Teaház a Vörös Oroszlánhoz

Villányi u.12
Buda South, XI, Móricz Zsigmond körtér (T19,41, B7,173), 1min

Despite being tucked away, just off Móricz Zsigmond körtér – not the most glamorous end of town – Teaház a Vörös Oroszlánhoz (The Red Lion Teahouse) is surprisingly plush.

Low-lit and spacious, with an open fish pool, which bubbles away pleasantly, it also has several more intimate corners, with a choice of chairs or cushions.

An English menu is available on request, or if you’re spotted, and contains a wide selection of teas, three kinds of honey (one of which is described as “locust”), and a few snacks. A young team of polite, professional staff are numerous and seem to enjoy testing their English.

Whether you’re on your way back from Budaörs or are just checking out this corner of town – Ifujsag park is just around the corner – it’s a great place to unwind after a full day. Sparsely populated during the day but popular in the evenings, it stays open until eleven.

www.vorosoroszlanteahaz.hu

Jég Büfé

Ferenciek tere
Pest Centre, V, Ferenciek tere (M3), 0min

For coffee, cakes, waffles or ice cream on the run, Jég Büfé is both functional and reassuringly Hungarian.

This is not a cafe; you can’t sit down, for one. The more leisurely customers stand at the window counters, enjoying a refuelling of coffee and cake. That’s exactly what this is: a human pit stop. And since Ferenciek tere is a busy transport hub, it’s also a great place for people-watching.

As with that other Hungarian institution, the Hentes, you have to decide what you want, remember the name, pay at the cash desk and then take your receipt back to the counter to claim what you bought. Time to put your pronunciation to the test! (God knows what happens if you choose the last piece of chocolate cake and someone else claims it while you’re busy paying at the till – comments encouraged.)

There are plenty of sit-down cafes in the immediate vicinity so if you want to relax, there’s no need to compromise. However, Jég Büfé is convenient and cheap, so if you’ve just got twenty minutes to kill, it’s ideal.

Café Alibi

4, Egyetem tér
Pest Centre, V, between Ferenciek tere (M3) and Kalvin ter (M3)

Forget the New York Kavehaz and the famed Gerbaud; it's Cafe Alibi that keeps on being voted Hungary's Coffee House of the Year. On the hatstand, there's a bowler hat and a black umbrella. Painted posters advertise Italian coffee and Absinthe, while an antique cash register stands proudly atop the counter. The clinking of china mingles with the background jazz and the customers’ murmers. Only the coffee itself departs from the 1920s theme by being really quite expensive.

The over-sized wall clock says five past six and free tables are becoming scarce. Perhaps it's the draw of the pastry selection or maybe it’s the chocolate cake.The blackboard menu, chalked up in English and Hungarian, is pretty ambitious too and at a very reasonable price: salmon steak and asparagus with creamy sauce; grilled 'young' squid in dill sauce...

Being next door to the University of Law, ensures a certain student presence but being so central, the clientele is broad, if strictly middle class. The location too beats that of the clutch of coffee shops a little further along Karolyi Mihaly utca, which have to contend with an absurd amount of traffic.

Overall, then, it's clear to see why Cafe Alibi has received such plaudits. Its bygone era feel is deliberate but not sterile, and an impressive food selection gives it the edge over many of its neighbours.

Sirius teaház

Bródy Sándor u.13
Pest Centre, VII, between Kalvin ter (M3) and Astoria (M2)

Sirius Teahaz has escaped from the pages of a children’s book.

Sitting drinking my pot of Oolong tea, I contemplate the tower in the corner. It’s only the height of the room but the size of the doorway gives it a disproportionate sense of scale. I’m delighted to find that it conceals a tiny room but I’d need to be smaller to get in. Perhaps you have to drink a particular tea for that.

The whole café is an enchantingly whimsical construction. I know that there’s another room to the right of the tower because I’ve seen movement through the service hatch: a pair of socks ascending wooden steps that would look at home in a playground. But how do you get to it?

I walk through the only full-size doorway, which reveals a larger room, with sparse Chinese decoration, the carpeted floor besieged with cushions. A platform lodged in an upper corner provides just enough space for two. At the far end, the two socks that I glimpsed earlier emerge from a wardrobe. QED.

In the late evening, Sirius is a tranquil, fanciful curiosity; it’s hard to imagine though, how it can possibly make any money. The solution is revealed if you visit in the early evening, when, (and frankly to my miserly, selfish disappointment), I discovered the place awash with school-kids. Timing, then, is crucial, if you don’t want your reverie interrupted.

Bem Söröző Étterem

Bem József tér 1,
Buda North, II, near Margit hid, Budai Hidfo (T4/6)

A riverside basement bar and restaurant in Buda that still has reasonable prices.

Bem Söröző és Étterem, is on the Buda side of the Danube, just five minutes south of Margit Hid (Margaret Bridge) on foot. It's as much a bar as it is a restaurant, with a casual, no-frills, pub-like atmosphere.

Red-brick walls are decorated only with brewery advertising and a few knick-knacks, while “Gösser” lamps hang down above each of the wooden booths. The menu offers a moderate and unpretentious selection of traditional meat and fish dishes, at good prices, although it can be scaled-down drastically out of season. Despite the riverside location, the clientele is largely Hungarian.