Budapest’s Dunapark Café, one of Újlipótváros’s most celebrated meeting places, is set to reopen on 25 July. With a history stretching back nearly nine decades, the venue returns with a refreshed interior, an all-day menu, and a culinary offering that blends Hungarian classics with Middle Eastern influences.
The café’s new chapter was unveiled on 9 July at a press preview ahead of the official reopening. From 25 July 2026, it will welcome guests daily between 9am and 10pm, with the full menu available throughout the day.
The new operator’s ambition goes beyond merely reviving a historic establishment. The intention is to restore Dunapark as a fixture of everyday life in Újlipótváros — a place to drop in for morning coffee, a midday lunch, afternoon cake, or an evening meal and conversation.
Preserving a historic character
Standing at the corner of Pozsonyi út and Szent István Park, the café has long served as a constant meeting point across generations. The latest refurbishment has therefore been conceived not as a wholesale reinvention, but as a careful recalibration.
The interior design draws on the building’s original Art Deco and modernist features. Geometric forms, marble and metallic surfaces, and gold accents are complemented by warmer materials, velvet seating, and greenery, lending the space a more inviting atmosphere. The redesign was led by Waft and interior designer Ildikó Hergenröder.
The building itself, at 38–40 Pozsonyi út, was designed by Béla Hofstätter and Ferenc Domány. Constructed between 1935 and 1936 and fully completed by 1937, the ground-floor café is believed to have opened around 1937–38.
From sólet to pastrami
The culinary direction is overseen by executive chef Gábor Bajkai. The menu brings together the traditions of Hungarian and classic café cuisine with Middle Eastern flavours, presented through modern techniques and plating.
Breakfast and brunch offerings include sourdough French toast, Maghrebi shakshuka, several variations of Eggs Benedict, and indulgent French toast options flavoured with cinnamon, tiramisu, or flódni.
Among the signature dishes is a slow-cooked sólet served with crisp goose leg and egg, baked for 12 hours at 90°C. Another highlight is house-made pastrami, with beef cured and then cooked sous vide for 72 hours.
Main courses range from venison-style braised beef with toasted matzo dumplings and chicken paprikash with egg dumplings, to skin-on salmon, spiced cauliflower steak, and smoked aubergine with labneh. Desserts include túrógombóc, mákos guba, a chocolate cake with salted caramel, and the Dunapark Roll, inspired by the New York Roll.
A cultural meeting place
The revived Dunapark café is also intended to function as a community hub. Plans include literary evenings, talks, bibliotherapy sessions, and intimate performances by emerging musicians.
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On Friday and Saturday evenings, live background music will feature regularly, while certain events may include dedicated musical programmes. Daytime music will draw on lounge jazz, cool jazz, bossa nova, and classic jazz influences.
Operations have been taken over by Eventrend Group, which signed a lease with the café’s owners in spring 2026. The group is also behind several well-known Budapest venues, including New York Café, Centrál Café, and Városliget Café.
With its reopening on 25 July, Dunapark café aims both to welcome back its loyal regulars and to attract a new generation of visitors. The vision is for a lively, all-day urban meeting place — one that honours its past while remaining firmly embedded in the everyday rhythm of Újlipótváros.
Check out a video of Dunapark café below:
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