Felisa Tapas Bar — Restaurant in Budapest

Charming Tapas Spot with Live Music & Basilica Views — Slight Room for Improvement

This tapas bar near the Basilica in the heart of Budapest offers a truly lovely setting. Sitting outside with the view of the majestic Basilica in the background while people stroll by creates the perfect mix of atmosphere and buzz.

What really drew us in was the live music — a talented guitarist performing mellow, familiar tunes that set the mood just right. It’s a great way to attract guests, and it definitely worked on us.

We were greeted and seated by a male staff member who kindly let us know he’d assist with any menu questions. That turned out to be very helpful, as our assigned waitress struggled with English, making communication difficult. She wasn’t able to explain the dishes well, but thankfully the male waiter stepped in to clarify. It quickly became clear that your experience at this place depends a lot on which staff member you’re interacting with.

We ordered a few Spanish staples — all were well-prepared, tasted nice, and arrived within a reasonable time. The food experience was satisfying overall.

However, two aspects lowered our impression slightly:

There was a wine mix-up. My husband ordered one glass of wine from our waitress, but another staff member brought one first, and then the waitress brought in a second — which we hadn’t ordered. We kept it, but it was clearly a miscommunication. At the end, the service fee discussion was a bit awkward. We’re used to tipping well, but not when there’s pressure involved or when service doesn’t fully meet expectations.

Restrooms were clean, but the trash bins were full and should be emptied more regularly.

All in all, it’s a beautiful place to sit, enjoy tapas, sip wine, and listen to music in one of Budapest’s prettiest spots. Just a bit more attention to communication and service quality would...

We went for the new lunch special, 4k for 3 tapas. There's also an option for a discounted lemonade, but we chose to try out the margaritas instead. We had the Banana-Vanilla Margarita and the Jalapeno Margarita. The margaritas were nice, but nothing too special. They cost about 4k each as well, which fits for the area, but I probably would just get the discounted lemonade next time.

We got croquettes, two kinds of squid (fried rings and fried baby squid), meatballs, and chicken empanadas. The empanadas seemed to be from frozen, but they were good, with a nice pesto dip and tasty red pepper sauce inside. The croquettes were delicious, as were the meatballs and fried baby squid. The fried squid rings were very basic, from frozen. Our favorites were definitely the meatballs, croquettes, and baby squid.

The service was excellent. The staff were friendly and helpful (although it was obvious that we were probably the first people to order the lunch special — not surprising considering it had only been posted online 3 hours prior). The terrace was nice and cool, even in the hot weather.

It's nice that there is no included service fee, however when paying by card, the options presented on the card machine are 12%, 15%, 20%, and two more options in Hungarian text (presumably "no tip" and "custom tip amount"). The staff definitely deserve a tip, and I appreciate that the menu says staff get 100% of tips, but considering the area and that the majority of the clientele are likely to be non-Hungarian, maybe consider adding English to these prompts.

Although the menu is pricey, most of the tapas were good, and I would recommend it for anyone with the budget who wants a good tapas selection...

Tourist trap!! We went out at night for some drinks, the tall dark-haired waitress was unfriendly, cold, and gave us very poor service. We ordered a Coke, a mojito, and a beer, and she looked at us as if we were aliens. She brought the Coke in a tiny bottle with a small glass, without ice or lemon. I travel a lot, and nowhere do they serve Coke like this, especially not in Spain.

Then, in a strange way, she started putting the Coke into my glass. I told her, “Don’t pour it, could you bring a glass with ice and lemon,please” and she twisted her neck like the girl from The Exorcist, looking surprised and making me feel uncomfortable.

The beer was warm, watery, and they only filled the glass halfway—I’ve never seen anything like that anywhere! The mojito had everything except Ron, watery and bad, a total disaster. A place to avoid—there are hundreds of better ones...