A new Budapest street-food shop makes crepes with a twist

Redefining thin pancakes to become the basis of a meal on the move, Crepeta offers a variety of filling feasts rolled up with sweet and salty ingredients. This newly opened eatery near the Arany János Street metro station offers a creative combination of French and Hungarian gastronomy with satisfying wraps containing specialties like pesto, paprika, and túró cheese, all of which can be folded as a convenient takeaway treat, offering a whole new option for grabbing a bite while going about your day (or night).

Crepes are perpetually popular here (called “palacsinta” in Hungarian), but they are usually found in Budapest only as a basic dessert filled with jam or cocoa powder, even though there are endless ways to enjoy them. Fortunately, Crepeta is now open on Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Avenue near the Arany János Street metro station, and here the owners are attempting to incorporate this underrated delicacy into Hungary’s street-food canon.

Photo: Juhász Norbert - We Love Budapest

Despite its specialization in crepes, Crepeta does not call itself a pancake house; instead they consider gyros as their main rival – although what they offer is entirely different.

One of their delicacies, for example, is the version filled with túrós csusza (cottage cheese pasta), which represents French crepes and Hungarian gastronomy simultaneously. In addition, they sell countless other filling variations: salty, like the mozzarella-ham-arugula-tomato (900 HUF) or the tuna-olives-onion-beans-tomato sauce (1,200 HUF); grilled, like the pesto-chicken-parmesan-tomato (1,200 HUF) or the chili mustard-chicken-paprika-salad (1,200 HUF); or sweet, like the apple-cinnamon-caramel (600 HUF) or Nutella-banana (600 HUF).

The crepes are available for takeaway on request, in which case they are neatly rolled up, so that we can eat them in a civilized manner even while walking along the busy sidewalk outside the shop.

The business is still in its early stages, and although they already offer many exciting things, they plan on expanding the lineup. They try to offer something to eat for those with different food sensitivities and allergies, as well – the only thing they have not figured out yet is a vegan version, because crepes made purely from vegetable ingredients cannot hold the fillings, but they are trying to find a solution to this problem. Because of the late opening hours, a meatycrepe can be a nice alternative to falafel or gyros during late-night outings.