The story of the Hachi family began long before Hachi Budapest opened its doors in 2024. Hegedűs Levente and Szöllősi Mihály have known each other since childhood, and over the years their friendship naturally evolved into a professional partnership. Levi built his background in the world of 101, while Misi gained experience in several well-known Budapest restaurants, including Menza and Bestia. Their first serious joint venture was Yuru, a speakeasy-style restaurant operating next to the Dojo venue. Although the project wrapped up after a year, it proved to be a formative learning ground for both of them.
Not long after Yuru, Misi - together with two co-owners and with Levi’s professional support - opened Hachi Budapest, and it delivered exactly what they had set out to create. The result is a Japanese-inspired restaurant that feels accessible and likeable to a wide audience, yet still has a strong sense of character. Today, four to five hundred guests pass through its doors daily. It’s comfort dining in the best sense of the word: dependable flavours, a clear ramen focus, and no unnecessary overthinking.
Hachi remains a reliable flagship with genuinely attentive, caring service. It’s not a place you go to analyse or overthink — you go there to eat. You know exactly what to expect, and that sense of certainty is precisely what makes it so good.
Hachi‑Ko Budapest, however, is about stepping beyond the familiar. The name itself is a clue: while Hachi refers to both the original address on Október 6. utca 8 and the Japanese number eight - a symbol of luck and abundance - the “-ko” suffix carries a youthful, feminine tone. In other words, Hachi-Ko is the younger, freer and more experimental sibling of Hachi. The concept blends a more traditional take on Japanese gastropub culture with a modern bistro attitude, encouraging playfulness and curiosity without losing its roots. (Fun fact: written as one word, Hachiko is also a famously popular dog name in Japan.)
Ramen that goes beyond the familiar
Hachi-Ko isn’t about ticking off everyday cravings, but about surprising guests even when they think they already know Japanese cuisine. Here, ramen isn’t treated as a fixed recipe but as a balance of clean, natural flavours and carefully considered combinations. The base is kept pure, with bolder elements like salt, pepper and aromatic fats added only at the very end. Each bowl is finished with house-made tare – an intensely concentrated seasoning essence – along with garlic beef fat or chilli oil, adjusted precisely at serving, down to the gram.
The soul of the meat-based ramens lies in the long-simmered, unsalted chicken, duck and beef broths, finished with carefully chosen fats and shoyu, a soy-sauce-based tare. The shoyu beef ramen (HUF 5,480) is topped with sous-vide beef sirloin and beef tongue – a less commonly used cut that’s exceptionally tender and silky. The shoyu chix ramen (HUF 4,980) follows the same broth base, this time paired with chicken for a lighter, but equally comforting take.
The vegan ramen (HUF 4,380) is built on a vegetable dashi made with kombu seaweed and wood ear mushrooms, prepared using a cold-brew technique. By soaking the vegetables at a carefully controlled temperature, the kitchen preserves their clean, natural flavours. A miso–peanut tare paired with soy milk gives the broth an impressively creamy texture, while a touch of chilli oil adds gentle heat. Despite the complete absence of meat, the result is surprisingly rich, rounded and deeply satisfying.
Small plates, big ideas
The other strong suit of Hachi-Ko lies in its small plates, designed for sharing and experimenting. Grilled napa cabbage (HUF 3,680) picks up smoky notes over charcoal before being finished with nutty sesame paste and chilli oil. Skewered hushiki bring Japanese street-food vibes in beef neck or vegetable versions (kohlrabi, pumpkin, potato; HUF 4,280 / 1,980). A gyoza-inspired jiaozi with creamy ’nduja and tiger prawns (HUF 3,980) leans confidently into fusion territory. One of the standouts is the chashu au poivre (HUF 5,780): pork belly marinated with house-made koji, grilled over charcoal and served with a buttery green-pepper sauce that nods to French cuisine, brightened with spring onion. Even the simplest dish, the chicken wings (HUF 3,380), surprises thanks to a togarashi spice mix, while kimchi and seasonal fermented vegetables add a welcome acidity that pairs well with the ramen.
Desserts keep things light rather than overly sweet, gently rounding off the meal. The playful spirit carries through here too, with tradition and creativity meeting effortlessly: a bubble tea crème brûlée reworks a familiar classic with tapioca pearls, while the yuzu sponge served with black tea nods to a much-loved Japanese flavour pairing.
The drinks menu follows the same philosophy, with a clear focus on Japanese brands. Rather than an overly complicated selection, the aim is to offer quality drinks at approachable prices. Cocktails include a Margarita reworked with yuzu and wasabi, while the tea list features both classic and premium Japanese varieties. On the stronger side, there’s soju and shochu - the latter a rice-based spirit that can also be made from ingredients like sweet potato. Soju, more commonly associated with Korea and often mixed with beer, also appears on the menu as part of a combo, keeping things informal and easy-going.
Hachi-Ko Is Not Hachi 2.0
The carefully conceived Hachi-Ko Budapest isn’t here to replace Hachi, but to sit alongside it. Slower, more intimate and driven by experimentation, it approaches Japanese cuisine not as a set of rules, but as a source of inspiration. This is a gastropub for those who enjoy lingering over flavours - a more refined, playful and ambitious expression of the mindset that has made Hachi one of Budapest’s most reliable and well-loved ramen spots since 2024.
CONTACT DETAILS
Hachi-Ko Budapest
(Cover photo: Zsuzsi Forgács – We Love Budapest)
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