Market 1897- Kitchen & wine by Borbíróság — Restaurant in Budapest

This was overall an extremely disappointing experience for us. I have never experienced service this bad anywhere I've traveled to and have never left a restaurant as upset as I was last night.

TL;DR – pretty restaurant, okay food, terrible service

Location: This restaurant is beautiful. The decor is very nice. It's located in a cozy sidestreet.

Food: The food was not worth the money (or calories). My friends and I were very much looking forward to eating here based on great reviews and were severely disappointed. We all had the duck breast and despite being hungry, left food on our plates (even with the small servings provided by the restaurant). It's not the worst duck I've had, but it was far from good: bland and chewy. It also seemed like they were trying to sell us the old wine because the wine had that sour taste of being left open for at least half a day.

Service: The only good thing about the service was that they were willing to accommodate our pregnant friend by cooking the meat longer than they normally would (for her dish only). Other than that, it was terrible. We didn't have a set server and so we had different people coming to the table, which meant that dishes weren't cleared, we were ignored a bit before we could order, etc., When the last server asked us how our food was, my friends answered that they didn't like it. He simply said, "oh, do you want dessert?" (We didn't. We wanted to pay and leave so we could go eat somewhere else). When we told him that we would like to pay separately and that we had already split the bill, he rolled his eyes and started sighing. He made a very big deal about this and kept rolling his eyes at us. A friend called him out on his bad attitude and he walked away, muttering "sh*t" under his breath. He returned to have the bill split and we gave him the totals, but he kept interrupting us as we spoke.

I do not recommend this...

EDIT as of April 2024: very good service during the Easter and their foie gras is literally the best thing I have eaten in my life. I am disappointed. I’ve heard really good opinions on Borbirosag, and then when I took my friends for the very first lunch on our Budapest trip we receive cold dishes (6 plates of duck where cold - I mean the plate was hot, but the food on it was cold) and we receive dishes that we cannot eat because the meet is so fibrous (ribs), and unfortunately the supreme chicken had no taste (but maybe it’s just a personal experience?) I do have to admit, that the appetizers were really good, especially roasted goose liver, the wine was delicious (we had Etyeki Kuria Irsai Oliver) and the staff was friendly (even though I was told on the phone that the restaurant is fully booked and we were the only guests), apologized for the cold plates with a bottle of wine. I will be coming back during Easter, in April, as the roasted goose liver is one of the best I’ve ever had in my life - and I hope that maybe I will be able to change my opinion after trying other dishes. Maybe burger with duck and...

For starters we had the goulash and pumpkin soup with pumpkin oil and pumpkin seeds, which were on the seasonal menu. The flavors were amazing. For the main course we had the seasonal duck burger with duck liver spread, bacon and cheddar. Then the duck breast over pear, potatoes and a puree. Both were cooked perfectly. Top it of with a glass of pinot noir and ended with a crem brulee with passion fruit. Service was excellent, servers were attentive, they had menus in English and staff spoke great English. You definitely must make a reservation before coming for dinner. Don't know about lunch. Came on a Monday and it was all booked. They have a nice selection of wine to choose from the different regions in Hungary as well. You can also order bottles of wine to take home. I will...