Gettó Gulyás, Budapest (and one or two other Hungarian dishes)

20-24 August 2023
instagram.com/getto.gulyas
budapestmarkethall.com/great-market-hall-budapest
belvarosidisznotoros.hu
newyorkcafe.hu
gerbeaud.hu

Gettó Gulyás, 24 August 2023

So, Jane and I had found ourselves in something of a situation. It was our final day of a fabulous few days away in Budapest - our cab to the airport was due to arrive at our hotel in just about two hours - and we had yet to eat in a good quality restaurant serving traditional Hungarian food. We had eaten some truly exceptional Hungarian street food (see the sections further down this post), we had eaten in a fabulous Georgian restaurant, and we had eaten in an utterly shitty tourist trap-type restaurant promising good traditional Hungarian fayre which had, uh, not been good. In our defence, it had hovered at around 35c for the entire duration of the trip, which was not exactly goulash weather, but we’d reached the end of the line - it was get some stick-to-your-ribs type stuff now, or not do it at all. So we headed to the city’s Jewish Quarter in the hope of snagging a table at Gettó Gulyás, which we’d heard really good things about.

Budapest’s Jewish Quarter of 2023 is very cool. I got an East End of London energy, with its ruin bars, galleries and restaurants offering every kind of cuisine you could want. Interestly, there are a couple of streets offering a lot of Indian and Bangladeshi food options, giving the place a similar feel to the Brick Lane part of the East End. Gettó Gulyás has a reputation for doing traditional Hungarian food through an elevated, modern lense and trying to get a table at any time that isn’t 5pm or 10.30pm without notice and planning is not happening. So, we pitched up just before 5pm and snagged a table inside.

The dining room was self-consciously distressed, with a reasonably sized bar area and a lot of tables given the square footage. With our ‘early bird special’ timeslot, it wasn’t overly full, but you get the sense that at 8pm on a Friday or Saturday night the place would feel completely packed.

With a flight looming neither of us were drinking alcohol, however the menu included an impressive list of both Hungarian wines and spirits (for more on Hungarian wine, see the section further down) and we both opted for one of their many special house lemonades. You can see a photo of my strawberry and basil one below, which was refreshing and not too sweet.

One of the good things about eating early is the speed at which your food arrives, which is particularly welcome when you’ve got one eye on the Jet2 app. Jane and I decided to start with the csontvelős pirítós (roasted bonemarrow with toast) and the hortobágyi palacsinta (savoury Hungarian crepes filled with veal). Roasted bonemarrow is always a winner in my book. This one came with two generous marrow bones which had been roasted with garlic, and the marrow was spoonable and rich and unctuous and lovely, and was served with slices of crispy toast for spreading. The crepes are a traditional Hungarian dish, served with a rich paprika sauce and sour cream. These were really tasty. As you would expect, the veal was really tender and delicious, the crepes were soft, and the paprika sauce was rich and silky if a little under seasoned - more on that later. The dish needed the sour cream to cut through the richness.

For mains, we went paprikash all the way. Jane went for the more traditional offering of csirkepaprikás (chicken paprikash) with nokedli (egg noodles) on the side. Meanwhile, I went for the borjúpaprikás, or more veal, and nokedli which had been compressed and rolled in bacon before being cut into slices and fried. Both were served with more of that wonderful Hungarian sour cream, and mine came with a drizzle of dill oil too.

The veal dish was really good. A rich, thick paprika based but definitely meaty sauce (I’m thinking some kind of stock made its way in there too), tender meat, and slices of noodly goodness which were crispy, soft and salty all at the same time. The drizzle of sour cream and herby oil really helped to cut through the rich sauce too. I though this was a well thought out reimagining of a classic.

We were both less impressed with the chicken dish. Everything was well executed, from the juicy chicken, the soft noodles that still had a good amount of bite, and the well textured paprika sauce. But the whole thing just felt a little under seasoned and lacking in flavour. However, I don’t think this should be held against the restaurant. I think that the chef has created a really traditional paprikash, using the flavour profiles of a meal that you would find in any Hungarian household. The sauce relies almost exclusively on paprika for flavour, which is where mine and Jane’s biases come in - we both want spice or something else alongside the paprika in a savoury dish, which would not be in keeping with the flavour profile of this meal.

What’s the word for “unfairly underwhelmed” again? Maybe there’s a word in German rather than Hungarian.

We were full, we felt the satisfaction of a job well done, and we were increasingly worried about getting to the airport, so we paid our bill. At an eye-watering Ft16,600 (about £37 in total) it is impossible to say that this did not deliver incredible value for money. It was a fantastic late lunch/early dinner, and I would thoroughly recommend a visit if you find yourself in the Hungarian capital. But book in advance - don’t be reservation dopes like Sarah and Jane.

And what about the toast sandwich? Hold your horses, pal. I’m departing from the norm, and make no apologies for doing so.

This post just wouldn’t be complete without mentioning a few of other classics we sampled in Budapest. We found a lot of them in the fabulous Central Market Hall (Nagyvásárcsarnok) just off Liberty Bridge (Szabadság híd) which we visited more than once. So, I’m delaying our Toast Sandwich selections until the end. You’ll just have to read on.

Pickles, pig (and other meats), and ‘Communist Pizza’

1. Pickles. All the pickles. Hungarians love pickling their vegetables and fruit, presumably to sustain them through their very cold winters. We tried a whole platter, which included (clockwise from top, then centre) classic pickles , young watermelon, Hungarian summer pickles (kovászos uborka) , chilli peppers, plums with cinnamon, garlic, and silver onions. The garlic and summer pickles, the latter prepared without vinegar giving them a much less astringent flavour, were particularly good. The watermelon, which Hungarians love and produce a lot of during the summer, has an eye-wateringly sharp in flavour.

2. Szalámi. Another staple of Hungarian cuisine, salami and other cured meats are ubiquitous. We tried a whole platter of (left-right) beef salami, mangalica (Hungary’s famous wooley pig) salami, winter pork salami, cow tongue, and soft pork crackling. The mangalica was a highlight, with its soft texture and flavoursome, paprika-forward flavour.

3. Meat a million ways. Sausages made with blood, liver and rice, and paprika, served with a sweet, mild mustard. Then roasted pork belly and duck leg served with vinegary red cabbage and paprika mashed potatoes. This kind of meal is very typical in Hungarian households - meat heavy with paprika and vingear front and centre. As you can see from the mural on the wall of the dining room, there is also no squeamishness about reminind you exactly where your meal has come from.

4. Hideg szamócaleves. With their long, hot summers, chilled fruit soups are popular in Hungary at the right time of year. We tried strawberry, which was sweet and decadent and typically eaten as a starter, although we were strongly advised by our waiter to try it as a dessert - I think he was concerned that the Brit and the American might have a meltdown if he served them something with the flavour profile of strawberry coulis at the start of their dinner. The white blob in the middle of the bowl in a scoop of soft semolina pudding, which gives the dish the visual impression of a borscht.

5. Lángos. Fried flatbread? Yes. Sour cream? Yes. Cheese? Yes! The classic lángos may not be much to look at, but it is utterly delicious, whether you’re having a slice for breakfast as traditionally intended, or at 4am after a heavy night on the Pálinka. You can also get inventive and have a range of savoury or sweet toppings - check out our szalámi, onion and cheese one below. The fried bread used as the foundation of this ‘Communist pizza’ is fantastic, and really gives a nod towards the Ottoman influence on Hungary’s culture and cuisine.

Cake and coffee houses

Jane and I had heard good things about the Budapest coffee houses and, after our Austrian adventure/ordeal of the previous summer [see ‘The Great Sachertorte Debate, Vienna] where we walked for miles across the Austrian capital and each gained about 15 pounds in search of God’s Own Sachertorte, we knew we had to try out the ones in the Hungarian capital too. Budapest was the ‘other city’ in the context of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and beloved by Empress Sisi, developing a similar reputation for the provision of fancy coffee and cake in the 19th and pre-First World War 20th centuries. We visited two - the ultra famous Cafe New York at the New York Palace Hotel, and the smaller but renowned Cafe Gerbeaud on the grand Vörösmarty tér - and what a contrast of experiences.

Cafe New York was a complete surprise. It is jaw-droppingly grand, with hugely ornate, gilt everything, and attentive servers dressed in waistcoats and bow ties. But there was no cake, or at least not the classic Austrian-Hungarian offerings we were expecting; didn’t matter how much you begged a pleaded, the chance of you getting a slice of Dobos torte or Eszterházy torte was zero. Instead, we opted for a classic ‘Hungarian trifle’, or Somlói Galuska, of semolina cake, Tokaji Aszú (very fancy, sweet Hungarian dessert wine) soaked raisins, chocolate sauce and whipped cream, and Palacsinta (pancakes) with cottage cheese, cream and coulis. I also splashed out on a decadent coffee with honey, more Tokaji Aszú and whipped cream.

By contrast, Cafe Gerbeaud was much more reminiscent of the typical coffee houses that you would expect to find elsewhere in Budapest or Vienna. Lots of wood panelling and moulding, servers dressed in the same penguinesque garb, and long stretches of glass display cases filled with cakes, ice creams, macarons and chocolates. And, boy, did we go for it on the cake front. The Dobos torte (layers of sponge and chocolate ganache with a thick layer of hard caramel), Eszterházy torte (rum and almond meringue with whipped cream and feathered icing), Sósmogyoró-Barack szelet (chocolate sponge, peanut butter mousse, almond and hazelbut praline, and caramelised apricots), and Gerbeaud 160 torte (dark chocolate mousse, blood peach jelly, salted pecan praline, walnut cream, and dark chocolate glaze) were all fabulous.

Wine

Since our return from Budapest, Jane has informed me that I’ve been boring everybody I’ve spoken to about Hungarian wine. To that, I say… Yes. Yes I have. Hungarian wine is incredibly good, but very little of it makes it out of the country, which I hope is going to change as its reputation grows.

Great wine in Hungary is not a new thing. The country has a number of places that create perfect growing conditions for grapes from both a climate and terrain perspective, and people have been making wine there for thousands of years. Ever wondered why the Roman’s expanded the empire as part east as the Danube River? Well, now you know. However, with two World Wars and fifty-odd years of Soviet occupation, Hungary had a tough twentieth century and the wine industry did not fair well. It was only in the early 2000s when a number of French wine houses started investing in the region that the quality and yield started to increase again. Cut to 2023, and Hungary is back to having a fierce reputation for viticulture, and we sampled some exceptional ones in Budapest. A couple of highlights included furmint from Tokaji, which is a dry white wine, Bikaver (“Bull’s Blood”) from Eger which is an oak-aged red, and the truly exception sweet white wine Tokaj Aszu, which is perhaps the most famous of the Hungarian wines on the international market.

So, in summary…

I promised you Toast Sandwiches, and the Langford-Lays always pay their debts. Here we go:

Jane: The liver sausage we ate on our food tour (see “Meat a million ways”). I don’t care for liver at all, but this gave you all the feels of a really good haggis - meaty, flavourful, well textured. Unexpected and very good.

Sarah: Um, all the wine. Nope, I’m going to be more specific. The thing that sticks in my head is the lángos, and the classic one at that. The cheese and sour cream combo was always going to be a winner, and the bread was a true delight - soft and fluffy and the outside, crispy and flavoursome crust. Just delicious.