When Budapest’s fine-dining destination Lou Lou on Székely Mihály Street recently closed, the site was almost immediately occupied by another culinary attraction: the new sister restaurant of Márga Bistro in Csopak. Anyone who has been to the panoramic restaurant at Lake Balaton knows how much attention they pay to their ingredients; they get everything they can from Hungarian producers, and a lot of their components are related to the Balaton area. They will keep this attitude in Budapest as well, with a profile somewhere between a bistro kitchen and fine dining.
The bistro, known by many foodies around the nation, started out with the name Szent Donát at first, but with the arrival of restaurateur János Deli of MÁK, they changed it to Márga. The name is a reference to the marl soil that has an important role in the vineyards around Csopak. Due to their success, the idea of launching a Budapest location came up several times. The closure of Lou Lou accelerated the effort, and before they knew it, the price of Márga’s lunch special was already written on a board in downtown Pest.
The locale’s design went through a big change; interior designers Márta Benicsek and Andrea Szabó followed the track of the “urban nomad” to shape an elegant urban inner space that reflects the rural atmosphere through its materials, colors, and lights. Ákos Horváth, who already proved himself at Lou Lou – as well as in the kitchens of Onyx and Arany Kaviár during his student years – is in charge of the kitchen. In addition to the à la carte selection they created for the Budapest unit of Márga, they also emphasize the lunch menu, which provides great value for its price in this category. A two-course lunch is 2,850 forints, while the three-course version is 3,450 forints. We tested how satisfying these menus are, and it’s safe to say that three courses are pleasant enough. Interestingly, the meat-focused menu operates with such items as rabbit, pheasant, and boar. When it comes to fish, they use freshwater species instead of sea fish.
Just like other restaurants of a similar category, Márga also has a great bread selection – our favorite was the one made with Guinness. It’s nice that the lunch courses have the same portion sizes as the à la carte versions. For starters, we tried the celery cream soup with ginger and marinated trout (1,590 HUF), the pheasant soup (1,990 HUF), the duck liver with thyme-plum and peach (2,490 HUF), and the chicken liver paté with onion and grape confit.
For our main course we chose the top blade steak from the noon specials, which was served with baked potato cream and chard. The pearl barley risotto (3,190 HUF) was an à la carte vegetarian dish with a wild-yet-natural flavor. The rabbit with horseradish, chanterelle, and sage (4,790 HUF) has become a big favorite since the opening – the meat arrives prepared in various ways, so there’s also a fried piece on the plate. The duck breast with corn and fennel (4,490 HUF) is an interesting pairing, but it’s refreshing to have vegetables on the side instead of fruits.
Our favorite dessert was the chocolate mousse with lavender and almond ice cream (1,950 HUF), which was a great choice as the base ingredients arrive from Lake Balaton. The peach and rose combination of the lunch menu was a real “ladies’ dessert”, while the sunflower cream and ice cream with orange were divisive; they didn’t really suit our taste, but the unusual dessert is not exactly a crowd favorite, more like a specialty.
We will keep our fingers crossed for Márga that their Budapest audience who went to Balaton will discover them here, too, and that more and more local and foreign guests will get to know their hospitality that originated from the countryside.
UPDATE: Closed
