Another victim: One of Budapest’s best gourmet restaurants closes

The best gourmet restaurant in Budapest’s 4th district, Újpest, where the best lunch menu in the area is prepared, closes. The restaurant opened during the pandemic and is now closing due to unaffordable utility bills. The Ételműhely Gourmet Kantin és Bár is open until 30 September.

Opened during the pandemic

Source: Facebook/Ételműhely Gourmet Kantin és Bár

In the summer of 2020, during the first wave of the Coronavirus pandemic, Dóra Iklódi and chef Barnabás Hack opened a restaurant in Újpest’s main square, Szent István tér, nlc.hu writes. This was the year when the hospitality industry began to face serious difficulties. However, there were some determined professionals who were not deterred from opening even by the threat of a possible closure.

Started as a home restaurant

Source: Facebook/Ételműhely Gourmet Kantin és Bár

Such was the case with Ételműhely, which entered the capital’s hospitality scene as a home restaurant. One year later, the Ételműhely Gourmet Kantin és Bár opened alongside it. Its operators are also a couple in life, Dóra Hack-Iklódi is the author of the Wander Food Wonder gastroblog and Barnabás Hack is a well-known name in the chef world.

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Previously, he cooked at Stereo Chef in Óbuda, then he worked in the kitchens of top Hungarian restaurants such as the Michelin-starred Costes, and Platán in Tata, which was voted the best rural restaurant in the country this year.

A special restaurant

For a year, the restaurant had been promoting Újpest as a home-style restaurant with the message that top gastronomy cannot be confined to the city centre and Buda. Accordingly, guests from North Pest, Dunakeszi, Göd and Fót also came to the couple’s restaurant. A year later, in the spirit of more traditional catering, the Ételműhely Gourmet Kantin és Bár was opened, offering à la carte and cheap lunch menus to guests.

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Their weekly lunch menu starting at HUF 1890 (EUR 4.67) was by far the best value for money in the area. What is more, the rosé duck breast with sweet potato gnocchi and baby spinach on the restaurant menu was a really good deal at HUF 3790 (EUR 9.36) for this quality and design, as nlc.hu puts it.

The Ételműhely Gourmet Kantin és Bár is waiting for hungry guests until 30 September.

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Source: nlc.hu, Facebook