KIOSK Budapest — Restaurant in Budapest

We went to the restaurant based on a recommendation. It was full, but a table was eventually found for us. The place was very noisy, cold, and dark. My partner had to use his phone's flashlight to read the menu. I understand this fancy hipster style, but it's not my cup of tea—though for others, it may well be a plus.

A major downside is the tiny tables, which don’t provide enough space for sharing multiple dishes. In such a large space, there should be room for standard restaurant tables where you don't have to worry about knocking over a glass or dipping your sleeve in the sauce every time you move your hand.

As a starter, we had foie gras, hummus, and eggplant spread, served with a variety of breads. The foie gras disappointed me the most—it's usually my favorite appetizer. Unfortunately, it was too cold, bland, and none of the bread options paired well with it. The sourdough bread was stale, with an unpleasant old taste, which I find a real shame, because good bread is simply a joy.

The hummus was also bland and flat—honestly, if I hadn’t known it was hummus, I wouldn't have been able to tell. It was just a substance that could have been anything. In contrast, the eggplant spread was too sour and over-spiced—after just one bite, my mouth was burning.

For the main course, my partner ordered paprikash, and I had the risotto. Unfortunately, the risotto was inedible—it was served cold, the rice was undercooked and crunchy between the teeth. The whole dish seemed to be soaked in lemon juice, like the eggplant spread, because once again, after just one bite, my mouth was burning from the acidity.

The waiter responded very kindly to my complaint—offering another dish, a dessert on the house, and really tried to make up for my dissatisfaction. But my mood was already ruined. I was hungry, the air conditioning was blowing on my neck, and I had no desire to try anything else from the menu—I just wanted to leave.

We usually both have a coffee after dinner, but even that I declined, because I knew that in such a large and cold space, the coffee would be cold before it even reached the table—and I was right. My partner received his espresso lukewarm.

It’s clear there is a strong effort to provide high-quality, professional service, but unfortunately, I must have had bad...

In a nutshell: Great food with finesse. Overall nice service and lovely location. Mind you: there is a 12,5% service fee.

Food: We had the whole cauliflower for starters (2650 ft) as well as the Jerusalem artichoke pottage (3050 ft) and the chicken paprikash (3850 ft). For drinks we had a local beer (Soproni, 500ml, 750 ft) and a homemade lemonade with maracuja and habanero flavour (790 ft). The cauliflower was very satisfying and filling and absolutely great for two people to share. The pottage, which was vegan by the way, had a very delicate flavour. I could definitely taste that the chef knew how to handle vegan produce to generate such a nice dish. The red bean cakes that came with the pottage were a bit dry however. The paprikash that my boyfriend had was delicious as well, the chicken was tender.

Interior: The interior of the location looked great! From the outside, many lights illuminated the facade of the building and inside of the restaurant the theme of well placed lighting continued. The arrangement of the tables seemed very comfortable.

Service: Generally speaking the staff was very friendly. But there was a mild annoyance at first: We went to Kiosk Budapest on a wednesday evening in winter at around 5pm. We were told that the kitchen was on break until 6 pm. After asking if it was fine if we came back at 6, the staff member told us that they were pretty much fully booked and that our chances of getting a table spontaneously were rather bad. After considering our options we still asked if it was possible to make a reservation for 6 pm and – what a surprise – a reservation was no problem. At that point I was really wondering why the service lady didn't tell us about the reservation option from the...

I went there for the first time in my life to celebrate a romantic pre-Christmas dinner with my partner this year on 23rd December. As a Hungarian living abroad I've only heard tons of positive and great feedback on this restaurant, so we obviously arrived there with full of expectations.

However, some aspects of our experience were sobering. We felt a bit weird that after reserving on 6th November (1.5 months earlier), we got one of the two tables which are placed right between the toilet doors. In the first seconds we were looking around but saw that all the tables were occupied or reserved, so we didn't sign it to our hostess. But it really made a super uncomfortable dinner with extremely limited move for our chairs (doorway, lamp behind), as well as people were passing around to go to the restroom, including the cleaning guy passed by several times with his tools to perform his duties... Finally, but not least: the table was annoyingly waggling.

We signed the problem to one waitress without any consequence, but I must mention here too: one main dish was a rosé duck and the turnip served with it was literally tasteless/uncooked and solid like a stone, impossible to eat it.

Also, for such a quality restaurant, it's extremely disturbing that one waiter registers the orders and may serve the drinks, another one serves the 1st dish, a different one the 2nd, and you pay the check at another one again. They were all of course very kind and professional.

We would though love to return to this place as the food was in general great, not even talking about the quality and presentation of...