BorLaBor Étterem — Restaurant in Budapest

At first, the experience seemed promising. The owner came to greet us personally, was extremely friendly, and went out of his way to make us feel welcome. He even brought out some decent food and gave us the impression that we were in for a special, authentic experience.

However, things took a turn when the bill arrived.

We were shocked to see we had been charged 15€ for three bottles of water (yes, water!) and 8€ for a glass of wine that was frankly very poor in quality – cheap and barely drinkable. The worst part? None of the drink prices were listed on the menu, so we had no idea we were being set up for this kind of overcharge.

It felt like a classic bait-and-switch: charm the customer at the start, serve acceptable food, then make up for it with outrageous drink prices. Be very careful if you choose to eat here – ask for drink prices in advance, or better yet, avoid...

A trio of musicians playing traditional music was a nice touch whilst eating. Reason for three stars is we were never shown a menu. The waiter came and told us there was no menu in English, which is fair enough, but didn't give us one in Hungarian either. Therefore we ate chicken. We didn't want chicken, but chicken was all the waiter offered. We also had no idea how much we would be charged. In the end prices were reasonable for a meal we really didn't choose or particularly want. The chicken was actually ok, but we wanted beef. A very surreal hour and a bit. Great place if you like chicken, but only...

We visited the restaurant early evening when it was still almost empty. The service was extremely friendly, professional and very helpful and they spoke english well enough . The place looked nice and clean. Venison stew was very good and the potato dumplings were very well made. Others in our company took Chicken breast and broiled filet mignon of pork, and both were well made with good side dishes. the portions were large enough that with a shared starter plate we had to skip the dessert. All in all a very nice place with very good food, especially considering the prices. A place we all want to...