Hokedli is a rather old-fashioned Hungarian name for a stool; most people in Hungary have most likely only heard it from their grandmother. The word, along with the stool itself, now appears again on Nagymező Street, as the city's newest pottage bar bears the very same name.
Hokedli is a tiny eatery where we can buy pottages, soups, toppings, different one-course dishes, and even some baked goods and sweets. The soups and pottages are served in eco-friendly cups, and provided with wooden spoons to be eaten on the spot (if there is any free space available) or taken away. Before we get started with describing the experience, we must mention that while we will use the word pottage in this article, we are actually talking about főzelék. Főzelék is a classic Hungarian food made out of various vegetables, often served as a main dish with fried toppings. While it might appear similar to soups or stews, it is neither – its consistency is creamier than soups, yet thinner than stews. But for now, let us return to Hokedli!
The place itself is rather small, and is not as much about comfort as about quick and efficient service, which makes the whole design visually exciting – despite the fact that there are no unbelievable novelties.
Simplicity and domesticity is a primary concept regarding the food as well, since we can only eat really good pottage at home. A very important step in making pottage is thickening its consistency, and when cooking it at home, people thicken the pottage with its own main ingredient (more potato in a potato pottage, for example), but many catering units use flour and starch instead. Fortunately, Hokedli sticks to the traditional technique, while paying great attention to achieving the perfect consistency.
After our test lunch, we can definitely say that this mission is on the right track: we tasted pea pottage with peanut and ginger, beetroot soup with coconut milk, bean pottage with roasted pepper, zucchini pottage with tomato and eggplant, and (last but not least) creamy spinach soup. We were already full halfway though the courses, but loved everything so much that we just could not stop. Naturally, we could not taste everything available, since the menu changes on a daily basis, and usually depends on either coincidence or the current vegetable stock at the markets.
One portion of pottage is sold for 850 forints, one topping is 450 forints, and soups cost 550 forints. These are not the cheapest prices around the city, but given the fact that a pottage-and-topping combo fills us up completely, we can say that the bill is around the same range as for any other regular lunch menu.
They do not have any grand future plans except for establishing the successful operation of the bar, and installing outdoor handrails. At most, they are considering selling jams to be taken home.
We almost left out one of the most important pieces of information: the place absolutely welcomes dogs and cats.
