A new culinary era might now be dawning in Budapest. Chefs at the city’s fine-dining restaurants have achieved beautiful results in recent years, but these days many of them are looking for new challenges while creating truly cool dining destinations. Among these Magyar chefs are Krisztián Huszár at Beszálló and Gábor Fehér at Tábla, who make the best foods accessible for those who’d like to eat quick and cheap, but at bistro-style places with a professional staff. Under the leadership of Babel’s former chef, György Lőrincz, Házi/Állat is now open to provide deliciously affordable dishes.
We just can’t get enough of what’s happening in the culinary scene of Budapest since the second half of 2016. Places led by highly experienced chefs are opening one after another, making their long-treasured dreams into reality. This all is much to the delight of guests who are tired of street food and burgers, and despite having a fine-tuned palate cannot afford eating at fine-dining restaurants and high-profile bistros, except for on special occasions. The time of affordable quality is finally here!
Those who know the work of chef György Lőrincz and were lucky enough to have tasted his dishes at Babel know that homemade cuisine is rather dominant in his cooking. Furthermore, he knows no impossible task: he easily created and realized a vegan degustation menu for his former kitchen at the elegant restaurant of Piarista Passage, as well. Gault Millau chose him as last year’s best chef, and we were more than excited to see where he would work after Oz Kantin. We received a tip that he would open a place next to a pub on Dohány Street, and Házi/Állat indeed opened its doors to the public at the beginning of November.
The location is superb, especially since with the exception of Rapaz, there aren’t (or at least weren’t) many desirable places to eat around Blaha Lujza Square, even though it’s one of the busiest hubs of the city. The bistro shares its space with Aznap, we note while stepping inside. The interior design responds well to the shared territory; in focus is the counter, behind which the food is made, and where we can admire the chef’s skillful moves. We took seats at the window to enjoy the view of the nearby New York Palace.
According to the concept, the restaurant has permanent dishes, seasonal offers, and lunch specials, as well. The price-value ratio of the latter is so decent that we can barely believe it. After the opening, we ordered a lunch including an appetizer and a main course for 1,290 forints, the quantity of which was definitely enough to satisfy a big appetite. We ate cream of squash soup with vegetable chips, and BBQ ribs – the glazed kind that you can only eat with both hands – served with cheesy steak potatoes and some coleslaw.
Among the regular dishes, we can find delicacies such as creamed eggs with cracklings, homemade bread and pickles (890 HUF),bread and dripping with pickled red onion (990 HUF), grey cattle goulash with sourdough bread and homemade hot sauce (1,390 HUF) or beef consommé with homemade giant ravioli (1,190 HUF). We immediately tried the chef’s favorite, the oven-baked marrowbone with egg (1,490 HUF), which comes with a little spoon so that we can scrape out all of the soft marrow from the bone. We also appreciated the browned garlic sprinkled on top.
The beef-cheek stew is also on the permanent menu, served in a huge portion with sour cream-smeared dödölle, for 1,890 forints. If only goulash-hunting travelers would meet this and similar dishes when first stepping out of the shuttle bus! One thing would surprise them, though: while enjoying baked marrowbones and glazed ribs, Laurent Garnier or Oliver Huntemann might play in the background, since Házi/Állat is rather fond of techno.
