Nor/ma Grand — Restaurant in Budapest

The worst and unacceptable service with unserious personnel I've ever seen. We asked if a dessert has nuts and this is important because I have very strong allergic reaction and can die from it. A woman at the counter told there's no nuts at all. She gave us 2 pieces but I saw a strange detail on the top of the dessert and asked what is it. She answered that it's grilliage but it only contains sesame seeds, while the rest of dessert is without nuts. I refused to buy a piece of cake for me, but my husband has taken one and shared with a small spoon of a creamy part that 'doesn't contain nuts'. I had one of the strongest allergic reaction in my life within next 20 minutes: my throat was swollen and it was difficult to breath. The allergic reaction was so strong like the whole cream is only made from nuts. My husband asked the woman who sold us this dessert to call an emergency, but she started laughing like this is not something serious. She just laughed and spoke with her colleague that also started laughing while my throat was getting worse and worse. Finally, a young man and another woman, I suppose she was a manager, called the emergency and doctors after the full checkup strictly recommended me to stay at least 1 night at the hospital because even after a lot of medicaments my throat remains swollen for long time. I had to miss my flight to home which was same evening when we visited this place, because the doctor strictly forbidden me to fly since I just can die during the flight without observation. Therefore, this case also caused us additional expenses to get back to home. We 've never met before such ignorance of allergens and attitude to allergic reactions, like it's something funny and unserious . This kind of behaviour can cost someone their life.

Given the above, recommend to avoid this place...

Unfortunately we didn’t have a nice experience here. Food was nice, we tried both, savoury and sweet options both from the menu and from the counter. The staff was the negative side of the experience. I visited the place once with a friend and we were overcharged for stuff we didn’t even order coz the lady at counter just didn’t get our order. When asked to be refunded they made it as a big deal saying that they cannot refund a card payment. Luckily the manager assisted and refunded us in cash. Very unfortunate that you have to check your receipt to make sure you haven’t been overcharged. We gave them a second chance and came back a second time in a few weeks. Same experience: food was very nice, staff were rude and literally had no clue on how service works in hospitality. I am not sure if it’s a language barrier or if they just don’t enjoy working here or in hospitality in general but it would be nice to provide a bit more training at least on how to be more friendly and polite to the counter girl as no other staff on the floor seemed to be rude or mean they were actually polite and friendly and did their best to change our experience in a better one. Thank you heaps to the young blond lady on the floor who understood the disappointment in our experience and apologised and did their very best to make us feel welcomed. Food was nice though so if you’re not local and you wish to have a good meal, this place is ok, if you’re looking for a good experience, stay away from this place maybe or order online...

I come to this place a lot as it's close to my house and I love the Scandinavian food and coffees. On a rainy Saturday afternoon, however, I had a bad experience. I wanted to pop in for a coffee and I was cold and hungry and It was very wet outsid. The place was very crowded but I managed to get a nice table at which I could have got some work done as it was spacious enough. It was 2:30pm and the sign said it was reserved from 4pm. When I got comfy a member of the staff came and asked me to sit somewhere else. She explained that it is reserved for an important business partner who might be arriving earlier. I said I will sit there and change tables when I can, but she offered me to sit on the high stool (terribly uncomfortable) and said I cannot sit there at all. Another colleague came and they wanted to take me to a terribly small table in the middle of the mess, with no space around it at all. No wonder it was empty. After 5 minutes of running around with my wet umbrella in the place I gave up and decided to go somewhere else instead. The only apology and explanation I received was "we should have put 3pm as the reservation time instead". So I went to another place nearby where I could sit where I wanted without asking to move, and maybe it wasn't Scandinavian but it was just as tasty and even less pricey. Not sure if I wanted to come back again to Norma, I might just leave space for those important...