What to EAT when you are Hungry in HUNGARY ?
The Budapest Food Guide
Contents
The Hungarian Goulash
A Goulash, is essentially a stew of vegetables and meat, seasoned with paprika and other spices. Goulash can be prepared from beef, veal, pork or lamb. One can find Goulash, practically in all restaurants, but the best and most budget friendly goulash soups are available in the Jewish District. One such place, as recommended by our walking tour guide, was the Blue Rose Restaurant, in the Jewish Quarter. The further you go away from the Danube, the better is the quality and the price (first hand experience).
A big bowl of Goulash, is served with a bread portion, making it a meal in itself.
Langos / Langosh
The one street food you have to try in Budapest is Langos, which you can have it from the food stalls on the first floor in the Grand Market Hall, or at Retro Langos. Langos or Langosh, is leavened dough fried in high quality oil, brushed with fresh garlic, sprinkled with salt, and served with the serving of your choice, and is also one of the Best Street Foods of Europe. The best toppings has to be that of sour cream, cheese and onion, and either bacon/ham or anything else. It is essentially a crispy, stretchy deep fried snack, ready in moments.
Related – Where to Eat in Budapest Hungary – The Best Budapest Restaurants, Cafes and Markets
Strudels
A type of layered pastry, with fillings usually on the sweeter side. You can either try one for yourself at the Grand Market Hall, or at Reteshaz, which is the first strudel house of Pest. If you are really adventurous, you should try the cabbage filling, which is savoury, instead of sweet.
Related – A Tale of Two Chocolate Tours – Theo Chocolate and Steelgrass Farm
Before you start scrolling down to read more about my Food Tour with Taste Hungary, and start planning your Budapest Trip, it’s a good idea to sort out your travel insurance first.
Food Tour with Taste Hungary
The main ideology of Taste Hungary, is to give the customers a unique Hungarian Experience, as its experiences that matter the most, and also have the most recollection value, post trip. One such experience offered by Taste Hungary is their Dinner Walk, priced at 110 USD per person.
Start the evening with some traditional Hungarian Wine Tasting at Tasting Table, where along with the different wines, you are served a cold meat platter to accompany the wine. The host from Taste Hungary, Angela in my case, meets you here, and imparts knowledge about the wine culture, the different wine regions of Hungary.
The next stop is a restaurant called Fulemule, where you start the first course, ie the soup, along with a glass of wine.
On your way to the main course, which is served at Getto Gulyas, you pass through Szimpla Kert – one of the famous ruin bars in Budapest. During the main course, you get to try out a lot of different dishes, like Chicken Breast Paprikash, Beef Stew, Venison Stew – all made in traditional Hungarian style, along with a glass of wine of your choice.
Just when you think, that you can’t have any more, the host from Taste Hungary, takes you to one of the quite interesting bars of Budapest – Pharma, where you taste quite an interesting cocktail.
The final stop for the night is at Callas, which is one of the oldest coffee shops, where you get to try one of their yummy cakes, along with a hot drink of your choice, like hot chocolate.
If you have more time in Budapest, make sure to check out the other unique experiences offered by Taste Hungary like Culinary Walks, Wine Tastings, Jewish Cuisine and Cultural Walk, among many others, and also check out this 2 Day in Budapest City Guide, for ideas on different things to do.
Before you go, check out some of the Top Rated Activities to do in Budapest –
- Do the Hop On Hop Off Budapest Bus Tour
- Széchenyi Spa Full Day with Optional Pálinka Tour
- Hungarian Parliament Tour in Budapest with Audio Guide
- Budapest Ruin Bar Pub Crawl with Entry Tickets
- Half-day Wine Tasting Tour in Etyek Wine Country near Budapest
Disclaimer : No compensation was received for this article, however Taste Hungary offered my dinner tour complimentary. As always, the opinions on theETLRblog.com are (and always will be) my own!
Thank you for showing us the best food to eat while in Budapest. We are planning to go there once this corona is over & your post will surely help us. Keep the magic going.
! I think Hungarian food is one of those which has subtly crept into the consciousness – I was surprised how much was familiar! The gypsy pork was spectacular! I think vegetarians are certainly more limited for options if they’d like to try something traditional, but Budapest had loads of veggie and vegan cafes! It’s really good at catering for non meat eaters, despite the traditional diet! 🙂
Great post such a nice information thanks for sharing.
Wow, really this is a very tasty post. I’m Glad to have a read of it and now I am super hungry but only wanted to taste this Hungary food. Thanks for sharing this amazing post
wow… Interesting and unique post on Hungry. Sumptuous Pizzas is my all time favorite. Thanks for the posting. Keep Sharing!
Quite interesting when i start reading this post. Love the way you described everything in this post. Thanks for sharing, if i ever go to budapest I’ll remember this words.
Wow, this is really a very mouth watering post. Glad to have a read of it and now I am feeling hungry but only wanted to eat this Hungary stuff. Thanks for sharing this post.
There is nothing better than trying their traditional Goulash. A very tasty and hearty meal. I love goulash from their market! 🙂
Hey, I had absolutely no idea Budapest / Hungary had such amazing food. Everything looks delicious. It’s good to know as I find trying local cuisine is one of the best way to get to know a place! I’ll definitely look into travelling there …
Oh! wow!! I haven’t read about food in Hungry before and I have fallen in love with Hungry all over again.
All that food looks so yummy! I left Europe some time ago and once in a while I miss some good heartwarming European food 😀 – you made me long for some!
Goulash is a very good meat meal that spread through borders of Hungary to us Slovenians. We eat it many times and it is delicious.
YUM! Great post, so much amazing food! I remember when we were there after a couple weeks all we wanted was a salad! Haha there is not much for veggies there. Awesome pictures as well, thanks for sharing.
You have succeeded in making me hungry despite that I have just finished an entire pizza…… Budapest was incredible – I need to work my way through this list I think!!
Why oh why did I eat this with two hours to go before lunch! This all looks so tasty and delicious, especially the Langosh. I love Hungarian cuisine, but I fear I might miss out on several dishes as a vegetarian. Did you happen to see and vego restaurants specializing in typical fare while you were there? My friend’s mom (from Czech Republic) invented a veggie only goulash which is to die for, I’m hoping I’ll be able to find something similar there!
OMG I’m so hungry now! I should have read this post after dinner, not before haha! The food in Budapest looks scrumptious and I can’t wait to go there and sample it all!
My mouth is watering reading this. The lamb stew and the dumplings look like dishes my busha would make for us. I feel like a majority of my travel is centered around food so I’m sure I would love Hungary.
A hungry in Hungry joke… it never gets old for me, always leads to a chuckle. I’ve always been told that the food in Hungry is really great and cheap and this just goes on to prove that. I especially love the sight of that Hungarian soup with the dumpling (?) in it, something I personally prefer.
Oh my goodness, all the yum! You can never go wrong with a food guide and these dishes all look sooooo good! Food is still one of my absolute fave elements of traveling and you just opened up my appetite for Hungary. Thanks!
Langosh, Strudels and Pizza – good enough for the vegetarian in me. And with that subtle flavor that you describe, I can quite well survive on those. Budapest has been calling out to me for a while now. guess the food is one more reason to head there.
I wish I had known of the food tour during my visit to Budapest!! I think food tours are such a fantastic way to taste local delicacies you otherwise wouldn’t.
Hungarian goulash is one of my stepdad’s favourite dishes, despite having never been to Hungary! So when I visited I picked up some novelty bags of spices with scoops that looked like traditional Hungarian women from the market, which came with an authentic recipe. He said it was the best goulash he’d ever made!
Those Hungarian women souvenirs are indeed the best of the lot.
One of everything -yes – please! OMG, everything looked and sounded so good that I’m hungry now, although I’m not in Hungary. Love your title! And while I try not to eat much fried food that lagos is a must for trying and a piece of that cake to finish it all off. Must get to Hungary soon.
Even though it is fried, Langos is definitely a must have in Hungary, along with the cinnamon rolls.
This post made me so hungry! 🙂 Whenever I travel to Hungary, I feel myself overwhelmed with the variety of aromas, tastes and experiences when it comes to wine and food 🙂 Hungarians really know how to sell themselves on these two main aspects of a traveler’s life 🙂 Love those photos :D:D:D
Jules@thetravelingtulip
http://www.thetravelingtulip.eu
It all sounds delicious, but I’m particularly sold by the Goulash. That would definitely sort me out nicely after a long day sightseeing. I still haven’t made it to Budapest but it’s high up on my list for next year so fingers crossed we get there.
The Goulash was definitely best of the lot, and am glad I kept it for Budapest, rather than trying it in Prague and Bratislava. The preparation and taste is different everywhere.
All these foods look delicious and I’m currently drooling, ha! Goulash is a staple in Minnesota so I’ve always wanted to try the authentic Hungarian version of this dish. I also didn’t know that wine was so major in Hungary, so definitely going to be adding that to my must-eat list.
Even I was surprised to learn about the prevalent Wine culture in Hungary. You should definitely opt for a wine tasting session when you happen to visit Budapest.
Super yummy list! Being Italian, I’m a pizza purist so I wouldn’t really include pizza here (ahaha), but other than this everything else look amazing!
Didn’t want to include Pizza either, but it was one staple food, I could fall back on in Prague and Budapest both.
My mouth’s watering after reading this, thank you! That Hungarian bread looks delicious, as does the callas cake! I still haven’t been to Hungary, but thanks to you, I’ll know what I’ll be eating when I do go 🙂
The food is amazing in Budapest, specially in the Jewish Quarter, where the prices are also cheap.
Food looks delectable and the presentation is palatable .. gives serious foodgasm after this read ..
True that. Couldn’t agree more. It was seriously 4 hours of foodgasms, during the dinner tour.