 forints, which is quite reasonable considering the quality.
In addition to enjoying the small trip to the world of wonderfully simple French cuisine, you can also exchange a few words with the friendly owner about culture, languages, or weather. Many locals seem to be smitten with the air of this place; a man at the table next to ours explained that he had found L’Hexagone by chance, and has been a regular since. This small bistro on Vas Street is one of the most pleasant surprises of Budapest – bon appétit!
Address: Budapest 1088, Vas utca 1
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