Jászai Mari Square and its surrounding neighborhood is becoming a perfect place for followers of alternative diets – there is a hummus restaurant, a vegan bakery, and a vegetarian eatery all within a few steps of each other. The freshly opened Tökmag Vegan Street Food further expands this appealing arsenal with savory sandwiches, burgers, and filling soups, all made without a scrap of animal products. This tiny vegan venue only opened about a week ago, but we have already been here twice to enjoy their mouthwatering healthy treats.
Stepping inside Tökmag, the aromas of herbs like sage, basil, and mint mingle in the air, and looking out to a wild green garden through a huge glass wall, we even forget that we’re still in downtown. They do not use any animal products, lactose, sugar, or gluten here, but if we’d like, we can order our burgers made with the wholegrain buns of the adjacent Fill Good vegan bakery. Since they only opened a few days ago, their menu is definitely going to be expanded in the future; upon our first visit we tried a sweet-potato cream soup and a ginger-carrot cream soup, which both were truly hearty (500 HUF).
The owner, Tímea Magyar, who previously worked at the Levendula artisanal ice-cream parlor, has been a vegetarian for 14 years, and a vegan for one year. Because she lives in the neighborhood, she often found herself wondering where to eat out, and thus decided to open a soup store with her partner. As months passed, they tested the recipes, and realized that there is a demand for more.
So now, we can try sandwiches made with pumpkin-seed cream, sunflower-seed cream, and Liptauer (590 - 750 HUF), as well as a coriander-basil, tofu, and chipotle-cream sandwich (990 HUF), which may have been slightly too piquant for our taste buds, but according to Timi, many vegetarians often crave spicy flavors. Besides tofu, Liptauer also contains soy, hence many people unfortunately have to avoid these two sandwiches due to allergies.
At the moment we can choose from three types of burgers (1,390 - 1,490 HUF). In the beetroot burger stuffed with roasted beetroot cream and red-wine onion marmalade, a beetroot patty makes up for the absence of meat. In the Csipetke Burger, the same mission is accomplished by a mushroom patty enhanced with roasted garlic-basil mushroom slices. We tried the Szuper Tökös Burger that comes with a patty made of pumpkin, grated carrot, and spices, and is stuffed with caramelized onion, pumpkin-seed sauce, vegetables, and of course, pumpkin seed. It is a tasty and juicy treat, in which we could slightly taste some cinnamon, and found out that there is a hint of it in the carrot cream. Timi used a branding iron to burn the logo into the bun, which makes the burger look absolutely mouthwatering.
Besides the wholegrain buns, everything, even the gluten-free pastries, is homemade here, as Timi has experimented a lot with the recipes, trying out various types of flour – even some varieties ordered from abroad – but in the end decided to use the gluten-free flour mixes of Szafi Free. The vegetables are also carefully selected from various bio farms, such as Veresi Biokert and Birds Food Garden.
In the near future, Tökmag will open a terrace, where guests can enjoy a tasty tapioca pudding with sugar-free pineapple jam or fresh strawberries (890 HUF) while sitting in the sunshine on the quiet promenade. For dessert we chose a cucumber-spinach smoothie, and even though we are not vegans, we left with a satisfied feeling, having filled our bellies with healthy and tasty treats.
Tökmag Vegan Street Food
Address: Budapest 1136, Hollán Ernő Street 5
Opening Hours: Monday - Sunday: 9am - 9pm
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