Top-quality culinary artistry continues at Costes Downtown

Now the same team behind Costes offers a second location of this landmark restaurant within the building of central Pest’s newly opened Prestige Hotel Budapest, just a short stroll away from the Chain Bridge and St. Stephen’s Basilica. Led by Costes owner Károly Gerendai (best known as the founder and head honcho of Budapest’s annual Sziget Festival) and Executive Chef Miguel Rocha Vieira, the fresh debut of Costes Downtown adds a new gourmet hotspot to the heart of District V. Costes Downtown continues the uncompromising approach and welcoming spirit that earned global acclaim for the original Costes, even while fulfilling the uniquely demanding role of serving as a hotel restaurant – including providing room service.

Stepping inside of Costes Downtown, we are immediately struck by its pleasantly understated ambience bearing a sophisticated-yet-warm interior design marked by natural wood, exposed brickwork, subdued earth tones, and an abundance of live plants decorating the tables, walls, and even the ceiling; contemporary artworks by leading Hungarian artists give a little edge to the scene. While the original Costes location also features a similar color scheme and an appealing lack of ostentation, Costes Downtown offers a more relaxed and airy bistro atmosphere enhanced by its high walls and tall windows that provide ample natural light during daytime – an important feature, considering that this eatery must offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily, unlike its older sister eatery open only in the evening five days a week.

Another major difference between the original Costes and Costes Downtown is that the newcomer features a huge show kitchen – a longtime desire for both Vieira and Gerendai, because the structure of the Ráday location forced the original restaurant’s kitchen to be installed in the basement, preventing the diners from watching the fascinating process of producing their meals. To highlight the intricate efforts that go into preparing every dish at Costes Downtown, a huge chef’s table is placed beside the show kitchen where groups can enjoy a special “surprise menu” created specifically for every dining party.

However, both Costes locations share an uncompromising dedication to serving meals made with only the best-quality ingredients, especially since this is a major part of what earned the original restaurant its coveted Michelin star. Interestingly, when the first Costes opened in 2008, living up to this pledge was a more difficult task for Vieira, because back then it was a continual challenge to secure high-caliber foodstuffs in Hungary on a consistent basis; oftentimes restaurant staff had to fly to Paris just to shop for suitable raw materials.

Vieira is pleased that nowadays there is a much more plentiful supply of locally sourced fine produce and meats constantly available in Budapest, and thus the frequently changing menu of Costes Downtown highlights seasonal regional foods with distinctive Hungarian flavor, embellished by the international cooking influences of this expert Portuguese chef – a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu London, and a veteran of the kitchen at Spain’s celebrated El Bulli. Utilizing this invaluable expertise, this summer Vieira is planning to create diverse dishes with Hungarian Mangalica pork and duck, along with local freshwater fish like pike and crayfish, garnished with the countryside’s summer fruits and vegetables such as corn, cucumbers, plums, peaches, melon, tomatoes, and much more.

During a recent visit, we were immediately impressed with an explosively flavorful fusion of such summertime treats – a refreshing vegetarian gazpacho prepared with chrysanthemum and melon balls (3,200 HUF); with a mouthful of the cold tomato soup we bit into the melon chunks to enjoy the explosive blast of these two flavors suddenly intermingling.

The gazpacho was especially delicious in concert with the warm bread rolls baked on-site and served with two types of shredded butter – one made of churned Bosnian goat milk, and the other prepared with Hungarian cow milk that was purposefully burned to achieve an appealing caramelized flavor; such creative attention to every morsel served here is a trademark of Vieira’s ever-present artful influence.

Most offers on the menu are identified simply with the type of meat or fish that each item is based upon, while every dish is artistically presented with carefully coordinated colors and statuesque arrangements; elegantly rough-hewn clay plates and bowls serve as the “canvas” for every course. Such was the case with the starter of grilled quail with corn and Iberico ham (3,500 HUF) – the game bird’s meat was so tender that it was hard to believe it wasn’t prepared in a sous vide.

The Mangalica trio entree (5,300 HUF) presents carefully roasted slices of pork belly, a deep-fried breaded ball of head meat, and thick medallions of tenderloin all served with green peas and broad beans. All three of these succulent porcine delights satisfyingly highlighted the meat’s natural flavors, while the swirls of pea puree added zestful continuity between the three distinct cuts.

For dessert, we indulged in two selections: the seasonal berries with yogurt ice cream adorned with edible flower petals and clear gelatin nuggets, and the aptly named “Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate” (each 4,000 HUF). While the first plateful of super-fresh fruits and silky frozen cream was a perfect treat to conclude this summertime meal, the latter dessert’s appearance made it the most memorable dish of the visit – atop a circular tree-trunk slice, an edible diorama was reminiscent of a tiny woodland glade, featuring a layer of bitter dark-chocolate chips to represent the ground, chocolate macarons that resembled mushrooms, and green-tinted mango-filled bonbons appearing like fallen leaves. It almost felt like destroying a modern-art statue to eat this final course, but of course we quickly managed to overcome any hesitance.

Despite the overwhelming excellence of the cuisine at Costes Downtown, there are still a few elements that must be refined before management can consider attempting to earn another Michelin star for this new location. The service staff seems somewhat inexperienced, partially due to the fact that many more fine-dining destinations are now operating in Budapest than in 2008, when the original Costes opened; now there is a lot more competition to hire the best servers Hungary has to offer. Also, many of the wine racks remain empty for now, although Gerendai assures us that Costes Downtown will follow the footsteps of the original Costes in offering one of the planet’s finest Hungarian-wine selections, complemented by a few extraordinary international bottles that pair particularly well with certain dishes.

And while dining at Costes Downtown is certainly not an inexpensive experience, prices here are lower than at its world-renowned sister restaurant, and both eateries offer extraordinary value for money when considering how much more these meals would cost if they were sold in nearby Vienna. (For 6,900 forints, the three-course business lunches served on weekdays between noon and 3pm at Costes Downtown present a quite affordable option to enjoy a refined feast here.)

For the time being, Costes Downtown may not yet match up to the incredibly high standards of its pioneering predecessor, but based solely on the quality of its cuisine and the pleasant ambience, this debuting dining destination certainly already ranks among Hungary’s very finest eateries. With the management’s undying dedication to continually excel in every aspect of their culinary creation, we believe that it won’t be long before Costes Downtown becomes a serious Michelin-star contender.