Café Gerbeaud — Restaurant in Budapest

A classical Viennese styled cafe in Budpaest with beautiful ambience and old decors. They serve cakes, chocolates, ice cream, and meals too. They have large halls, and have events too, and they don't take reservations. Customers come and wait to be seated. The welcome staff were friendly, but the order takers and servers were not customer friendly, and they were rude. I took two colleagues who visited from the USA, and customer service is key for Americans, and having poker faced staff wasn't idle to make the coffee and tea drinking experience welcoming. The Prices are ridiculous and expensive! They have takeout and onsite prices, and the onsite prices are more expensive than the best Wien imperial cafes in Austria! I was shocked, not because of the price, but for the bad attitude of the staff, and they automatically charge a 15% service fee as well. This is unacceptable and unprofessional for an established business like this. My order was a cake and a latte, and when I requested tap water because I have braces, the server only gave water in a tiny shot glass. When I asked for a bigger glass of water, the server rudely told me that tap water is only served in the tiny glass. If I wanted a bigger glass, I must buy a bottled water. This is unacceptable and this kind of service will never happen in a proper cafe in Budpaest. If this is a company policy, they should change this, and train their staff to treat customers with respect and hospitality if the clients who are paying extra, and speaking to the staff with respect. It was my first time here, and last because I would never want my foreign guests or friends to experience bad and rude service at high prices. Perhaps, we got unhappy angry staff members. It is a shame a classical place like this, should train their staff well to be professional and hospitable to all customers from all creeds, cultures, and backgrounds. I wouldn't recommend this cafe, if you want to leave annoyed with a...

Expensive. Ultra slow service - even on a calm day. Be prepared to spend double the time there than what you'd expect.

Definitely for people who are not on the go or have more time than ideas what to spend it on in Budapest.

The pricing for a piece of cake of diameter 8 cm is 10 EUR stay in, and 5 EUR to take away. By far one of the priciest places in Budapest. Chai plus cake = 20 EUR.

Food 4.5/5 Yes it's delicious. But not warranting that high of a price point.

Service 1/5 Very slow. I sat down, had to wait 7 mins only to get up and get my own menu. Then another 8 mins wait for anyone to approach me.

Upon payment I tried to walk up to the till only to be rudely told to go back to my seat and that someone will come. 5 mins later somebody did come.

The place was maybe at 15% capacity- so during busy times I guess you'll spend ages waiting for service.

Ambience: looks at first glance decent. But it's a facade, the wood is not well maintained/ oiled. The decoration is good but they live off what was once done maybe 50 years ago. Toilets are OK but nothing special.

The priming matches th Landmark Hotel in London- but quality of service and ambience is severely lacking.

With a pricing strategy of asking 100% mark up to stay in, I felt like they want to really discourage that. Maybe with sich a slow service it's probably the right thing to do.

Will only buy take away from now...

I'm giving 1 star for attention of the owner. Unfortunately the cafe was pretty empty, the whole backside is closed off. It's a shame and as a customer I can tell you very honestly I can understand why. While you pastry is amazing, for eating in you want about DOUBLE the price. It's not worth it to me, this is not Paris. Not even in Paris I would need to pay such ridiculous amounts unless it's a world famous pastry chef! And then there is no 15% service charge either. You need to be more reasonable with your pricing, it's sad to see it almost 70% empty. Your pastry is good but not exceptional to have the audacity to charge about 10€. I got 2 take away cakes from yours for the price of 1 eat in cake and I ate it right in the square in front of your café, there is free seating and great atmosphere there too. I don't know how you are doing financially but it's really not nice as a customer to walk into an almost empty cafe, whether it's the oldest or not. There are many other cafes in Budapest that have really amazing pastry and are not outrageously priced and great atmosphere. In the grand cafe they had live classical music, in the artist cafe they had amazing cake at a lower price and a more lively atmosphere. One of the oldest cafes in family possession in castle hill have amazing cake. I am yet to check out some other ones but this is my criticism. Again, it's not Paris. Food...