LÁMPÁS
As traditional as mistletoe, bohemian cellar Lámpás on Dob Street in District VII has always made a point of keeping the party going on Christmas Eve. Setting up at 9pm, this year Tilos Rádió DJ Adam Salman will be spinning the tunes in this intimate underground space. Admission is free, bar prices are insultingly low – 450 forints for a big glass of Borsodi beer – and the pogácsa scones are legendary. What more do you need to know? Oh yes, closing time is 2am, after which the Grand Boulevard is a stagger away.
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CORSO RESTAURANT
Sweeping views of major city landmarks provide a beautiful backdrop outside this Hungarian heritage eatery located on Budapest’s Danube Promenade. Inside also shines over December 24th, 25th, and 26th, Corso’s Christmas Brunches feature a carving station heaving with roast duck, lamb shoulder and beef sirloin, buffet dishes for kids, and even a sushi selection. Don’t miss out on the exquisite pastries created by the fair hand of Nikoletta Vágó. Mains, carnivorous delights at the carving station and dessert can be enjoyed in a Bubbly Package with sparkling wine for 12,900 forints or a Gourmet Package (featuring endless glasses of wine and beer) for 14,900, with a 10% service charge and discounts for kids.
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BUDDHA-BAR HOTEL
The five-star Buddha-Bar Hotel, located in the renovated Klotild Palace by Elizabeth Bridge in the heart of the city, is home to two stylish restaurants, both open on Christmas Eve. This is the place to come if you’re not after heaps of stuffed cabbage but Asian fusion cuisine at the Buddha-Bar Restaurant and Lebanese delights at the Baalbek, in a cosmopolitan, suggestively seasonal setting. There’s no Christmas menu, it’s all à la carte. Before diving in to your exquisite dishes from the Pacific Rim or the Levant, you can treat yourself to a high-end cocktail, an Asiapolitan of shochu with fresh muddled lemongrass, perhaps, or a Majestic, vodka martini with Thai basil and fresh pineapple. It’s Christmas, after all.
FOGAS HÁZ / INSTANT
The party goes on until late at this mega ruin pub/club in the heart of District VII, doors opening at 10pm on Christmas Eve, followed by a live show by Puszi, diamond-encrusted rock music with a touch of Japanese gadget and cabaret, fronted by five voices. Well versed in gigging at Christmas – this is their eighth year of seasonal shows – the band are joined by Bence Tasnádi, star one of this year’s best Hungarian movies, 1945. Admission is 1,000 forints.
THE RITZ-CARLTON, BUDAPEST
Since its debut on Budapest’s hotel scene in 2016, this urban palace has raised the standards for five-star hospitality in Hungary, and during the festive season guests can expect nothing less than the best when celebrating Christmas here. For December 24th, the hotel’s tasteful Deák St. Kitchen offers a delectable three-course Christmas menu (set menu 11,500 HUF plus 12.5% service), featuring curry-marinated salmon, grilled monkfish or seared duck breast, according to your fancy. Live acoustic music accompanies. Bedecked with cosmopolitan decorations, the gracious Kupola Lounge hosts a Christmas Day Brunch on December 25th between 12:30pm and 4pm, in which roast turkey, Yorkshire pudding, suckling pig with braised red cabbage and apple, and pike-perch fillet with lemon butter sauce, are the stand-out choices. Set prices vary according to alcohol consumption, from 12,000 to 20,500 forints, plus 10% service.
NEMDEBÁR
That wonderful rarity, a cool cult bar in Buda, Nemdebár hides behind eternally temporary scaffolding on the far edge of Széll Kálmán Square, the main transport hub on this side of the Danube. Wantonly contrary – it still giving its address as its populist retro name of ‘Moszkva tér’ – this bijou DJ bar rocks as raucously as anywhere in District VII, it’s just more savvy about it. Here, a mainly Hungarian clientele gathers amid album-covered walls and jazzy colors – gathers, in fact, on December 24, too, from 7pm. No specific DJs have yet been scheduled. Perhaps everyone’s waiting for Santa himself to take the decks at some point.
CORINTHIA HOTEL BUDAPEST
This grand Budapest hotel celebrates the season in regal style with a Prince’sChristmas Day Brunch on the 25th, with Hungarian favorite stuffed cabbage to accompany a hog roast, prefaced by prawn cocktail, goose-liver mousse and Serrano ham. Guests may help themselves to as much house wine as their heart desires. The Csicsó Band provides salon music fit for a prince. The event costs 11,500 forints (with a 12% service charge and discounts for kids 12 and under, soft drinks also included). The night before, Christmas Eve, is currently booked but the hotel advises people to check in case of cancellations.
BOOZE ON THE GRAND BOULEVARD
Budapest’s recent realization that Christmas might actually be fun is never better illustrated than on the Grand Boulevard, whose many bars operate either on the 24th or the 25th. Some you might not frequent on any other occasion but, as they say, any port in a storm. The busiest stretch between Blaha Lujza Square and Oktogon should turn up an open hostelry or three, particularly around the Király utca and Wesselényi utca tramstops. Note that tram 6 is running through the night, every 15 minutes. Expat-popular sports bar chain Stifler, with two branches on the Grand Boulevard, closes on the 24th but re-opens at lunchtime on the 25th – and, obviously, there’s a full agenda of English football fixtures to look forward to on the 26th, Spurs-Southampton the early kick-off.
PARIS BUDAPEST
With French flair and magnifique views over Buda Castle and Chain Bridge, stylish waterfront hotspot Paris Budapest welcomes everyone for its Holly Christmas Evedinner starting at 7pm. A special menu created by Stéphan Remon maintains the Gallic ambience with carpaccio de Saint Jacques scallops to start, homard rôti Canadian lobster to follow, as well as jarret de veau braised veal shank. Leave room for the parfait glacé au Grand Marnier to finish things off nicely. The set fee of 21,000 forints includes service charges.
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