It is relatively rare that an Australian café chooses the Hungarian capital as the location for its second branch. Yet this is indeed the case for Grumpy Monkey Budapest, on Taksony utca in the heart of District XIII. Just like in Brisbane, delicious Australian coffee, plus savoury and sweet pastries, are on offer.

Photo: Polyák Attila - We Love Budapest
The whole story started back in 2013 and involves two Zoltáns, one who stayed home, the other who went to Australia with his wife, Judit. There the couple opened a little café in Brisbane, Grumpy Monkey.

Photo: Polyák Attila - We Love Budapest
The concept they came up really took off and now, a decade on, they deal with serious custom, selling a tonne of coffee a month and serving the public from 5am. Now a sister branch of this café has just opened in Budapest, on Taksony utca in District XIII, at the bottom of one of the newly built apartment blocks.

Photo: Polyák Attila - We Love Budapest
The Budapest outlet was opened by Zoltán Szandai, the one who stayed home. Seeing that he makes
all kinds of flaky pastries at his workshop in Mogyoród, mainly of the
croissant/cruffin variety (cruffins being the love child of croissants and
muffins), it made sense for him to set up a Grumpy Monkey Budapest, the delicacies
given a little Magyar twist compared to the ones in Brisbane.
These are the
kind of goodies that go well with coffee, either for breakfast, elevenses or
early afternoon.

Photo: Polyák Attila - We Love Budapest
Just like the coffee, the cakes and pastries are also made from quality ingredients, such as Belgian butter and sourdough. There are savoury flavours, too, such as the so-called bear-claw pastry with ramsons, ham and cheese, and various Danish pastries with cheddar and jalapeño pepper or with bacon and feta cheese.
For something sweet, there’s the goats’-cheese-and-walnut
Danish, the irresistible all-chocolate pain au chocolat and cruffins in flavours
such as pistachio, vanilla and almond.
Look out, too, for the Magyar-friendly
Sport szelet-flavoured cruffin, themed after a popular local chocolate bar, underscored
with the taste of rum. This was originally made for the Australian Zoltán as a
birthday gift but it went down so well they put it on the menu here.

Photo: Polyák Attila - We Love Budapest
Almost everything from the Australian business has been moved to Budapest. Both cafés have the same interior design, the same glasses, coffee spoons and types of coffee, although the roasting happens in Hungary, at Casino Mocca, one of the best in the country.

Photo: Polyák Attila - We Love Budapest
This bright, cosy cafe isn’t expensive at all, perhaps even cheaper than its competitors in the city centre. You’ll find it between Dózsa György út and Lehet tér market, where modern offices are slowly filling empty properties.

Photo: Polyák Attila - We Love Budapest
Venue information
Grumpy Monkey Budapest
1134 Budapest, Taksony utca 7
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Open: Mon-Fri 8am-4pm, Sat-Sun 9am-2pm