The best Hungarian restaurants you can visit from today!
Since the coronavirus has first appeared and then became a pandemic, and later, it has become one of the most influential crises in recent human history, our everyday lives have significantly changed. All over the world, the catering industry has closed down, and many people have struggled for the past year and a month. With the vaccines reaching more and more countries and more people getting inoculated, there is now light at the end of the tunnel.
Hopefully, sooner than later, the usual ways of our everyday lives can return to normal, and it would be a possibility to visit our favourite restaurants and to even travel to foreign countries and reexperience what is it like to be on holiday and meet other cultures. Since Hungary is gradually opening, this might come sooner than you might have first thought. After 3.5 million people have received their COVID vaccines, the terraces and outdoor areas of restaurants reopened last Saturday. When the number of vaccinated people reaches 4 million, people with the immunity certificate will be able to visit restaurants’ inside areas. And when that happens, you might want to know some of the best places to go to.
Opinionated About Dining (OAD) is a dining survey that factors experience into its rating system. Steve Plotnicki created OAD in 2004, and over the past sixteen years, it has evolved into an internationally respected restaurant guide, and in 2020, 6 Hungarian restaurants were included in the best of the world in four categories. Since there have not been any major openings so the list should still hold true to their quality.
2020 Europe Top 100+
Although no Hungarian restaurant could make this list, according to Világevő, two restaurants were in the recommended section of this category. These two are the Costes and Babel Budapest.
Costes restaurant opened in 2008, and it was awarded the first-ever Michelin star in Hungary and has maintained this status ever since.
Hubert Hlatky-Schlichter, founder of Babel Budapest, another Michelin star restaurant in Hungary that provides an unprecedented fine dining experience in Budapest.
2020 Europe Heritage
Bock Bisztró is a gourmet restaurant and wine bar in Budapest and has seized 105th place on OAD’s Heritage list. The main characteristic of this restaurant is the union of traditional Hungarian bistro cuisine and modernity.
2020 Europe Classical
This list is led by the Swiss Hotel de Ville-Franck Giovannini, followed by the French Régis et Jacques Marcon and Troisgros. The Hungarian two-Michelin star Onyx restaurant ranked 106th. Currently, the restaurant is under a major transformation since it was ‘destroyed’ by guests last November. Still, while the restaurant is not currently open, they have a ‘street fine dining’ program for the 6th of May in Vörösmarty square, Budapest.
2020 Europe Gourmet Casual
This was the most successful list for Hungarian restaurants as two have been selected in the top 60. Stand25, Széll-Szulló’s freestyle Hungarian kitchen, ranked 30th,
and Borkonyha, another Michelin star restaurant and wine bar that is a French bistro and a Hungarian family restaurant at once, placed 57th.
If you are visiting Hungary but plan on going to some other place than Budapest, we have an article in which you can read about the 10 best rural Hungarian restaurants. If you do not like fine dining, or if the pandemic might have chewed a deeper hole in your wallet than you might have desired, do not be afraid; In Hungary, you can have a great and delicious meal for great prices. If you do not want to visit fancy places made for tourists and would like to go to the real deal, look at where locals go to eat, or you could wait a little bit for another instalment of this article tackling more budget-friendly alternatives to visit.
Read alsoThe top three best restaurants in every Hungarian county – Photos
Source: Daily News Hungary
This is all very well except for ex pats living in Budapest. (and beyond). Many of us, Brits, Americans and others do not have ID cards because our countries of birth do not use them. We have passports. In every other situation a valid passport is accepted as ID in Hungary (as it should be, being more authoritative than an ID card) but it seems, they don’t fit in with the Vaccination Certificate system which is not issued without an EU format ID card number. So fairly large number of rather well off people will still be unable to use the insides of all these delightful venues mentioned. This is a major cock-up by the government department that devised these certificates.