Macesz Bistro — Restaurant in Budapest

This is the best accidental find I've stumbled across in Budapest. My cousin is strict on eating only Kosher or Halaal food, so a quick Google search of Kosher Hungarian food showed a lengthy list of places and we chose this one at random and started walking. We got there and it turns out you need a reservation to be seated. We got lucky though and there was one table for two available just an hour after we arrived, so we penciled it in and strolled around until it was time to be seated.

The place is very cozy and had an antique feel to it, with all the old decor on the walls. Our waiter greeted us with a smile and he was extremely pleasant throughout our entire experience at the restaurant.

For appetizer we ordered the fois gras pâte, and one strawberry lemonade and I ordered the green apple-mint ginger ale.

While we waited for that to come a beautiful basket of fresh bread slices arrived. There was a walnut sourdough in there which was such a delight! The beverages arrived and looked so beautiful, I had to take a photo (see below, I took photos of everything). The green apple ginger ale was so refreshing and tasty!! There were fresh slices of green apples in it. The beverage was perfectly balanced in flavor and not overly sweet.

The fois gras finally arrived on a beautiful plate with slices of delicately toasted breads. Good fois gras is supposed to be pink or pale in color, that's how you know you're getting the good stuff, and this delivered! They serve it with a pear-thyme sauce, which was divine! We cleaned that platter up and waited for our entrées.

We ordered the veal paprikash with spaetzle egg dumpling and the venison duett, which includes sausage, cottage cheese dumplings and served with a cranberry sauce. The plates arrived and I was impressed by the portions and beautiful presentation! The veal paprikash was very tender and the sauce had a very middle-Eastern flare to it. The egg dumpling was really nice, had a great texture, almost chewy. The venison medallions were so tender you almost didn't need a knife to cut through it. Delicious! The sausage was also super tasty. The cottage cheese dumplings were interesting. I'd never had anything like it before, and is a bit bland, but with the sauce it goes quite well with the meal. They are coated with a delicate breading, which adds a soft crunch to the otherwise soft texture.

After dinner we were quite satisfied, but our friendly waiter strongly suggested we try their special dessert called Flódni which is a layered pastry with jam, walnut, apple and poppyseed. How could we refuse? We ordered one to share with an espresso. Our waiter surprised us by presenting us with the dessert split in two plates for each of us! It was very delicious and honestly just the right amount because the dinner was so filling. The espresso was also fantastic, very rich and strong.

I strongly recommend visiting this place if you're ever in the Jewish district. For sure I'd come again, as the food and service were the best I've experience so far in Budapest. It's no wonder this restaurant was voted best of Budapest several...

I write this while laying down on my hotel bed after having a night that would match any horror film! Having to apologise to the hotel staff who certainly do not get paid enough to clean that!!

Yesterday I went to this establishment with my girlfriend after visiting the hot springs (something I can recommend!). We entered the place and was shown a table somewhat quickly but then left abandoned until I called for attention.

The food itself was a meh, hoping to experience some Jewish cuisine but there wasn't much to find. I ended up choosing what would be my downfall of lamb duo which was on a bit of the rare side but thought they took care with the dish, the plate was served well presented but taste wasn't really there.

Then came the return to the hotel and ensuing horror scene, I was awoken at 3am with terrible stomach pain, aching muscles and cold chills. I made my way to the bathroom to wash my face and ended up decoration the bathroom with projectile vomit on my quest to get to the toilet bowl.

Once finished I accessed the scene presented in front of me, with my whole body aching I crawled back to bed after giving a once over with toilet roll.

I was unable to fall back to sleep again and was greeted an hour or so later with both ends wanting service which I dutifully actioned by spinning on the throne getting rid of the last remains in my stomach while having a hot flush to compensate the cold sweats from earlier.

I believe this could of been avoided if the place just checked temperatures of food you are serving rare to customers.

I feel especially sorry for my girlfriend who wanted to experience our final day in Budapest but instead having to deal with a cranky boyfriend and a hotel room that needs a...

We took the "dining city" menu offer for 2 and a 'la carte for our little one. The place itself is nice a little bit on the upper end of the Budapest scene by its look and service. Waiters are quick, polite and effective, not very friendly.

The starters were really great we had a duck soup with matzo balls and a duck rilette with Jewish eggs and red cabbage chutney. They looked great and tasted great.

The main course is not so good. Had tradinitional Hungarian-Jewish "sólet" baked beans with beef tongue, boiled egg and barley. Not much taste, fortunately not over salted. Had a duck leg confit with special rizotto with duck heart and liver in it. Duck liver was almost completely raw. Duck leg was so salty, almost could not eat. Risotto was thick instead of creamy. Not too much seasoning or herbs or any taste. Portion was huge, could eat half of it both.

For our girl we ordered a schnitzel from veal with potatoes. This was bad. Oily on the outside, and so thin slice of meat almost could not see for 17 EURs was way overpriced. The 3 course menu was the same price... The meat dried out while frying. This was a huge disappointment. Portion is enormous.

For deserts we had chia pudding which was ok. Not much taste again, texture is nice. The "flódni" (cake with marmelade, grated apple, nuts and poppy seed layers) was really nice though, ending the meal on the positive site.

All an all we had better memories of the place from a couple of years before. They need to improve on seasoning, to add more flavours. The textures are generally ok. To make a proper schnitzel should not be too hard if you have some attention to detail....Probably will check back again in another...