Vista Restaurant

Paulay Ede utca 7
District V, Deak ter (M1,2,3)
Cuisine: International > Varied

Vista is a rare exception in a city that hasn't really discovered customer service, and offers a great selection of quality, international food at a good price. Live piano music is a nice idea, if a little schmaltzy.

When used together, the words 'travel' and 'restaurant', invoke in me a perverse nostalgia for the Little Chef phenomenon: a series of rubbish restaurants at the side of British motorways. Tarred with such a brush, I was somewhat sceptical of Vista but my expectations stand corrected.

Duck with asparagus wrapped in bacon; pike-perch stuffed with spinach; beef steak, Budapest-style: the menu is varied and mouth-watering, satisfying both the "I'd like to try something Hungarian" and the "I'm sick of Hungarian cuisine" camps. A main course can cost under 2000 Ft or over 4000 Ft, while an extensive wine-list also varies from the affordable to the ridiculous.

Notably, Vista seems to have imported an attitude alien to Budapest: the customer comes first. Waiters are polite, friendly and enthusiastic about the food and wine... and they smile! Paper place mats ask politely for your comments, so someone is taking customer service very seriously indeed.

Most importantly, Vista feels nothing like a travel restaurant. The main part is open, airy, with plenty of window-tables and a strange ‘evocative’ tableau above the bar: I leave you to judge. The smoking area is cosier and more intimate. Altogether, it's pretty sizeable, making it an ideal choice for large groups or last minute decisions.

Well-located, just off Bajcsy Zsilinsky utca, between Deak ter and the basilica, Vista is as convenient as it is unmissable, whether you're on a budget or not.

Archívum Étterem és Kávézó

Baross utca 10
Pest South, VIII, Kalvin ter (M3), 2min

Archívum occupies an enviable spot in the city, right in front of the Ervin Szabó library. The tables spread out across the square (more of a triangle, really), with a colourful view down Reviczky utca and none of the tourist overkill that comes with the city’s pedestrianised zones.

The restaurant itself is at basement level, cosy and informal, so just stopping in for a coffee wouldn’t be frowned upon. A hotch-potch collection of tables gives a natural, organic feel.

The menu, in English and Hungarian is not the lengthiest but is nevertheless, reasonably ambitious: my catfish in ginger-butter sauce, I can testify, was delicious and great value, at under two thousand forints with side included. Vegetarian options too, are numerous. There is also a daily lunchtime three-course menu at an astoundingly cheap 850Ft – but beware that quality is compromised accordingly.

Waiters and waitresses were friendly and polite, enjoying my feeble attempts at asking in Hungarian. I can add ‘honest’ to that, since I mixed up my sixes and sevens and would have left a ridiculous tip, if the waiter hadn’t stopped me.

Archívum is classier than a basic cafe or bar, but has held on to affordable prices: a sound option for food all year round and a nice spot to sit outside and enjoy a summer pint.

From Kalvin ter, walk down Baross utca. It’s on the left as the path widens into Szabó Ervin Tér.

Govinda's

Tasty, cheap and popular, Govinda’s is Budapest’s only Hare Krishna restaurant. It’s below street level, down a staircase with a hazardously low ceiling, and has a good and varied range of starters, mains, side dishes and desserts. Food is served canteen-style – typically, this includes a number of different types of curry, baked dishes (vegetable lasagne, for example), Indian puri, pakorak, salad and desserts. An average meal might come to just over one thousand forints.

Apart from the shop, which alongside fabric, tea and spices has a number of Hare Krishna pamphlets, Govinda’s doesn’t feel particularly different from any other vegetarian or Indian restaurant. It’s open from Monday through Sunday, and can get very busy at lunchtimes.

Green's

It’s not clear whether Green’s actually belongs to someone named Green, but the principal colour of this unpretentious basement restaurant is most certainly that; green. Soft lights bathe the seating area, giving it an otherworldly feel - it’s like eating in an underground dungeon on Mars. Nothing else here is quite so striking. It serves standard, no frills Hungarian dishes.

Like many restaurants here, the menu (available in English) can feel like a bit of a minefield, especially if you’re health conscious. Deep fried chicken stuffed with camembert and topped with thick, fatty bacon is fairly typical. Naturally, Green’s also serves perennial favourites – goulash, le’cso, brassoi – as well as hearty soups in bread.

While it might not be that impressive, Green’s offers good food at reasonable prices. With a convenient location, just around the corner from the synagogue, it’s worth dropping in. If only for the lights.

Kadar Etkezde

If you want an authentic Hungarian lunch there’s a good deal of choice – bustling canteens (or etkezdes) are scattered throughout the centre. The quality of these is wildly unpredictable. For every hot bowl of fozelek or goulash served, there are at least as many suspiciously bloody pieces of meat or lukewarm plates of pasta.

One of the more consistent canteens is the unassuming Kadar Etkezde on Klauzal ter. This is as ‘local’ as it gets – tables are covered with red and white checked cloths, elderly people sit hunched over steaming plates of mashed potato, and the walls are adorned with pictures of Hungarian heroes. The menu isn’t particularly extensive but it’s worth pointing out that the staff here are very friendly, and the service quick. Sometimes, it feels like your food arrives before you’ve even ordered it.

This restaurant might not stand out - in fact, with its permanently drawn curtains and limited opening hours (Tuesday to Saturday lunchtimes), Kadar is easy to miss. However, for a cheap, filling meal, it’s one of the better choices in the city.

Prága Kávéház és Teázó

Baross ut 8
Pest South, VIII, Kalvin ter (M3), 2min

Praga Kavehaz is effortlessly satisfying. It has a traditional feel, without laying it on too thick, coffee served in a myriad of ways, a decent selection of teas and wines, beer on tap, and a few light snacks that are pretty light but reasonably priced.

In winter, it’s shell lamps diffuse a warm glow through the basement-level windows, while in summer, the pavement outside is ample enough for enjoying a drink without feeling like you’re sitting in the road.

Praga seems proud of its coffee. It’s hard to escape the fact that they use “100% Arabica coffee”, and the menu, in English and Hungarian, goes as far as to make a distinction between a latte and tejescafe. The fact that it’s served with a small biscuit and a shot glass of water doesn’t do any harm to the idea that you’re being ever-so-slightly pampered either. (Perhaps I’m easy to please!)

The furniture, photographs, dark, bare floorboards, and staff who seem to know what they’re doing all contribute to the ambiance. Low-level music, of which I can only hear the bass and tripped-out rhythms proves that you can still create the right atmosphere without setting everything back to 1909.

Praga is bigger than you think too, so if it looks too full don’t turn back too soon because it’s hard to find such range, value and atmosphere elsewhere in the city.

Sirály

50, Király utca
Pest Centre, VII, Király utca (T4,6), 5min

Not the most cosmetic of Budapest’s bars or coffee shops, Sirály is nevertheless worth a visit as an informal, low-priced, student and Wifi hotspot.

The ground floor morphs from cafe to bar as the day progresses. Drinks are pretty cheap, no matter what you’re drinking and there are a few bread or pastry snacks available at the bar. It’s also extraordinarily well-lit!

A spiral staircase winds it’s way past the first floor, little more than a lovers’ couch, to a more studious second floor, where there’s plenty of room to spread paper across the desks. (Why bother with the library at all?) It doubles up as a live music venue on selected evenings. Although actual decoration is pretty sparse, there’s often some art exhibited at the top of the staircase and the whole place is littered with photos and flyers. I get the feeling that if you asked them to put anything up on the wall, they would.

Sirály is no-frills but customer-and bicycle-friendly: the kind of place that you can sit around in for as long as your battery will last, without feeling any pressure to keep buying drinks. This might explain the fact that it never feels particularly empty, despite being pretty sizeable.

Walk down Király utca from Erzsebet Korut. After the yellow church, look for an unremarkable-looking cafe on the right.