The best cafés and street-food spots to open in Budapest during 2019

Cafés

Adding to the city’s impressive roster of specialty cafés was the new locale created by the well-known team behind Simply and Kontakt, Horizont. In similar vein, Budapest Kávé Művek and Kaffantó – part café, part showroom for rowing machines – brightened up the daytime sipping scene around Batthyány tér.

Providing new-wave coffee with a little literature on the side, Babérliget is a two-floor operation: fine java above, top-notch tapas below at Laurel.

Lisboa impressed with its Portuguese pastries and desserts, while Freyja delighted visitors with its savoury and sweet croissants and Scandinavian verve.

The more exotic Eleche attracted customers down to District IX thanks to itsSouth-American caramel desserts, dulces de leche, and top-notch coffee.

Street food

Whether Hungarian, Asian or Middle-Eastern, there was plenty of activity in 2019 as far as street food was concerned. Meatballs are the focus in Fasírt on Paulay Ede utca, where great burgers and a daily menu are also on offer, and breaded meat is the stock-in-trade of Devil's Prézli on Lövőház utca across in Buda.

And, just to show you can’t get enough of breaded meat, another solution is A Rántott Húsos (‘The Breaded Meat’), slap on central Madách tér. Similar in approach is the new outlet of the Cupákos team in the Árkád mall at Örs vezér tere, Katsa, where duck is preferred to pork, and poultry features in sausages, meatballs and stew. On the hamburger front, Vaslap was one of the most outstanding openings, their no-nonsense burgers complemented by homemade sauces, but mention should be made of the imaginative ones of Burger Bár-hol (‘Burgers Anywhere’) moved from a former food truck to a fixed outlet near the Corvin Quarter.

For a full round-up of great Budapest burgers, see here.

A Pest stalwart, Budapest Bägel, crossed the river to set up on Margit körút in Buda. There was also pizza a-plenty: based at former landmark bar Wichmann is a new brand by the ever ambitious Pizza Manufaktúra team, Moto Pizza, as  authentically Neapolitan as the oven it uses. Pizzica took its Roman-style pizzas to Egyetem tér in the student quarter while the renowned Digó found a permanent home on Kazinczy utca in the Jewish Quarter.

The uncrowned king of confectionery, Szabi Szabadfi, found a new outlet for his revered doughnuts: Bomboloni, on Pozsonyi út and at the Fény utca market in Buda.

Among the street food from the Middle East, there was excellent quality to be found at KuszKusz, and in the same spirit of healthy, fast-casual dining, Good Karma decided to offer its Indian cuisine in the city centre, having already established a loyal customer base on Lövőház utca in Buda.

With few places serving the street food of Latin America, Empanada Story was a welcome arrival on Nagymező utca, its signature pasties served amid aptly Argentine décor.

Japanese street food was another feature of 2019: the pancake specialities of Japan Okonomiyaki Kincsán and the divine sushi of Kicsi Japán, now at the Corvin Cinema. Finally, the popular Happy Panda upped sticks from the Chinese Night Market to Blaha Lujza tér.