Have a ball in a market hall at Rákóczi Square’s Oinos eatery

It is almost needless to say that new restaurants calling themselves wine bars open almost every week. These days a tavern, because of its slightly pejorative meaning, might not be as attractive as a wine bar. A few years ago we associated the name with writing the menu with

white chalk on a blackboard, featuring

mysterious dimly lit rooms, and tasty snacks to help the wine go down. However, when locals

hear the name of District VIII's

Rákóczi Square , they

tend to think about the aforementioned dangerous taverns , not a fine pinot noir and pleasurable background music. At least

we did – before discovering Oinos.

The square has shown itself in several different lights in recent

months: those arriving from the newly opened underground can now marvel at the facade of the surrounding buildings, and many might find again the Rákóczi Square Market Hall, built in 1894 and bearing

excellent produce and meats. From now on, the left side of the square, with atmospheric lights coming from

the windows, might also attract attention,

because Oinos really is a part of the market. According to the people living around the square, a long time ago there was a bakery here, then a grocer's shop, but the location

has been empty for a long time before Italian native Matteo Missoni found it. After

living in Budapest for six

years, a series of coincidences brought him here; at first he arrived here to just have a rest, but he fell in love with the city so much that he now lives

at Gutenberg Square. From there, Rákóczi Square is located just a short stroll

away. Fine dining and quality entertainment does not have a big history here; until now, there were only a few benches to sit around and eat sunflower seeds. Opening a respectable restaurant would be a

challenge, but why not?

This is how the idea of Oinos came to life. The place is very spacious, with the high ceilings

allowing the building of a loft

over the dining space, with a large

kitchen on the ground floor. We had the chance to take a peek backstage; right behind the kitchen you can immediately see the market hall

itself –

if they run out of tomatoes, all they have to do is give a shout out to their favorite vendor to solve the problem. As the shop also has an entrance on the side of the market, they are planning to sell pizzas and pastries on that side to the market's customers.

Because of the wine bar title, it is obvious that Oinos

works with a large selection of wines, but they find it important to offer Italian wines in addition to Hungarian selections,

all at varied prices. As Oinos is also a "bistrot", you can find not only wines, but cocktails and refreshments as well. We tried a bloody Mary (1,390

HUF) and a cucumber cocktail bearing the name of the place (990 HUF), but we were happy to see that they also offer a Bellini (1,190 HUF) with real Italian style.

It is important to mention that every table had salted peanuts and grissini made on the spot – these can be very good when accompanying

drinks or wines.

The chef is Alex Nyári, but they also have a cook who specializes in

pizzas. And speaking of pizzas, we were happy to see that they make them with a thin and

crunchy

crust, and with rich toppings. The capricciosa that we got was heavily packed with artichokes (1,790 HUF). Depending on the number of customers, it takes them about ten

minutes to create the desired variation, which can be a pleasant variation

from the ordinary pizzas of the area; they also make pizzas to

take

home.

The menu is flexible and
diverse, dominated mostly by Italian courses, but you can also find some classics, like beefsteak tartar (2,790

HUF). For dessert we chose Matteo's favorite, a carrot cake with mascarpone (990

HUF), but we did not read the description well, because some popping candy was also on the plate. At first it just made bizarre cracking noises, then we tasted the well-known taste and feeling.

Well, this might not be

a handcrafted speciality
, but it reminds us

of the little shop by the school, and

is a funny twist that defies expectations.

This cake is probably the thing that best encapsulates

how Oinos works –

reliable, cool, and with

some spice in it. Reliable is the kitchen, cool is the Italianesque mentality, and spicy is the location.