Pizza Eataliano — Restaurant in Budapest

Tourists BEWARE! This place will try to rip you off! I had to meet some friends of mine in the area on a warm day in May. I decided to just grab a cold beer while waiting. I asked the boss looking chainsmoker guy by the door if I could sit inside (thinking there may be air-conditioning to cool down a bit). I spoke English to him and he answered in a rather off the cuff mean way in hungarian, saying: inside, outside I don't care! (Yes I understood him, since I was born in Hungary and lived my entire childhood there. But he obviously wouldn't know that) I almost left right away because of his attitude. I should have. I decided against my best judgement and went inside. After a while a waiter came over asking what I want. (In very basic English). I ended up getting my pint of beer and just kept watching the staff and listening to them. The utter disdain and hatred, these waiters and Mr chainsmoking boss guy talked about all their guests sitting outside on the patio- was nauseating and upsetting. They talk about us like little moneybags that are there for the taking! They attach little nicknames based on what the people looked like. 99.9% of the guests were not hungarian speakers so nobody knew what was happening. But I did. Every word. After I finished my beer, the gross sounding chainsmoker boss guy directed the waiter to see me saying "és a bácsinak kell még egy sör "? That means "and the old man wants another beer?"....problem is, I'm at least 10 years younger than he himself! It is just a demeaning way to speak about someone. At the end I said I want to pay...it took the guy another 10 minutes to get me to pay...aaaand of course: they wanted to charge me hundreds of forints more than what the price of the beer was on the printed menu! These people are scam artists and incredibly mean! Typical north Balkan attitude with zero friendliness (kedvesség). I can't stress enough, how disgusting is the way they talk about the very people who pay their outrageous prices. STAY AWAY and go to another establishment! This place needs to fail! If I could, I would give zero stars...

Edit: of course Mr Chainsmoking bossman won't acknowledge the bad reviews...but immediately likes the positive ones. Just...

Now, long after the Covid restrictions, finally this place is open again. Having the whole building renewed, Eataliano now has a fresher look but their lovable atmosphere is still there, and luckily, nothing changed in the quality of their food. Well, nothing but the prices, letˋs be honest :) but it was inevitable after such a long time of operating on average prices with their premium location & service.

The pros are quite clear in this place: professional staff, excellent recipes, a decent selection from the best wineries, all this at the perfect location (right next to Parliament), youˋll just love spending time here.

Now, cons?... Letˋs see. Some mentioned toilets. Yes itˋs a weak spot but mainly because the central location of the place and their friendly approach towards tourists taking a two-minute break. I wouldnˋt say it compromises the experience, though. What Iˋd love to see is tablecloth; thereˋs none. Hopefully this is about to change but right now itˋs part of their policy; regularly cleaning the tables apparently works better for them.

Apart from this minor inconvenience, I think this place is perfect. And they keep their quality for more than 18 years now; I know because thatˋs when I started visiting them. And continuously ever since.

TLDR: Give this place a try....

Ruined our first day in Budapest. Very rude server and money-obsessed mentality. We were a group of 7 people and we ordered 10 plates. We asked the server for “no pork, bacon, etc.) for the plates that usually contain that as an ingredient. My Napolitana pizza came with bacon, i politely asked the server if the kitchen can fix it, he said it wont be possible and i have to PAY for that AND a new one. I told him we already said no “bacon, pork” he kept saying i know but “who is gonna pay” on and on. At this point i didn't care about the money, so i said i will pay and he can just take it away. He kept then pushing for me to order a new one as well, which by then i already lost my appetite and didn't want to eat there anymore. Yet he wanted more of a profit so who cares about “service”.

FINALLY, we reluctantly left decent tip because we didn't want to be mean, yet the same server came to us and angrily asked us for more, which is unbelievable! He is terrible, yet he has the audacity to ask us to tip him more than what we deem to be decent. Completely ruined our first night. We left the place feeling super annoyed and not excited about the rest of...