Gin Shop Budapest is one of the most intriguing things to happen in Budapest in 2013, and it's only March. We took a well-rounded look at Ráday utca's brand new craft cocktail bar, which was founded and is operated by Boutiq' Bar's world-famous cocktail professor, the director of London Academy of Bartenders, Zoltán Nagy.

Dorka Mesterházy

Grab the feeling of the small cafés of Pest, put some literature next to it, and then place these into a welcoming atmosphere in a villa's basement near Budagyöngye!

This is how you get Bálint, which is not a person now, but a nice Café's name.

We discovered it.

Dezse Balázs

Tűzoltó Street 22. started its career as a glassblowing factory before it was turned into a parking lot and later a ruin-pub called Tündérgyár (Fairy Factory). Now this almost place has become Élesztő, the Gettysburg battlefield of the Hungarian craft beer revolution; it’s a like a mixture of a pilgrimage site for beer lovers, and a ruin-pub with 17 beer taps, a home brew bar, a theater, a hostel, a craft pálinka bar, a restaurant and a café. 

Balázs Dezse

Budapest Agency - in association with the Norwegian Embassy, Szamos Chocolatier, and fjordin – has put together a one-of-a-kind, eight-course dinner spearheaded by the masterful creations of the Flying Culinary Circus’ rock and roll chefs. The event – which took place on 9 March at the elegantly old-fashioned Szamos Gourmet Palace – was much more than a prestigious meal centered around the fusion dishes of Hungarian cuisine and Norwegian seafood, since the primary aim was to fundraise for Zsuzsa Kossuth Children’s Home (Kossuth Zsuzsa Gyermekotthon).

Bálint Kodaj

Since exclusion is not our piece of cake, the trio of brand new spots we’re about to introduce is made up of multifaceted venues you’ll most definitely be fond of regardless of your style and preferences. Make us of this beacon of a compilation, and check out the newest beer joints in Budapest!

Bálint Kodaj

We’ve already collected the best classic and hip-vibed cafés Budapest has to offer, but, on account of always being up-to-date, here’s another compilation concentrating on the newest coffee joints in Hungary’s ever-changing capital.

Bálint Kodaj

Although climate change has had its unfortunate effects on the length, predictability, and characteristics of all four seasons, you won’t mistake June for December, not in Hungary, at least. On top of the most obvious factor that rhymes with whether, certain foods and beverages also carry a heavy workload in the distinguishing process, with mulled wine being a great example. To find the best spot to gulp down a mug of steaming, cinnamon-scented grape elixir after some holiday shopping or a stroll around the snowy city, we went on a mulled wine tasting spree in downtown Budapest.

Bálint Kodaj

Ever since Budapest began to flourish at the end of the 1800s, and the city transformed into a vibrant metropolis, cafés have played an important role in everyday life, providing scenes for socializing. Each era and each social strata has its distinguishable favourites: some have disappeared in the whirlwinds of history, and some have survived wars, poverty, and political systems. We’ve collected the best of two extremities – hip-vibed spots and seen-it-all classic cafés -, check them out!

It’s always nice to have a cup of tea – whether you are alone or with your friends, whether you choose the traditional Earl Gray blends or the more refreshing fruity tastes. It’s even better to drink a few cups of tea when it’s dark and chilly outside, so the autumn season is just perfect – as long as tea drinking is concerned. We visited some of the best places where hot tea is served – check out our selection of Budapest’s tea houses.

In this place, you feel like you have been dropped in France. This, considering the tastes, is the best thing that can happen to us. Also, with our bellies filled, it’s a lot easier to get back to work. Á Table!

Every now and then we all need a little bit of a sugar rush. We are all longing for a bar of chocolate, for a slice of cake or for some delicious cookies. These are the times when we should simply walk into one of Budapest’s candy shops or confectioneries and we should get ourselves some sweet yummy treats. We collected the best places for you – let’s see what Budapest has to offer for the sweet-toothed.

Lemonade is the most refreshing, non-alcoholic drink of the summer – we have absolutely no doubt about it. You can enjoy all sorts of different tastes while, let’s just say you’re sitting at the terrace of your favourite café or when you decide to go out on a hot summer night. We went on a journey and we were looking for the most special and the most tasteful lemonades of Budapest – we even tried to make it bigger and better than last year.

Chocolate, vanilla, rhubarb, beetroot or goat cheese flavoured ice-cream? How about some gelato with a roletti, with some chocolate syrup and maybe some rainbow sprinkles? Fancy a scoop of ice-cream or maybe a rose-shaped frozen beauty in a scone? We tried the best ice-creams in the city and we would like to share our experience with you. During our little tour we found out everything about ice-cream; how is it made, who has the best and what makes them different from each other. We were looking for the little wonders and we checked out how prices, sizes, scones, concepts and flavours change.

Trendsetting wine bars bring the full package: they create a pattern for success with distinguishable interiors, diverse wine selections, dishes fitted for sampling sprees, and knowledgable experts eager to enlighten you about reds and whites. Talking of enlightening, we've collected the cream of the crop, the very best wine bars in Budapest. Scan through our list, then choose as you will!

It’s not always easy to have a dog especially if you live in the city. It can be quite stressful at times so you need to take some time off every now and then, you should have a coffee, have lunch or a glass of cool lemonade to chill out a bit. Of course you should also take your puppy with you! Budapest offers more and more opportunities for dogs nowadays; there are great places where pets are welcome too, especially in this season. It wasn’t hard to find the most dog-friendly places of Budapest, so we – accompanied by Carlos – discovered six of the possibilities. Carlos by the way is a real urban puppy – he was raised in the city, he grew up here and he is a regular guest at Városliget, as well as in different pubs and cafés.

Our compilation of the restaurants with the best juices are not only meant for those who are ready to shun solid food seeing the first rays of the spring sun. Though everyone might make use of a liquid diet to deal with spring fatigue, you don’t have to go into extremes. The energizing juices abundant in vitamins and effective for clearing out your body could be great for everybody, that’s for sure. What follows is the top 6 places to go for such drinks together with one of their specialties.

If you decide to have breakfast at New York Café you should be able to think outside the box and break out of your shell, especially if you’re not staying at Boscolo Hotel and especially if you usually have your humble breakfast toast and your early morning coffee at home in your PJs. You should also be prepared if you don’t have any particular reason to celebrate, you would just like to start off your day with a fancy treat. The experience will be exclusive; the chandeliers, the white tablecloths, the garcons and cutleries will be surprisingly friendly so you can really enjoy yourself. And we’re only talking about the breakfast.

Who likes milk? Who tried the delicacies of Cserpes Cheese Manufacture before? Who prefers Cserpes Trudi over Túró Rudi? And last but not least who is in favour of nutritious, delicious, fresh Hungarian dairy products that you can buy right in the city centre? If you answered most of these questions with yes, then you should head to Deák Square, to Sütő Street because the Cserpes Milk Bar is waiting for you! From 1^st June, this great place offers fresh, milky treats.

Breakfast is the most important meal - goes the old saying. We know it, everyone knows it so we might say it’s a general wisdom. But it’s not only quantity that counts, quality matters just as much when it comes to breakfast. Your day will definitely go better if you’re starting with sitting in a comfortable armchair and a waiter with a bright smile serves you your favourite coffee, a tasty croissant or let’s say an omelette. Let’s just be honest – we all deserve a royal breakfast every once in a while. Of course you have to find the right places that worth waking up a bit earlier. We collected some of them just for you.

Some people knew cider before the huge Strongbow ads appeared all around the city. Some of them are still surprised if they see the word cider on the wine-list. We suggest reading this article for both of these types of people, because cider, this refreshing drink which is somewhere in between ale and wine is a great summer beverage, especially if it’s served with a few ice cubes. So here’s the first round and here are the top 5 places where you can have a few pints of excellent cider.

It would be so good to be able to describe all the Budapest venues with so many unique attributes as can be said about Doblo Wine & Bar. We thought it was the most atmospheric wine bar as early as a year ago, and nothing has changed. The place closing in on its second birthday is natural, friendly, honest, receptive and special – so say its guests. They also say that Doblo wouldn’t exist without Dávid Popovits. We talked with the owner about celebration, the logo, kalimotxo, the competition and plans.

In an apparently pleasant spring evening we set out to accomplish a noble undertaking: testing the little pubs in Buda we deem the best. We kept ourselves to a strict set of rules, that is, not more than one spritzer at one place, then off we went to the next, but even this wasn’t enough to fit all the places we had wanted to visit in our schedule before the last call. Short conclusion: a) 85% of the customers in pubs of Buda is male, b.) after 11 PM alcoholic beverages are not sold in the 11^th district even in pubs, c.) everything closes very early, so, sadly, the saying that “there’s no party in Buda” has been verified, d.) the most atmospheric, most authentic, less refined and less pompous pubs are to be found here.

Fortunately, there’s a growing need for quality coffee drinking and it’s high time that the misconception that really good coffee can only be drunk in Italy be dissolved. You can believe that atmosphere has its influence on what you drink but claiming that the location defines the quality of the drink is far from being even a bit rational. For quality comes down to the cleanness of the machine, the quality of the water softener and the appropriate setting of the grinder and the machine itself. In anticipation of the Creative Coffee Forum on Saturday we made a compilation of some cafés that we deem to be among the finest.

Warm, sprinkled with almonds, filled with walnut cream, cottage cheese or poppy seed, eaten with butter, granny’s homemade jam or rather ham? This is kalács, a sweet bread-like mostly braided pastry. Anything goes at Easter. Finally, after the 40 days of lent it’s time for the ham, the eggs, the wine to make their way to the table, let alone some sinful sweetness. We ourselves couldn’t resist this latter one and set out to track down one of the finest of the Easter meals, kalács – reciting resolutions about how we’re going to lose the weight after the holiday. We hope to get you to make some at home...

There’s that moment in spring when you first step out of your home without a coat, when the brasseries and restaurants finally put out the chairs on the sidewalk and you suddenly feel the lack of vitamins and meat in your body, and all this at the same time. The solution is really a no-brainer: have a vaseful of unfiltered wheat beer – the real liquid bread.

Of course, it’s not as easy here as it is in, for instance, Munich – but it’s far from impossible. If you want to drink some wheat beer, have a go at the following places in Budapest. 

A piece of cake? No, not at all. The main products at La Delizia are cookies. There are over 22 kinds of cookies to chose from at the shop, which will enchant you with its Mediterranean atmosphere for the first time and its unique philosophy later on.

Dzsem bakery satisfies both the hungry and the sweet-toothed with their genuinely French croissants of various fillings, pain au chocolat, other different pastries and rich sandwiches.

If a remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was made, the new title might be changed to something like Charlie and the Macaron Factory. Surely enough, macarons are always round but variety still abounds: tomato-strawberry, chocolate-blue cheese, pumpkin, paprika, salmon, earl grey, candied chestnut, mint, viola, lavender and, of course, chocolate and vanilla, to name but a few among the multitude of flavors macarons exist in. But Charlie would be really extatic only if he visited Macaron Day 2012 in Budapest.

Did you hear about it? Or did you even try it? Do you adore or hate it? If you want to know more about Macarons, let's visit the Macaron Day on 20th of March!

Some years back drinking beer was the thing of those who didn’t like to ponder a lot about what it is they consumed and thought that the people who paid 3-400 HUF more for a bottle was stupid. The pioneer of such oddballs is Gergely Kővári, founder of Csakajósör (=only the good beers).

February 2012 is greeted by a unique concept in Budapest, that of Bagatellini, the latest installment of the Villa Bagatelle team with the help of master chef Viktor Segal in MOM Park.

Pálinka is absolutely ours since 2004! This was the very year when an EU law was passed claiming that pálinka is so Hungarian that the name “pálinka” cannot be used by producers of countries other than Hungary, except for the producers of the apricot pálinka made in four provinces of Austria. It goes without saying that even those with the right to use the word have to keep to strict quality regulations. Thank God, lots of them do, and since the beginning of January anyone can taste the precious nectars at Kazinczy utca. We interviewed András Kormanik, the manager of Abszolút Pálinka.

Do you like wine? Would you like to drink good wines at a good place? And this in a way that the proficient staff educates you a little if you feel like it? Would you like to experience that the world is your playground at a place of high standards where you can chill out, and to find all this within close reach? Well, do we have to go on, or are you already on your way?

Hospitality industry in Budapest has to face dire times. Traditional pubs only struggle in their quest to come up with novel ideas and try to be ever cheaper to come to grips with the depression caused by the recession. All the while the good ideas are there for the taking.

Dóra Tóth-Deme’s childhood dream came true when she opened the Kuglóf last January. The shop that serves as a bakery, a café and a breakfast and lunch place is approaching its first birthday, which is celebrated with persistent experimentation, a selection made of quality ingredients, novel ideas and, of course, unrelenting enthusiasm.

It’s a common phrase, that Hungarians are talented. Can it be just a stereotype? Maybe, or may not. But it’s undeniable, that Hungarian geniuses work in research laboratories, they design fabulous cars, paintings of our artists travel around the world and in the Netherlands people gladly open a bottle of delicious Aszú in time of celebrations. Hungary gives specialty to the world, if we allow people to look into our art through Hungarian creations. What is more, a good glass of wine tastes better, if it has history.

Just because it’s damp and biting cold outside and one would rather just hug a cup of hot anything sitting on the couch, there really is no need to withdraw to the living room. For it’s time for winter cocktails! We asked the experienced bartender of Boutique Bar, Ferenc Haraszti, what he recommends for winter.

Szamos family opened their Gourmet House in the recently renovated Exchange Palace at Vörösmarty square. The Gourmet House functions as a confectionery, café and chocolate manufactury at the same time.

There’s a place in Damjanich Street, only a couple of steps from City Park, where we can feel a piece of Spain opening up before our very eyes. The atmosphere and the wines no doubt prompt that. It’s honest, passionate and full of emotions.

In September the 6th - 7th district went out of its way to pose quite a challenge to those walking its streets, as a the number of cosy pubs, different guest alluring places, and wine bars have been on a sudden rise. One wine bar, to be precise, which we bumped into accidentally in Király street as we were in a hurry to someplace else. The enormous glass surfaces and colorful chairs caught our attention, and we read the name and title letter by letter: Kadarka Bar – trial run. In front of the meticulously lined wall of wine bottles a familiar face greeted us, Árpád Laurenczy, the former manager of Menza Restaurant. The ever cheerful businessman told us about Kadarka, and what is there to be known about the wine bar that sprung into existence in the 7th district seemingly out of nowhere.

In every European city it is completely normal to use a bike for transportation during the day (or even at night). You can go grab a coffee, a beer, a spritzer and even go out to a club on a bike – or just meet up with some friends.

After learning at Printa Café how coffee got to be so good in Pest  - and where to find a real cup of joe – we went searching. Under one of the signs of Nagy Diófa utca, amongst thousands of books and a huge palm tree, we found Zoltán Pallai, the café manager at Massolit Books & Café.

 According to our examination results, all kinds of spirits usually end up somewhere over a wall, or on the sidewalk, or if you are lucky enough, it will go down in a toilet. However, consumers experience some phenomenal moments until spirits are inside.

What a heatwave! Hiding from the sun, this week we were trying to find the best lemonades of the city. Lemon juice, soda and sugar, the original reccipe can be found everywhere. We were trying to find those places where you can taste something extraordinary.

That's how we got to GODOT Café and Comedy-theatre, Govinda Vegetarian Corner, Menza restaurant, Melba hajós Restaurant and Harbor, Paris-Budapest Bar and Mák Bistro. We drank 'em, cooled ourselves, made photos and now we write it! Follow us on facebook and you may win some lemonades as well!

Any watchful locals of Budapest – like WeLoveBudapest staff – we do like to be drawn by our nose and heart while wandering around the city. Luckily, our intuitions always drive us to the right places. It all happened the same way when we entered Pintra Café in Rumbach Sebestyén Street. This little place turns all coffee-making conventions upside-down right in the middle of a small design shop

You must visit at least one of them whether you are young or old, rich or poor.

... you are not in a dream, but in one of the newest hotspots of Budapest. In a RUIN PUB.

You can find more breakfast places in case of a morning hunger!

There are quality restaurants having some additional dishes for the morning hours, where you usually see continental, traditional English or Hungarian early meals. Choices are often ham & eggs, scrambled eggs, or Vienna sausage. If you would rather eat a fruit shake, fresh orange juice or a sandwich packed with rocket, it could be good news that there are more and more places offering healthy food for the morning in the city.

You cannot miss the crowded, smoky downtown pubs as the basic elements of nightlife of Budapest, where they ask only 200-300 Forints for a glass of beer or cheap vodka.