There are several historical confectioneries, pancake and strudel diners, chocolate and ice cream shops waiting for everybody having a sweet tooth. It is a tradition in Hungary to eat some cakes after Sunday family lunch, to have some sweets after theatre or to ease the “breaking-up-pain” with some ice cream with your best friends. We would like to show you the best or the most famous places below, where the quality of marzipan flowers and strudel pastry has been the highest in the city for decades.

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Hungarian pastry-cooks were influenced by Italian, Turkish or Austrian cuisine, making some changes in the ingredients, preparations or cakes. On the sugary shelves of our confectioneries, you can find mainly the Austro-Hungarian heritage of layer cakes, strudels, pogácsa (salty round cakes) or the best pies of our great-grandmothers’ age. Many of these are flavored with walnut, poppy-seed or fruits such as apple, peach, sour cherry or plum. If you are not sure what to order while visiting a confectionery, we recommend you the iconic Dobos, Punch or Eszterházy torte, Gerbeaud cake, Rigójancsi or the famous Rákóczi-túrós. You will definitely enjoy these cakes.
In restaurants we rarely meet these traditional cakes. We often find Somlói dumplings, pancakes, strudels, sweet chestnut puree or sweet cottage-cheese dumplings on the menu.

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Gerbeaud Confectionery

1051 Budapest, Vörösmarty tér 7-8.

Gerbeaud Confectionery has been an icon for more than 150 years. Henrik Kugler founded the place and his strictness and ambition has made the confectionery become the number one tourist destination in Budapest even today. Kugler created something new and unusual at that time. He became famous for his chocolate coffee, tea biscuits, ice cream and his special Kugler-tortes or so called mignons. Emil Gerbeaud continued and improved the business and the confectionery got its name after him. He introduced some traditional Hungarian sweets like langue-de-chat (chocolate shaped like finger biscuits) or brandied cherries and as one of the greatest talents of the era, he exported chocolate to Belgium and Switzerland. If there were two pieces of the same cakes with slightly different color, he threw the whole tray into the trash. He was really famous for his perfection.
There are tiny problems in the coffee shop, like slow service or crowd of tourists but if you would like to feel the glitter of the centenary and wish some sweets, you must be there.

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Lukács Confectionery

Lukács Confectionery on Andrássy Avenue is the most controversial place among sweet-fans. Professionals say that it is the best confectionery of the country, while others consider it as a museum of sweets with unrealistic prices. Everybody agrees that the place, called as ‘Különlegességi’ (literally means ‘specialty’ in Hungarian) during the communism, was the most remarkable one among local families and Budapest Puppet Theatre visitors. Lukács torte, named after Sándor Lukács the founder of the confectionery, is a basic piece to taste. The huge, empty inside is more or less filled with crystal chandeliers, golden stuccos and soft, plush chairs. There are hand-made confectionery specialties such as vanilla cream bun in caramel, Esterházy torte with triple-sec filling and delicious ice creams.