Hungarian cooking is not subtle and does not want to be. It is built on paprika, onion, lard and pork, and on techniques that reward time. It is also, at its best, considerably more varied than the two or three dishes that escaped abroad.
Goulash, and the confusion about it
Gulyás is a soup. It is beef, onion, paprika, potato and sometimes small pinched pasta, in a thin broth, and it is eaten as a first course. What most of the world calls goulash — a thick stew, no soup about it — is pörkölt, and if you want that, ask for pörkölt. Paprikás is the same idea finished with sour cream, most often with chicken, and comes with nokedli, small flour dumplings.
Getting these names right will change what arrives at your table.
The rest of the canon
Halászlé, fisherman’s soup, is a fiercely red carp or catfish soup from the Danube and Tisza, hot with paprika. The Szeged version is smoother, the Baja version has pasta in it. It is a serious dish and often a whole meal.
Töltött káposzta, stuffed cabbage, is winter food: minced pork and rice in cabbage leaves, cooked with sauerkraut and smoked meat.
Hortobágyi palacsinta are savoury pancakes rolled around meat in paprika sauce, which sounds odd and works.
Lángos is deep-fried dough, rubbed with garlic, topped with sour cream and cheese. It is street food, it is excellent, and the Great Market Hall upstairs gallery is the usual place visitors meet it.
Libamáj — goose liver — is a Hungarian speciality produced at scale here and eaten far more casually than in France.
Cakes and coffee
Budapest’s café culture is a survival of the Dual Monarchy, when the city had hundreds of coffee houses and writers effectively lived in them. Dobos torta is sponge and chocolate buttercream under a hard caramel lid. Eszterházy is walnut and cognac cream. Somlói galuska is sponge, chocolate, rum and whipped cream in a glass, and is a dessert with no restraint at all. Kürtőskalács, the spit-roasted chimney cake, is Transylvanian and now sold everywhere.
The grand cafés — Gerbeaud, the New York — are worth one visit for the room rather than the value. Smaller places serve better cake for a third of the price.
Where to eat now
The modern Hungarian kitchen is the surprise. A generation of chefs has taken the classical repertoire and lightened it, and Budapest has held Michelin stars since 2010. Costes, Babel, Stand and Onyx have all been in that conversation.
Below that, the mid-range is where the city is strongest. The Jewish Quarter has the highest concentration: Kőleves for lighter Hungarian, Mazel Tov and Dobrumba for Middle Eastern, Karaván for street food beside Szimpla.
For the traditional version done properly and without irony, look for an étkezde or a kifőzde — a canteen, often with a handwritten menu, a set lunch and prices that have not caught up with the district. These are where Hungarians eat at midday and they are the best value in the city.
Drinking
Hungarian wine is seriously underrated abroad. Tokaji is the famous sweet one; the dry Furmint from the same region is better with food. Egri Bikavér — Bull’s Blood — is the well-known red blend, and Villány makes good Cabernet Franc. Wine bars like Doblo and Drop are set up to guide you through it.
Pálinka is fruit brandy, strong and often homemade. Unicum is a bitter herbal digestif in a black bottle that Hungarians drink and visitors mostly do not finish.
Practicalities
Tipping is expected at around ten per cent. Check the bill first: many restaurants in the centre now add a service charge of ten to twelve and a half per cent, in which case you do not tip again. It should be stated on the menu.
Card payment is near-universal. Lunch menus — napi menü — are cheap and served at midday on weekdays. And the tap water is perfectly good; you do not need to buy bottled, though many restaurants will bring it if you say nothing.
Vegetarians and dietary requirements
Traditional Hungarian cooking is difficult for vegetarians: lard is a base fat, and even bean and vegetable dishes are often built on smoked pork. Rántott sajt — deep-fried cheese with tartare sauce — is the traditional fallback and appears on almost every menu, and gombapaprikás, mushroom paprikash, is a genuine dish rather than a concession.
Modern Budapest is much easier. The city has a substantial vegetarian and vegan scene, concentrated in Districts V, VI and VII, and Middle Eastern places in the Jewish Quarter cover it comfortably. Gluten-free is reasonably well understood in the mid-range and above.
Meal times
Hungarians eat lunch early — from about noon, and the set menu often stops at two or three. Dinner is earlier than in southern Europe, from around seven, and kitchens in ordinary restaurants close by ten. Turning up at half past nine expecting to eat is a Mediterranean habit that does not transfer.
Markets beyond the big one
The Great Market Hall is the one everyone visits. Hold utca market near the Parliament is smaller, less touristed and has a good upstairs food floor. Fény utca in Buda and Lehel tér in District XIII are working neighbourhood markets where nothing is arranged for visitors, which is the point.