ODA — Restaurant in Budapest

Update (June 2025):

All in all, not much has developed in this place over the past year. I suppose the only advice that they listened to was to raise prices, and this they did significantly.

The (now pricy) menu is still quite confusing, and the decor is still an insult to the character of this Tabán house.

The service is still pretty good.

Now, many people might be fooled by the fact that this place is often pretty full, but this is simply because there are no other alternatives in the area.

Some healthy competition might be the only way to make this a better place…

… Original review:

Promising place with an identity crisis.

As some might know, this used to be called Czakó Kert, and now after the ownership change it is called Oda.

The new name is terrible, but that really doesn’t matter as long as the place is good right?

Well, it is ok, but it suffers from an identity crisis, which is expected if you fuse three different places together.

Decor: Less fitting than the previous one. The building is one of the few remnants of the burned down “Tabán”, which can be likened to Paris’s Montmartre. The current decor is too minimalist to reflect this atmosphere which was a winner for Czakó kert.

Service: Good service, nothing to complain about here.

Menu:

Breakfast selection good but too large.

“Pizzas”: Tasty and a good choice for the menu but offer maybe half as many.

“Small salads”: Good

“Antipasti plates”: Probably good but depends on portion size

“Desserts” (Italian style): Why not

“Slushies”: Good choice, but move to unified drink menu

“Fried meat”: Focus on this, should be one of the most important parts of the menu. In general, more Hungarian or Hungarian fusion dishes would be needed.

“Small plates”: No. Keep 1 max, move to salads/starters, make portion bigger and eliminate the rest.

“Bao”: No. Keep 1 max, raise price, make portion size larger, and add to mains.

“Plates with rice”: Terrible name. Keep one max, move to mains.

“Dessert” No 2: Overpriced, keep 1 max, move to unified deserts.

Overall: Make portion sizes consistent, and develop a normal menu with starters, salads, mains, pizza slices, deserts and drinks. Offer 1/3 of the current choices of food and drinks.

Keep up the good service.

Raise prices slightly.

Change decor, as much as possible.

Add ice cream. This is a huge missed opportunity. The sport center with a bunch of kids is literally 10 meters away.

PS: I love Asian food from various countries but everything has a place and time.

PS 2.: I will update this review depending on how the...

Our stay in Budapest was perfect except our experience at ODA. After the visit to Buda Castle, and looking for a nice place with high rated reviews, we came to ODA for the lunch. Among the foods and drinks ordered, we found an insect inside the lemonade grass which has been consumed haftway. We made a sign to the waitress and she confirmed the intruder then asked us if we would like to take another glass, to which we said yes. By the billing moment, we paid by card without checking then discovered that they charged twice for the 2 lemonade glasses. When asking for explaination, they just said as we drunk halff of the grass, they charged, and they said "sure to not havr that insect when they made the drink, so it should come after, as they "already had a look" during the preparation". When we tried to say that if additional charge for the 2nd drink (which was supposed to replace the first one), they should inform us before. Another waiter showed his immediate disrespectful attitude as if we try to ask for the 2nd drink for grant. The worst happended, he came to our tabke and throw - litterally speaking - the money due for the 2nd grass, and left. My husband was quite angry and said that we were not here to claim 3, 4 eur for the drink, but the gesture from the waiter was unacceptable. We gave them back those moneys to prove that we did not need to be paid back by alms, and all that they did after were: taking the money back to their cashier (haha) with a cold "sorry" as if it was the last word in the world that may exist. We wasted our mealtime. And gained a bad memory of ODA wherre we will never...

I have to admit that I visit Czakó kert from time to time (or at least I did in the past). I live in the neighborhood and it seems like a logical decision. But unfortunately I regret my decision every time. The service was always unprofessional, but I thought the location is great, the food is okayish, and I can accept that the staff is pretty incompetent. What happened today made me write a review and it was not pleasant (hence the one star). Me and my friend wanted to pay separately after our lunch so we went to the bar and listed the waiter (twice) how to separate the bill. When the bill arrived there was still a mixup about the drinks. We pointed out the mistake, we got an eyeroll from the waiter, and some comment like 'whatever'. With our help he finally managed to sort out the correct amounts we should pay (service charge included!). After all, he gave me my change 1000 forints short, when I pointed out still no apology said. My friend told him what is the correct amount of her change, this time we did get an arrogant 'Oh, really?' comment as well. This is not about the mistakes, we are all human... but it is unacceptable and outrageous how the staff interacted with us,...