Spoon Restaurant in Budapest

Budapest has a huge selection of floating, moored boats for the unsuspecting (or even the suspecting tourists). After running the half marathon, we headed on down here given such a lovely day to have a very late lunch. We’d come down here before scoping out each boat and decided upon Spoon.

It seemed modern, a decent menu and popular based on the number of people on the boat, but all who could also be unsuspecting tourists drawn in by other previous crowds. No matter, as we were pleasantly surprised.

The menu is a surprising mix of Hungarian foods and Italian ones. We started with two more common local dishes, my sister opting for the sweeter and strangely pink, Apricot Soup.

Where I went for the more traditional paprika-laced Goulash Soup. Fortunately I found my light and refreshing with chunks of vegetables and a small number of beef bits.

Carbing it up, we both also decided to follow this up with pasta. I definitely needed more energy after the long morning run. I think this was some sort of Porchini Mushroom pasta

And mine was the seafood pasta served with huge prawns, lovely fresh lemon juice and strong sun dried tomatoes. Mmm.

We were surprised by how good the food was going to be in this place. Service was unbelievably friendly and we ended up having a very nice view of the river from our table.

Pleasantly surprised by the experience I wouldn’t hesitate to return. You will pay a bit more compared to other restaurants, but it is still an experience that won’t break the bank.

Name: Spoon Cafe Lounge
Found at: 1052 Budapest, Vigadó tér 3. kikötő, Hungary
Website: http://www.spooncafe.hu/

Budapest’s Mix Restaurant

One of the biggest surprises for me as dining at the Mix Restaurant. It’s located almost directly opposite a main train station, and arriving for their superb value for money lunch offer, was a little bit worried that more people were seated at the nearby restaurant. Nevertheless, we still wanted to try out the place. The lunch offer is pretty amazing value with a two course for HUF1500 (~£4.50) or three courses for HUF2000 (~£6).

Of course drinks add up and with a couple of drinks (non alcoholic!) we still managed to double our bill. Considering how good the food was, and already felt like we were underpaying I don’t think this was too much of a problem for us.

Their menu offers a diverse selection with plenty of interesting dishes I could have ordered even if I wasn’t going for the lunch time offer. It just means going back in the evening another time to try it out.

Being a club as well as restaurant, they had a huge assortment of tables sitting outside. Facing the old school train station, it was a wonderful way of soaking up some sun and enjoying the lively atmosphere of people going by.

For starters, my sister had the meatball soup, quite literally containing only a single meat ball. The soup itself was a clear broth, untouched like the creamy french soups and apparently very tasty.

Needing some greens and vegetables to offset the dish to come, I opted for the mushroom salad, packed full of flavour and delicious.

I wasn’t really enthused by the paprika chicken on offer, but got to try a little bit of the one my sister offered. A bit bland for my liking.

The ribs on the other hand served with paprika roasted potatoes were perfect. Surprisingly with some kick and amazing tender, just like good ribs should really be.

We finished off with a couple of desserts, literally stuffed from all this food. We had the mango pudding and the cherry cake both of which I could really have passed on. The latter was a recommendation by our waiter being quite a traditional dish and as I learned throughout the weekend, cakes in Hungary tend to be based on weird jelly like concoctions, not the light cakes one is used to in the UK.

Pretty great food, amazing value and a great place to boot, it’s hard not to recommend this place. Of course, I have no idea what it’s like dining when it’s also a club, but it seemed like a pretty great place to be.

Name: Mix
Found at: 1062 Budapest, Teréz körút 55-57, Hungary
Website: http://mixclub.hu/

Trattoria Barca Bianca in Budapest

Despite the reputation of fairly unexciting food in Hungary, I have to say that we ate very well during our time in Budapest. Perhaps it’s because we stayed clear of many of the “traditional” foods and searching around on the web for recommendations make it much easier for bigger places. The other good thing is that Budapest is still very cheap compared to many other places, making it much easier to have good food without breaking the budget so much.

Anyway, the first place we ate for dinner was intentionally Italian as it was all about the carb loading (but not too much!) before the day of the race.

We walked around and picked, what turned out to be a very nice restaurant where we could eat alfresco, and had an enjoyable meal.

We started with two different soups, my sister picking this clear beef broth with a single ravioli (pictured above). Good but she was surprised just to have the one.

I went for the lobster bisque that also came with a bread dumpling, and also just the one. I can’t really say that I’m a bread dumpling sort of fan. The soup really could have done with some croutons for a contrast of texture, to which the bread dumpling didn’t do much. Fortunately the soup was really tasty and made up for it.

My sister proceeded to have the mussels, admittedly not very Italian but figured it would be a bit of a lighter alternative to some heavy pasta meal.

I, opted, for a Tagliatelle with speck and porcini mushrooms, a lovely and generous serving of perfectly al dente pasta and amazing chunks of flavour.

We finished the dinner off with a Tiramisu, decadently rich and presented in a very different manner, almost as if they used an ice cream scoop for each bite. Service was friendly, the atmosphere busy but not overwhelmingly noisy and an enjoyable meal to start off the long weekend.

Name: Trattoria Barca Bianca
Found on: V. kerület Fehérhajó utca 5, Pest side of Budapest.
Website: http://barcabianca.eu/