Café Csiga — Restaurant in Budapest

While scoping out Cafe Csiga online before deciding to go there, I was excited to see a menu containing vegetables beyond the very limited offerings usually found in restaurants here, like potatoes and other root vegetables, rice and noodles, even in spring and summer.

My wife and I arrived about 13:15 on a Wednesday hoping to have a nice lunch, our main meal of the day. The menu had a few interesting items that appealed to me, and when the waiter came, I ordered the vegetable polenta with salad of beets and other veggies and bread. "We're out of polenta" was the reply. I asked for the Brussels sprouts instead. "Out of those, too." It was just over an hour into lunchtime, they're open until 23:00 and they're already out of the two things I would have liked? How can you be out of Brussels sprouts, especially when you're right across the street from a large market hall? And so early, especially when they're used in several of the dishes available all day?

So I settled for a cup of "Pho soup" and the hummus plate, described as coming with "marinated vegetables. chickpeas, olives and toast" for 2490 HUF (the same price as their bacon-cheeseburger with fries and coleslaw!). The soup was pretty disappointing, nowhere near as good as the pho at almost any of the dozens of Vietnamese restaurants in Budapest. Putting aside the fact that chickpeas with hummus is redundant, the only other things on the hummus plate were four olives, about half a small red beet, half a tiny pink beet, a few tiny bits of red pepper, three small wedges of pickle and a drizzle of olive oil. Three large slices of very good, crusty bread (toasted) accompanied the plate, but no butter, and was probably more food than everything on the plate combined. It was certainly more filling.

While the food itself tasted OK, I kept asking myself why, in the middle of summer, there were no seasonal vegetables, no green vegetables (they were out of Brussels sprouts), not even some tomato or cucumber or broccoli or, god forbid, some green beans or avocado or leafy greens (spinach, anyone?)? Did I mention there's a large market hall right across the street? And, why does this plate, which has no meat, fish or foul, cost the same as a bacon-cheeseburger? Either the burger is a great deal or you're overpaying for the veggie plate.

My wife liked the salmon she ordered (it looked like it had been frozen), but, again, no fresh seasonal vegetables, only "tokfuszelek," a kind of squash pottage that is traditionally a vegetable prepared and canned in the summer/fall for consumption over the winter months..

The service was also a bit off. Although I ordered the soup to start (and my wife didn't), nothing came for a long time until the waiter brought my soup and my wife's main course. By the time I finished my soup and the humus plate arrived, my wife was practically finished with her food.

To top it off, I found the choice of music, sort of hard rock/heavy metal, very annoying.

Altogether, the soup, salmon, humus plate and two lemonades came to 9000 HUF with tip. It did not feel like good value for money, and the meal was certainly nothing to write home about. Very...

We are truly sorry to write this review, especially since we used to enjoy coming here and have visited several times in the past. However, something has clearly changed over the past few months, and today confirmed that this was our final visit.

When we arrived, the terrace was almost full. We found the last available table, which happened to be occupied by several suitcases. Since we were with our dogs and didn’t want to disturb anyone, we sat there, assuming it would be fine. Immediately, a waitress rushed over and abruptly told us that we were in the “corridor,” that we were in her way, and that we should either move or leave the restaurant altogether.

Her tone and approach were unnecessarily harsh and left us feeling extremely unwelcome. Instead of addressing the situation politely or offering a solution, we were made to feel like an inconvenience. Only after seeing our reaction did she attempt to backtrack and offered to “fix everything” so that we wouldn’t leave. But by then, the damage was done. How are guests supposed to feel comfortable when they are first confronted and then asked to stay as if nothing happened?

It’s truly disappointing to see a place we used to like decline in such a way. The quality of the food or atmosphere simply can’t make up for the lack of professionalism and hospitality shown by the staff.

Unfortunately, today was...

A rainy morning in May.

After 10 minutes, I went up to the waitresses at the bar to ask if I could place my order at the table or here. One of the ladies, who was not a catering expert, apparently said that we could go back to the table and she could take our order there, but since we were here, there was no point in going back to take it there (obviously the ego of the waitress, who had probably studied the arts and had never worked in her profession, was stronger than her hospitality).

We ordered a bagel and egg tartlet, with two lattes.

The coffees were good, brought out by a sad third waitress.

The food arrived. The egg was swimming in some leftover juice from a tomato, about 2 grams of melted cheese, a pre-packaged semi-dry white (1 piece) for bread, the bagel dough was also dry, along with 3 stems of natural lettuce, 1 clove of tomato (20 EUR).

Meanwhile, we look out the window, the market hall next door, an opportunity to work with better ingredients.

We have a feeling we need to leave here quickly and never come back.

In the end, the experienced waitress takes the place settings separately while the others are still eating.

The only thing we appreciate is the coffee, and overall we leave...