Cheap downtown pubs

You might also meet some hard drinkers from the flats upstairs and some less lucky groups of friends in their 30s or 40s can be frequent there as well. You always hear the voices of Babel; everybody wants to shout louder than the others while you are listening to the top hits of the past 20 years from a radio. If there is a music box, be prepared for some serious fights for choosing songs.

Compulsory pieces of equipment are darts, fooseball tables and promotional ashtrays. These unpleasant, sometimes upsetting places provide background for the biggest laughs and the greatest fun before the most painful hangover. You can have a glance to a world that has preserved the ‘culture of alcohol consumption’ since the system change of 1989. You must not miss these places if you are bored in the pleasant, comfortable way of life.

The Caesar Beer-house is a cheap pub in Király Street. Its neighbor is the place called Kuplung, but their prices are incomparable. The beer of the pub is Arany Ászok for only 250 HUF, they always have special drink sales (usually some kind of long drinks from vodka), so you are able to get decently drunk from about 2000 HUF. If there is a soccer game, it is very crowded and you need to wait in long lines for the restrooms. However, service is quick and kind.

The Nagy Diófa Wine-house is a few corners away from Blaha Lujza Square and Erzsébet Boulevard in a street having the same name as the pub. The place is quite common with brick walls, 5 or 6 tables, twilight feeling and having no signals on your mobile. The big portion of wine-spritzer for 250 HUF comes in a half-liter jar, and we offer the very cheap but strange-colored Xenia vodka for the bravest ones only.

Akácfa Street is very famous for the place where you need to pay the BKV fine checks but we must mention that Akácfa Beer-house, the biggest pub in 7th district is also there. You will find chairs with artificial red leather cover, flashing arcade games and a ‘too-loud’ radio. Cigarette smoke is intolerable but there are many students because of the closeness of Corvin tető. You might meet the wildest faces of the city.

One of the most popular pubs in the corner of Nagymező Street and Zichy street is Cheho that opened for a couple of years ago. However, it is cheap it is a quite civilized place. You can ask for beer in a 2-liter sphere which is quite practical apart from its name, but a bigger group will finish up in minutes. If you have a chance, definitely try Berentzen palinkas. We recommend the green apple flavor. Watch out! It is very hard to stop.

B-City is the compulsory pub in the 6th district. You cannot miss its neon-green windows lighting up Zichy Street. There are three big rooms. The first two are loaded with tables and chairs and in the third, you are able to test your soberness in different traditional pub games. The owner’s dog is always lurking around without a single barking, and cigarette smoke is very thick. This pub is the second smokiest in the city for sure.

Bakegér Wine-house is a real taproom in the heart of the 6th district close to Oktogon square. Its main advantage is that you can eat some mini cakes for less than a 100 HUF, which can be very useful after some shots to ease the pain in your stomach. Several regular customers have been sitting at the same table for ten years.

Broadway Beer-house is hidden at the end of Nagymező street close to Bajcsy Zsilinszky street. A colorful display shows the newest sales above the entrance. The loft gets full quickly, so you might not find a place if you just drop in. We recommend this place for the last of your “pub-tour” because it is open until four or five a.m. and only the most patient customers stay that long.   

You find Cheers Pub in Nagymező Street as well. This is a pub with one more storey and it provides all the best drinks: cheap spirits, beer, and everything appealing to mouth and eye. It is uncomfortably hot during the summer, but if you manage to book a table in advance, you can have a very pleasant night in private.

Ózon Café in Ó Street in parallel with Andrássy Avenue is a cosy place with bright colors. It seems unbelievable but doormen speaks more languages and they are really kind. You can play fooseball upstairs between two glasses of beer, but the place is rather tight, so watch your elbows, please.

Andersen pub has been quite popular since their opening, though the whole place is a mixture of everything. 

It was said to be the first Danish beer-house in Budapest but there is nothing Danish in it. The interior is a kind of Native American and Western mix inherited from a Wigwam while you listen to some rock music. You can get the special “one-meter-beer” for a 1000 HUF, which means ten glasses of ‘amber brew’ arriving in a wooden box. Feel free to write something funny at the bottom of the drawer if you find a clear spot.

Monyó, the darkest café of Budapest is hidden in the labyrinth of the reconstruction works of the Kálvin Square. It is the most nostalgic in the early evenings when subdued light reflects on the reddish-orange walls. You can taste the specialty of the café, the Monyó cocktail, at the counter sitting in swings. It is also known as Kurvák Fu with the ingredients of vodka, raspberry syrup and Tabasco. Watch out! You can easily get used to it.

Tett-hely is hidden in Kertész Street. The pub is quite popular probably because it has all the typical ‘pub-features’. Robi is the name of the owner, he looks like an escaped prisoner, but he is the most generous bartender in the world. He puts on your favorite record if you wish, and mix a fantasy cocktail of his. Our best-loved is “magic quatro”.

In Dob Street of the Jewish quarter of the city, you will find our ‘oldest friend’, Lámpás. It is known from its strange atmosphere and its mazes. Lámpás is more than a simple pub. The secret drinkers in the underground passageways and the ‘always-smoking’ loud groups together provide a surreal experience. Lámpás is a place where if you go down to, you definitely stay there. It is quite difficult to get rid of the feeling. Unfortunately, the place is closed during the summer and it opens again in September. You need to find some other places instead of Lámpás for that period.