Gundel Cafe Patisserie Restaurant — Restaurant in Budapest

Very much, appreciate the history, and overall professional service. This is an expensive restaurant (45000Ft each) and I just felt it couldn’t quite deliver in its final execution. We visited on an extremely warm evening. So we were surprised to find out that they had elected to close the entire indoors of the restaurant for the summer. And with it, the A/C! So we were forced to sit outside in 80° heat. While this was slightly uncomfortable, the restaurant was just not prepared. If you’re gonna sell a wine pairing and wine by the glass, you cannot serve red wine at 85° and this was a problem throughout the meal. I kept on having to ask to chill the wine and they didn’t know how to do it - stick the bottle in an ice bucket it’s not that difficult!

The cold meat salad appetizer was really well composed and the flavors were all there. I give it five stars, however, the chicken paprika, a Hungarian staple, and should be the safest dish on the menu to order, was thoroughly dull. It had virtually no flavor in the sauce, was under seasoned and was helped with some chilies brought by a friendly member of the staff. The creamy cucumber accompaniment was a nice touch and would have calmed down the spice had there been any! The pancake dessert that was strongly encouraged, pretty much delivered. The stuffing of walnuts, chocolate sauce was good, but not great. There was nothing that I had that I would die to come back for. Everything was just OK. The experience however, was very much soured when the young waiter told us that the 15% service charge on the bill was not a tip, and that he would not receive any of it that it goes to “the company“. If we wanted to tip, we should tip in cash in addition to the 15% service charge we were already paying on the bill. The service charge was also a little confusing because there were two separate ones. He said one for food and one for alcohol, but the math didn’t make sense. I took this seriously and said if he didn’t receive any of the tips in the 15% service charge, I’d like to speak to the manager. He quickly backed down. Both my dining partner and myself felt like this could be an attempt to scam two gullible tourists into tipping twice. If that’s not the case, then why are the staff working for tips and service charges that they don’t receive? I think the restaurant should address this sooner...

lunch here after our baths experience. i made an incorrect assumption that this was a more casual, but still nice, pastry/coffee shop with a lunch menu. quite wrong. very upscale feel, with classic waiter service. high ceilings, dark wood, artful design, and higher prices than I remember seeing on the website. no sandwiches or other handhelds here. classic Hungarian soups, salads, and entrees. fork, knife, and spoon food, served on real china. and a much smaller pastry, dessert menu than expected, again after reading online. Maybe dinner is different.

Made our lunch into a classic three course affair. We both started with a soup, my choice being the goulash soup, a beefy, rich concoction with lots of root vegetables and homemade noodles. My wife chose the chicken soup with a piece of homemade sausage within. Both were served without broth, which was poured into the bowl by the waiter. Very fancy. Both delicious. The chicken soup was augmented by the Gundel salad, which is described on the menu as vegan. Pronounced as wonderful. The entrée that caught my eye was a filet of perch, pan seared with a dill butter sauce surrounding mushrooms and shrimp. It was perfection, a candidate for best entrée during 17 days in Europe! The flood of flavor was stunning.

The desserts were beautiful as well as delicious. Gundel chocolate cake with dried sour cherries-chocolate cake with rich silky chocolate cream and moist cake. The sour cherries in a light sauce complimented the cake perfectly. Second dessert was the a prize-winning cake at the 1958 Brussels World Exhibition and a National dish. Menu description quote-“ We bake three types of sponge cake, vanilla, nut and cocoa as the base of the dessert. Sprinkle it with flavored sugar syrup to make it juicy, then pour soft vanilla cream between the sheets. Cut dumplings from the dough, sprinkle with roasted and chopped walnuts and rum-soaked raisins. We make a thick, deep-flavored topping from real chocolate. On top of the dessert, we spoon soft foam from cream (whipped cream) from an artisanal dairy farm” It’s stunning.

This will be on the high side cost wise here but I’ll bet you feel like the food, ambiance, and service make this a great choice for a...

We had a family dinner at the restaurant.

It is a beautiful and iconic place in Budapest, we were very much looking forward to dining there. We had a reservation as part of the Dining City initiative. We received a warm welcome and were seated very quickly. The hostess and waiters were friendly, they didn’t bother us too much which was appreciated, our orders were taken quickly.

We were given homemade bread and körözött, both were lovely. We were then very quickly served our starters: butternut squash soup, prawn and chicken salad, and gooseliver pate. All were lovely, however the pate was not what we imagined so it was somewhat disappointing (it was not smooth but rather bits of liver, which had a funny texture). We ordered zander in spinach cream, and guinea fowl with creamy potatoes. Both were unique. Then for dessert, we had the famous Gundel pancake and a dessert selection of different Hungarian cakes. Both were absolutely amazing! We also ordered some wine and cocktails, couldn’t find any fault in them.

They had live music, on the piano and a band as well who were led by a violinist. He was polite but on occasion would walk over to the table and play right next to us, which we found somewhat awkward. He asked if we had a song request which was a lovely gesture, we appreciated it. The music was a mix of Hungarian classics and other famous songs from around the world.

The only fault we found with this experience is the fact that although it’s supposed to be an iconic restaurant, some guests wore sweatpants and other rather inappropriate clothing, which took a lot away from the “iconic restaurant experience”. The food was great and so was the service, so it’s definitely worth a visit. We just wish there was a dresscode or something along the line, but this is a...