Converted from a 300-year-old abbey below Buda Castle, the Monastery Boutique Hotel opened in 2019, housing 47 guest rooms and the Moné Bar & Restaurant. Accessed via a separate entrance, Moné comprises two dining areas, the one at the front characterised by bare brick and intimate illumination. The other, at the back, is surrounded by glass and natural light, with colourful furniture set on a black-and-white chequered floor. Outside, an age-old stone wall borders the garden and the wing still used by the Capuchin monks to this day.
The garden will open in summer, and a separate barbecue terrace is planned for the cosy patio, with its own menu listing burgers, kebabs and steaks. The whole complex is especially suited for weddings and other special events, a sophisticated choice with, of course, an on-site hotel.
Currently, the restaurant offers Hungarian/international bistro cuisine, both à la carte and for the weekly changing menu. Chef Gergő Ódor keeps the à la carte relatively fixed but moves with the seasons. The weekly menu embraces the globe: you can start with something exotic from the Far East and follow it with a Magyar classic. Two courses cost 2,490 forints, three 2,890.
We sampled examples from the weekly suggestions and à la carte. The Asian chicken soup was a powerful consommé with ress vegetables, meat and rice noodles. Even without the star anise and cinnamon, and without moving towards pho, it embodied Asian flavours, particularly with the coriander and cooked lime also provided.
The Hortobágy pancakes were slightly reinvented in the kind of crispy skin used for spring rolls, but remained soft on the inside, while the chicken paprikás was of the time-honoured variety, creamy and relaxing, as you would expect to find at any traditional Buda restaurant. The fish in the fish & chips is hake. Beware the accompanying dip as it contains lime – although this zing works well.
À la carte, the grape salad contained mature ham, the various green leaves drizzled with a dressing of blue cheese and balsamic vinegar, and very filling it was too. The layered potatoes arrived as a Hungarian grandmother would have appreciated – but here they dare to slice its components thinly, while managing to retain the flavours.
The sturgeon (4,990 HUF) benefits from Gergő Ódor’s years at Nobu and mastery of fine-dining techniques. The honey-glazed parsnips, caramelised kumquat in foamy-citrus sauce and crunchy shimeji mushrooms only work with sturgeon if you’re careful to balance out the salty, sweet and acidic influences. This Ódor achieved to perfection, the end result a light, pleasant, elegant dish with exciting flavours that did not intrude.
Of the desserts, the muffin in the weekly selection was like soft little hollow into which you poured the peanut cream, while the poppy-seed brűlée combined two desserts, sweet and sour. Note that Moné also offers breakfast from 7am-10.30am.
Set where Fő utca meets Ponty utca, Moné is a very pleasant destination indeed, close to the tourist sights of Buda, where breakfast, lunch menus and decent cuisine are less common than historic monuments. It has all the potential to become one of the best bistros in the area.
Moné Bar & Restaurant
District I. Fő utca 30
Open: Daily 7am-11.45pm
