Breakfast with a view, dinner with sunset – High Note SkyBar raises the stakes - English

One of Budapest’s most beautiful panoramas – no idle boast – atop the Aria Hotel may backdrop your late weekend breakfast or bookend your weekday dinner.

The lack of foreign tourism has put hotels in Budapest in a difficult position, even the award-winning Aria. Known for its musical theme and striking interior design solutions, this five-star luxury hotel is therefore introducing new services at its stand-out feature, the High Note SkyBar rooftop retreat.

On the panoramic terrace rising above the city, guests can enjoy a rich brunch at weekends. Even before the current situation, half the guests here were Hungarians looking for that panoramic view and fine cocktails, joining the foreign visitors staying at the hotel. While the Liszt restaurant downstairs at the Aria awaits its reopening, weekend breakfast and a daily dinner menu can be enjoyed up here on the seventh floor.

Whereas previously you could bask in the wonderful view of the Basilica, downtown Pest and the hills Buda while nibbling on typical bar dishes or the lunch menu, the High Note SkyBar has reconfigured for autumn with an extended selection and an impressively wide morning menu.

Coming here between 8am and noon, you can sample the national breakfast of several nations, from American pancakes to Scandinavian salmon gravlax, and from a Hungarian peasant’s breakfast to authentic French croissants. Nor could classics like croques monsieur, French toast, homemade granola and Eggs Benedict be forgotten, nor left to chance, given the High Note breakfast compilation (7,500 HUF).

Chef Ferenc Jóvér has let his imagination run riot and created his signature dessert called High Roll, which is actually a reinvented cinnamon swirl with a cream cheese-brandy sauce, a pecan caramel crunch and raspberry sauce (2,000 HUF).

Special attention is paid to the ingredients: succulent grey-beef sausage and mangalica ham come from Hungarian organic farms, and there are homemade spreads, jams, own-made sourdough bread and French cheeses to complement the various bowls and combinations. Don’t count on this being a cheap date – it’s a rooftop bar of a five-star hotel, after all – but you can find that homemade sourdough bread with various spreads for a wallet-friendly 900 forints, and Eggs Benedict for 3,100.