Drum Cafe Budapest — Restaurant in Budapest

Let me start off by saying what a MASSIVE tourist trap this is. That being said, the food was good. Unfortunately that is the only good thing I can say about this restaurant. They took forever to take our order, then when our drinks came they were wrong. The waitor hesitated in changing them because he had already put them through, but we weren’t going to drink what we didn’t order. So finally he changed them. The wait for the food was even longer!! We were sat next to a couple who were having the same issue and bonded over it. On top of that, there were other tables that also had different issues with them, which was a very clear sign to us that they didn’t care about delivering good customer service. Since we had already ordered our food and were quite hungry at this point we waited, if not we wouldn’t have stayed. Food arrived and it was good but since we waited for so long, we were in a hurry as we had a tour booked. Once again, they took forever to give us our bill. I ended up having to go up to the counter myself and ask for it to be printed so I could pay. Upon inspecting the bill (since I am not new to tourist traps) I saw that they charged us for the first round of wrong drinks, that we didn’t touch, on top of the rest of our meal. I had to argue with them for a while before they finally removed it, the waiter being very rude and raising his voice at us. The table that was sat next to us also had to argue with the waitor for something on his bill but I didn’t catch much as we couldn’t leave any quicker. By the time we left the restaurant with such anxiety and disappointment I HEAVILY DO NOT recommend you dinning here. There are so many other places to eat at that serve the same typical Bulgarian food. To add on, if you sit outside you’re basically touching elbows with whoever is sitting in the table next to you. (Hence why we made friends with the table next to us) The space is so cramped, you can’t have an enjoyable conversation with your own table unless you want to rudely interrupt the conversation the table next to...

The restaurant is average size, it also has an outside space but seems like the owner tries to make the most out of the space. The tables and seating chairs are rather compact, they are super close to each other, almost gives you a feeling as if each table was creating one long table, and you are sitting next to a random person. The most awkward thing is when you try leaving your space and the whole row of other customers need to move just so you can get out. The service was efficient, but as quick as the food was arriving, from starter to main to dessert! The soup arrived within 2 minutes of order, and it was lukewarm, not hot. Not impressed. The main arrived 2 seconds after your soup bowl was taken again, and the temperature was a tiny bit warmer than your soup's. The only good experience was that the food was actually tasty. The dessert was already on our table before we even finished the main. The chocolate sponge cake felt and tested like a wet sponge that needed a good wash. The same cake you can buy from Tesco's and it will be the tastiest dessert in the universe! So unsure what went wrong here. The whole experience was that the waiters obviously tried to rush the customers to eat quickly so they could accommodate more customers after you. If you want a nice sit in and have a chat, this restaurant is not for you. This restaurant is more like a quick kitchen, if you don't fancy fast food, but you're in rush. You have an extensive menu and it's cheap In comparison to normal Budapest prices. Also note, that you might need to repeat your order twice or 3 times to ensure that they understood you well. The waiter didn't seem to listen and got our order mixed up, and we had to stop him twice from bringing the wrong drink and dish.

Pros: tasty food / cheap/ location Cons: compact/ rush/ communication issues/ food...

I went with three friends and we each ordered a set. The food seemed authentic and we had a good time until we needed to pay the bill. The set was 3990 Ft each but the waiter said there was a mandatory tip, so in the end we were charged 5250 Ft each, which is an added 31% from the price listed on the menu. The food was okay and I would have been fine paying this amount had the waiter been more honest.

What happened in reality was that he allowed us to pay by card and split the bill and I was the first one to pay and was charged 4500 Ft. But when my friend was paying she was charged 19000 Ft. My third friend was about to proceed to pay when we noticed that the bill was off, so we confronted him. He said he would refund us 2500 Ft and then the bill would be correct because there is a 10% tip for the waiter included. When we told him that it was in fact 31% tip, instead of admitting that he did the calculations wrong, he became aggressive and justified himself by saying that charging 5250 Ft per person for what we ordered was not a lot, compared to other restaurants we could have gone. What I felt most uncomfortable was that he took advantage of the situation and us being four girls in a foreign city, and tried to charge us as much as he could given that we are here for a short time and that we would probably never come to this restaurant again. I would especially warn non-locals to be wary of this restaurant and being taken advantage of the same way we did.

—— Update: I realized that this is not the first time the waiter here forcefully charge non-locals for an unreasonably high percentage of tip on top of the tip already written on the receipt. There is a tag where you can find a lot of people who complained about this situation in...