Gerlóczy Café reopens to evoke bohemian Budapest

One of Budapest’s finest cafés, evoking the era of classic bohemian coffeehouses, has just reopened after a two-year hiatus. Retaining its unique atmosphere, not to mention its location in the heart of the city, the Gerlóczy still provides the perfect setting for intimate chatter. Now placing even more emphasis on food, it has also reopened its 19 guest rooms above the restaurant, doubling up once more as a boutique hotel.

It’s always tricky when a favourite place reopens. Will it have the same timeless, friendly feel as before? Luckily, as you enter, you realise that the Gerlóczy does.

All the same, even the Gerlóczy has changed a bit. They now have more leather armchairs and the menu has been removed from the mirror. However, the most important difference concerns the food itself.

Gerlóczy's chef, Attila Nagy, known from BoriMami in Gyöngyös, now gives the kitchen a clean, simple Hungarian approach, putting together traditional dishes with a modern twist.


Paprika chicken comes with pickled cucumber salad and cottage cheese roulade, for example. In addition to mangalica pork knuckle, the menu includes pan-fried quail with creamy kale, beans and brown-butter sauce.

Of the 19 guest rooms on the first floor, two have a balcony. One of them even has a button where you press for champagne.


The view is just as impressive from the terrace where, from spring, trees provide shade and the vintage shopfronts of Vitkovics Mihály utca atmosphere.