As well as an elite location at Clark Ádám tér overlooking the Chain Bridge from the Buda side, spanking new Hotel Clark has just added another elite feature: meat of the highest quality in its in-house restaurant. Beefbar made its name along the exclusive waterfront at Fontvieille in Monaco, close to the heliport and soccer stadium where Albert II is the regular guest of honor. The Beefbar concept has since been exported to Dubai and Hong Kong and now… Budapest. Behind this move is Hubert Hlatky-Schlichter, the brains behind acclaimed Babel Budapest and a guarantor of quality, professionalism and good taste.
Here Hubert has teamed up with Riccardo Giraudi, whose family firm has dealt with the import and export of high-quality meat for half a century. Opening his first Beefbar restaurant in Monaco in 2005, Giraudi now oversees a global brand where quality and consistency are the keys.
Local character must also be present, with special attention paid to the gastronomic characteristics of the host country. Thus the menu at Beefbar Mexico City features T-bones whose exquisite taste derives from a domestic ageing process known as ganadería revuelta. At the Hotel Clark, the only pork item amid the rib eyes is Hungarian-bred mangalica. Here the sztrapacska noodles come with sheeps’ cheese foam, bacon, basil and cream of cabbage.
More than anything, though, Beefbar Budapest is the only establishment in the city to offer certified-quality Kobe beef, universally considered the ne plus ultra of meats. And not just any Kobe beef, but full-blood, A5 tajima-gyu, what is called the emperor’s cut, 200 grammes the minimum order. Kobe bacon also appears to bring out the accompanying mashed potatoes, which also come with jalapeño peppers or veal jus & thyme.
For fillet steak and rib eye, you can choose between Argentine Rioplatense, American Creekstone Farms and Australian Black Onyx. Giraudi only deals with a select, reliable pool of international producers, some ten in total.
Beefbar also broadens the hotel’s hospitality range as a whole, open from early morning. A pre-arranged breakfast menu is followed by lunch, for which a three-course business menu can be had for as little as 5,500 forints. Even on the extensive dinner menu, where that 200 grammes of prime Kobe beef will cost you 35,000 forints/€100, you can find three Kobe & Angus mini-burgers at 3,950 forints, seasoned with Beefbar’s secret sauce.
With the kitchen run by András Sipos of NU Bistro and short-lived Susu fame, intense flavors and vibrant colors underline throughout.
Décor has been provided by Emil Humber, who had to work within the confines of a franchise, but has managed to created an interior of white, gold, blue and green which creates a cosmopolitan space with a lavish backdrop: the Chain Bridge.
Atop all this, come April, will be a panoramic rooftop bar, with its own oven, expanding dining, drinking and selfie options to as far as the horizon.
Beefbar Budapest District I. Clark Ádám tér 1 Open: Daily 7am-midnight
