Bellozzo Oktogon — Restaurant in Budapest

Important to know: Bellozzo is a join venture of Burger King and some Hungarian local mass restoration business. It started as an experiment to be replicated in other CEE countries but at this moment it seems they are still only active in Hungary. It was born from the decline of burgers fast food consumption to offer a fast good quality meal for still a good price (avg. under 6 EUR for a main course). They take a particular advantage of semi-lavorated ingredients new tecniques (i.e. half cooked pasta or pre-baked pizza dough discs) to scale up and optimise costs and shorten from 15 mins to 4 mins average food preparation and increase the reduction of waste. The place is very nicely furnished with some Pininfarina wooden and Italian-style design. BACK TO EVALUATION: Italians might not particularly appreciate their food technology or some of the receipt or sauces in addition to pasta dishes but this is not because it is not an effective one but for sure it is far from the "tradition". The great merit of Bellozzo is to have heavily democratised average quality Italian food and saved lots of people from the very toxic fast food cultural dilemma of Burger King vs. Mc Donalds that made Oktogon square very iconic for the presence of both junk food producers in few square meters. It seems that also big fast food chains had to adapt to consumer needs of a healtier consumption also in a fast growing life rythm of an European capital city. WHAT TO TASTE: Don't start from very complicated plates but opt for something simple like Pasta in bianco, Pesto or Arrabbiata or Aglio and Olio. You will get a decent meal, cooked very quickly and also some well trained staff with an unusual level of politeness for Hungary HoReCa sector. I see some people going for shrimps and then complaining that they only taste spices - what do you expect honestly? Food consumption should always be responsible and conscious. In this way you will also know what are you paying for and what to expect. Best advice if you like pasta: do it at home, it takes 30% of time more but you will have 70-80% more in terms of results. If you don't have time, then Bellozzo is a great choice. They still sell a pasta for much cheaper price of many fake Italian restaurants abroad and the result is in most of the cases way better and...

Very efficiently designed restaurant. Functions like a machine. It starts with the ordering where you choose the sauce from the menu and the pasta from the display near the ordering desk. The person who takes the order is not very fluent in English but managed to get it done. The waiting time was 14 mins for 2 pastas and a nutella calzone.

The SOP followed for preparing the pastas is almost similar to six sigma certified manufacturing plant. Pans and spoons are changed everytime a new order is full filled. The cooks and staff execute the order like clockwork. Its actually intresting to watch them at work.

Dining scene is a little difficult, the inside has space for 25 people and another 20 on the porch. Its a little crowded during rush hours. No reservations are required. You just walk in.

Both the chicken and beef pastas were really good. Always add, both cheese and garlic(if you like it) to your order, . They don't cost extra and enhance the taste multifold. The chicken pasta was creamier compared to the beef bolognese. And both the pastas had the sauces pooling at the bottom, so don't forget to give a through upside down mix before you start digging in. The nutella calzone was a perfect end to the meal, except for the thick edges with no filling, the rest of the calzone was delish. Drinks scene is the ush... Coke, Fuze tea and their home brand lemonade with multiple flavours.

For a super tasty and super fast Italian meal please head to Bellozzo, you won't be...

Unfortunately, the place was a let down, I can not understand how it is rated so highly. For starters, it is relatively expensive imo, even for the city center. The prices on the official website were not accurate, apparently they have 3 different price lists for the different locations. Why make it so confusing and misleading in the first place? I had to pay a little bit more than I thought based on their website.

Portion sizes are below average in my opinion, I have made some pictures to illustrate this, hand for scale (no banana, sorry). Considering the price I thought they'd be a bit bigger. I don't want to spend 2*1600 HUF for a meal just for myself in order not to leave with an empty stomach. I could have gone to a proper restaurant for a very similar amount.

They asked if I would like to eat in or take away. I wanted to eat there but they still serve the salad in a plastic box, the pasta in basically a paper cup, only plastic cutlery is available. Just when I left I saw that they put everything in 1 single garbage bag, so there is absolutely no recycling. I asked this but the lady said she doesn't know. Shame, they probably throw away hundreds and hundreds of kg of plastic during a regular month. It would have been 3 stars if they had proper (i.e. non-disposable) cutlery and plates.

The food itself was OK, nothing special, not bad though.

Will not...