Aranybástya — Restaurant in Budapest

It was quite a disappointment this time. Really! For the price of over € 200 (for two), we were expecting a pleasant dining experience. But, alas!

The steak, which my husband ordered rare, almost alive, was not even medium-rare, it was quite well-done. For those of you who like their steak rare, you know what it means. Blasphemy! :) My order of pike fish was also overcooked and tasted dry. The side dish of mashed potatoes with truffles was very good, indeed! The entrée were also tasty and well-plated.

Now, the plating of the main dish. Come on! A black ceramic plate with a piece of overcooked steak and a five strings of marinated bell pepper on the side? Looked sad, unfinished. Maybe the restaurant has changed the chef? Because last time we came here a year ago - it was a blast! Been talking of returning here since we knew the dates of our next trip! Et voilà ! :(

When the waiters learn the meat isn’t done correctly but my husband a good man enough to eat it anyway, they offer us free desserts. But, we don’t eat desserts. Although, we do drink wine ;) Nope. Oh well, in the end we had two espresso free of charge. Ok. The thing is not about free food, it is about details which make one good restaurant different from the other. Long story short, trifles make perfection and perfection is not a trifle. A year ago I would recommend the restaurant to all my friends. Today I...

I chose this restaurant because of its location, the view and all the good comments. Unfortunately the dinner did not match our expectations which we also shared with the waiters. We thought about having a nice dinner for 2 in a cosy chic location but instead we felt just like in a pub on a Saturday evening. We did not notice that there was a group table next to us and indeed we should have asked to change seats. But after a long walk the whole day, in such a location, we expected for more guidance. We are used to a costumer focused service, we do not need to ask nor think about moving seats or not, this could have also been suggested to us. And to finish, the waiter forgot my husband’s order so after more than 30min he showed up with my order only and when he noticed his mistake, he asked us « what would you like to do? » Seriously? Again here quite disappointed. Mistakes happen but it is not the costumer who again needs to tell what is to be done, this should be corrected, period. The last waiter did want to offer us a dessert to compensate and have a seat far from the group table but we were done. I am sorry to say but given all the nice comments and the location, we expected for a much more costumer focused service. Thank God, the food was quite good even if we had to wait for...

This restaurant has potential. It would have more potential if it didn't smell like the back end of a car, but unfortunately the restaurant is still behind the modern times and allows smoking at dinner. Every other breath you take is like breathing car exhaust. The view is not that great, especially since only a couple tables have a view. The rest are either blocked by trees or are away from the edge of the balcony.

Some of the food is excellent: goose liver bonbon and pate were amazing! Goulash is fine but nothing standout or noteworthy. Pheasant paprikash is a nightmare. Flavor is good but the meat has dozens of tiny fishbone shards that make it deeply unpleasant to navigate. You spend several minutes to try to get a tiny bite of meat and then you still end up with something hard and nasty in your teeth. You think you've cleared the bones from the dumplings and then you nearly stab the inside of your mouth. Terrible, avoid at all costs. I've had pheasant before and it was not treated like a boney fish the way they do here. The dobos cake is ok. Again, pretty standard, not amazing.

Service is glacially slow. It took an hour just to get through two courses ... over 2.5 hours for the whole dinner, long after my patience and goodwill had both run out. I will try somewhere...