You don’t necessarily need a special occasion to create holiday event around a meal. Here are seven special restaurants where a group of friends or couples dining à deux can savour a special experience over the Christmas period – or at any time of the year.
1/7
Arany kavi
Owners Attila
Molnár and Szása Nyíri have recently overhauled the impressive menu at the
30-year-old Arany Kaviár, which piqued the curiosity of the Michelin inspectors
this year. Dropping the iconic and hugely successful Russian flavours, they
have packed three decades of gastronomic experience – with the help of head chef
László Kanász – into a groundbreaking, unique, slightly mysterious, fine-dining
menu. Pop in for a delicious dinner, it will be much harder to book a table after
next year’s Michelin star…
2/7
Bombay Budapest
Bombay Budapest
opened this summer as a new jewel in the increasingly high-quality gastro hub between Erzsébet
tér, the Basilica and Parliament. This contemporary Indian restaurant, set in an
elegant yet relaxed interior, offers excellent dishes from the subcontinent,
insisting on the same quality as it slips in the odd dish from other cuisines. The
Indian range has a much wider and more exciting flavours where the vegetarian
dishes are concerned, the restrained spiciness allowing all the ingredients to come
to the fore. Well worth a visit but do book, as it’s usually packed.
3/7
La Fabbrica
La
Fabbrica opened its doors in 2018 near the Basilica – in the former Marczibányi Palace – and today we can rightly
say that it has become one of the defining points of life in downtown Budapest.
Initially offering Italian cuisine, they have since refined and harmonised their
focus and flavours to encompass the Mediterranean. While the menu now includes hummus
and other defining tastes of Mediterranean cuisine, those who want real Italian pizza are in the right place. In
addition to the kitchen, the bar also plays a big role, winning the Top 3 New
Bars of the Year award at the 2019 Bar Show. La Fabbrica is a pure
Mediterranean experience in the heart of Budapest. (x)
4/7
FELIX Kitchen & Bar
The aromas of breakfast, sumptuous dinners and homemade Hungarian cuisine drift around a former pumping station, created alongside the Danube by Miklós Ybl of Opera House fame. It opened in 2019. Since then, FELIX has won the annual Award of Excellence as bestowed by the globally influential American lifestyle magazine, Wine Spectator, and continues to provide its guests with unparalleled views, quality contemporary Hungarian and international cuisine, and top brunches, for which FELIX has now become known. Given all these heavenly dishes and intoxicating drinks, you can bid farewell to the old year here and celebrate the new one, with all the special moments it will bring. (x)
5/7
SALT Budapest
Even before they were awarded the Michelin
star,
SALT had created one of the strongest, most unique and clearest concepts in the
somewhat fractured gastronomic world of Budapest. Its Scandinavian approach has
been redressed in original fashion by Szilárd Tóth and team, but this is no overworked
reinvention. It results in something contemporary and Hungarian, which draws new
borders in an eye-catching and sympathetic way. Recently, with nature and the
environment in mind, several dishes have been swapped around, but in line with
the spirit of the place, wild and medicinal plants can still be found in one
dish, accompanied by more wintery, warming dishes, such as lebbencsleves, farfel soup, or aludttej, a curdled milk drink, while word
of the new flagship dessert, rizskoch, rice pudding, is already spreading around
the city. Of course, even the vegetarian version of the menu is convincingly
exciting even for meat lovers. And if you don’t want wine, but still wish to discover
something new, ask for the juice menu.
6/7
Spago by Wolfgang Puck
A defining figure in the art of cuisine, the world-famous,
innovative and legendary chef Wolfgang Puck has brought his Spago restaurant, star
of culinary and social life in Beverly Hills, to Budapest, enriching the
gastronomic offer of the city with new flavours. This elegant and exclusive
environment invites guests on an exciting gastronomic journey during the
festive period. Fusion and locally inspired dishes, as well as classics that
reflect American, Mediterranean and Asian influences, are spiced up with exciting
Christmas flavours to offer something truly special over the festive season.
The restaurant is also one of the best dessert venues in town which, in
addition to the characteristic delicacies of Wolfgang Puck, provides Hungarian
classics in modern garb. This refreshing restaurant has filled a gap in the market by blurring the
already vague boundaries of fine dining, fine bistro and bistro kitchen with its
innovative intent, because it won’t be a good meal if someone’s putting square
pegs into round holes. Here, apart from the raw ingredients, only the guest really
matters. (x)
7/7
Türkiz Budapest
Everything in Türkiz,
near Parliament, is Turkish. As Budapest’s first real Turkish restaurant, Türkiz
has brought with it the exciting, stunning variety and flavours of Asia Minor, with
its authentic, demanding and tasty cuisine, a symbol, perhaps, of the century-long
friendship between our two nations. Here you can find kalamar izgara, grilled
calamari, and içli köfte, meatballs stuffed with lamb. Vegetarians are
treated to no fewer options, either, as bademli kabak, almond-and-courgette
salad with homemade yoghurt, and muhammara (roast paprika spread with nuts)
also feature on the menu.
