Babel Budapest — Restaurant in Budapest

Awful experience! My wife and I are fond of different flavors and special dinners on special occasions, went to some michelin-starred restaurants in different countries around the world, and this is by far the worst experience we ever had! My wife and I went to this restaurant for the celebration of my wife's birthday. As we sat down three people from the crew came and wished happy birthday for my wife and said they had prepared a "surprise" at the end, which is already a weird start but okay. Since I wrote a note saying it was my wife's birthday and requesting for just a small candle on the last desert as a gesture, I thought these celebrations were a good indication for that to happen as planned. About 19.30 our dinner started, we ordered the degustation menu with the wine pairing, everything started very fast, we were eating the starters one after the other until the pace dropped when we came to main course. It was a bit late but tolarable. After the main course we waited about 20mins for the first dessert. While the 2 neighboring tables (who came later than us) had their deserts before us, they said there was a problem in the kitchen and apologised for the late arrival of first dessert. For the second dessert another 20 mins passed and we were naturally upset as we weren't having any plausible explanation. As the courses ended the clock was already 00.00, an insanely long time for a dinner had passed. After the last dessert came a plain chocolate cake came and said it was for my wife's birthday, we asked about the candle and the waiter said "the chef doesn't allow candles", an absurd take on innocent candles... At the end we talked about our bad experience telling our waiting times were incredibly long and longer than our late-arrived neighbor tables, waitress told us that our next table were waiting at another restaurant?! We saw us that they came later than us and started their courses about half an hour later than us yet they finished way earlier than us and left, while we were still waiting for the finalization of our courses, yet the staff didn't stand back from arguing with us. We were tired and unhappy and the staff was so rude at the end that we don't remember any good experience about the restaurant and the dinner, rudeness and long waiting times and refusal of the request for a birthday candle wept out all the good memories of the day. I regret picking this restaurant and recommend not to pick it for any day, let alone...

Lovely decor and some excellent menu items, but felt lacking in ways where rival Michelin-star restaurant Stand excelled.

The dishes were inventive in the 11-course menu, current stars of the show being the venison, the casino egg, and both desserts (in my opinion and taste), but with some decent highlights sprinkled throughout. Sadly not enough that made me go "Wow, that's incredible."

We opted to go with the juice pairings as something different since we had an early flight to catch, but found most the juices to not complement the dishes too well and just not to mine or my partner's taste. For 15000HUF each, we would have preferred something else - but do appreciate the restaurant offering non-alcoholic, crafted refreshments, even if not to my taste.

The service was good although twice got drink orders messed up, once with giving us a juice pairing we had already received, and secondly when they incorrectly started pouring my partner champagne which was intended for another table. The cake at the end was cut into quarters and served first as a quarter each. We each wanted the other quarter but had no way of transferring it without potentially making a mess. We left it 5 mins to see if someone would come back but no one did, so had to flag down a different server to ask if they would serve it. This is all incredibly minor and not at all anything that upset us to do, but felt when paying 80,000HUF each that the service should be impeccable (as it was in Stand).

Overall, I think that Babel is a good experience but not necessarily the most cost-effective. If money is no concern and you want a premium, well-crafted and well-catered experience then Babel will suit you just fine. However, I found I got a lot more for my money and a lot more wow elsewhere. I hope the feedback is useful and would still be interested in trying Babel again...

We were disappointed with our dinner tonight at Babel Budapest, as we were looking forward to a Michelin-caliber dining experience. However, it turned out to be a disappointing experience in terms of both food and service.

Regarding the service, I now understand why some reviews mentioned the confusing number of waiters serving the tables. The waitstaff were polite, but came across as a bit cool and robotic, delivering scripted introductions of each meal. As non-native English speakers, this made it challenging and stressful to fully understand the details of the dishes.

In terms of the food, we found every course to be overly salted, masking the original flavors. The portions were also on the smaller side - adequate for the ladies, but we men would have left the restaurant still hungry.

Beyond the issues with service and food quality, the overall atmosphere of the restaurant felt a bit cool and impersonal, not the warm, cozy fine dining experience we had anticipated. Given the high-end pricing, we expected a much more refined and polished experience.

The meal came out at a rushed pace, leaving us with the impression that the restaurant was eager to turn the table over quickly. This detracted from the relaxed, indulgent fine dining experience we had looked forward to.

Overall, while Babel Budapest may have a Michelin-starred reputation, our recent visit did not live up to the hype or the prices charged. We left disappointed, wishing the quality of the service and food preparation had matched the establishment's fine dining aspirations.

However i have to say the dessert is great !

Total approx Ft 130,000...