There are as many pizza-slice spots in the city as diamond stores in Antwerp. These can be ranked in four categories: inedible, okay when drunk, pretty good, and incredible. Most places follow the southern-Italian model with more or less success, and fortunately, we do not have to travel all they way to Naples to enjoy genuine Neapolitan pizza pies – five creative young people from downtown Budapest decided to give Madách Square a pizza-slice bar with truly Italian toppings, and paper-thin dough.

If you pass through or hang out in central Pest’s Madách Square, you might have noticed that there are no decent street-food spots along the axis of Hivatal, Telep, and Központ. If we became hungry around this area, we could either go to Konyha (which does not really belong into the street-food category), rush through Gozsdu to grab some takeaway Chinese, or wait for long minutes in front of Király Street’s Pizza Me location. In other words, we had to leave the square – until now.

Now a true Neapolitan-style pizzeria joins the Madách strip of hipster hangouts, thanks to the united efforts of five Budapest natives who wanted to enrich the downtown scene with real Italian taste. Good work takes time, so these Magyar mates spent a year and a half completing the concept before finally opening their pizza place, labeled by the word IGEN (“YES” in Hungarian), and decorated with black-and-white tiles. At the center of it all is an oven made by world-famous Neapolitan master Stefano Ferrara – although the Virgin Mary relaxing on the electricity meter also adds to the Italian authenticity.

Although it only opened in December, we visited IGEN to find the pizzeria full of guests, and the to-go repertoire of slices was already lined up behind the store window. A pizza is ready in three minutes, thanks to the oven and the dough which is made with a recipe that has been refined through many experiments. In addition to the food, we can also buy various Italian soft drinks here.

We tried a Margherita slice (380 HUF) and a version with pumpkin, zucchini, and ham (480 HUF). Indeed, the texture, thickness, and flavors were traditionally Neapolitan, just like the slices that sport toppings like truffles, potato, and rosemary. IGEN does not feature usual “Hungarian” flavors, so anyone aching to sink their teeth into ketchup- and mayonnaise-soaked Hawaii slices will be disappointed here. We liked the pizzas; they were tasty and made from superb ingredients. However, the largest size measures 25 centimeters in diameter, so they are rather small; no matter how delicious they are, we doubt that even a full pizza could satisfy a grown man. In addition, our Margherita slice was a bit too strong on olive oil.
However, IGEN is just getting started, so the portions might get larger over time – keep an eye on their Facebook page, where they post regular updates about the pizzeria’s evolving offerings.