Trattoria Cardinale BDPST — Restaurant in Budapest

My wife and I "discovered" this wonderful restaurant on a visit to Budapest in 2022. It became a first stop on our return to Budapest this year. Trattoria Cardinale is located at the base of Andrassy u. in the heart of downtown, easily accessed from Deak Ter. The restaurant is not large, but it is open and inviting.The decor is lovely, with live herbs on each table. The attentive wait staff always greeted us at the door. Lazslo immediately remembered us from a year ago and made us feel like returning family. The menu offers a great variety of excellently prepared Italian cuisine at very affordable prices. My wife and I ordered Soprani beers, a local beer full of flavor. We decided to share a mixed salad as a starter. It quickly came out, with 2 plates. Vibrant colors - green arugula, orange carrot, white iceberg lettuce, vivid red bell pepper, and dark green cucumber slices - were a feast for the eyes. The portion was huge, more than enough for each of us to have our fill, and dressed as we asked with balsamic vinegar. Everything was crisp and cold, just as a salad should be. We ate our fill! Afterwards, we ordered our entrees, my wife opting for a risotto dish and I ordered pappardelle with beef strips and mushrooms in a cream sauce. Both arrived about 15 minutes later and we feasted. My wife's risotto was rich and creamy, filled with chicken pieces and loaded with vegetables. My pappardelle was a mound of rich egg noodles, lots of pieces of beef and mushrooms, in a light cream sauce. We both ate past the point of being full, as we just did not want to stop. Neither of us came close to finishing our portions. As we had no room for dessert, we asked for our check, which another server, George, brought to us. The bill for all this wonderful food, plus 4 large Soprani draft beers, came to 16,000 HUF (at today's rate, about US$50.) And even though a service charge was on the bill, we left extra, as the service merited it. This is a wonderful restaurant, as the food is excellent, the service is even better, and its central location makes it easy to get to. 5 big stars to...

Stopped in for a quick lunch. We'd already filled up on giant cane juices down the street so we didn't order any drinks. Just two pasta entrees. We asked plainly: "She's a vegetarian: Can we get this without meat?

"Yes. Sure. No drinks?"

I said no and he was very curt and left. The food shows up. And hers has ham on it and in it. We point it out and he immediately gets defensive, "I put it on the order in the computer, no ham, that's his mistake." Not, "Oh we're sorry" or "Oh this was a mistake, we take responsibility" just getting huffy and blaming the cook.

He takes it back to remake it but honestly at that point now I have food, she doesn't. I take two bites. It's way over salted. Life's too short. That's enough. I tell him to cancel her order and give me the check. No apologies. No quick "I understand, I'm sorry." Instead the server defensively asks where I'm from. I say New York. He shrugs, "Ah that explains it."

He hands me my bill. Her pasta is removed. Mine is full priced. But the kicker? A SERVICE CHARGE FOR GOOD SERVICE. I ask him about it. He tells me it's MANDATORY.

Okay then. THIS review is VOLUNTARY....

▪️Honestly, it's been a long time since I've had so much fun going to a restaurant! But first things first.

We were passing by and decided to have dinner in this place, at first we said 2 salads and pizza and the waiter told us that the portions were big and maybe we should order 1 salad and a pizza. This is honestly happens very rarely, as most tourists want to make money on tourists, but here it was the opposite. ▫️When we received our order, we were shocked by the portion and of course the taste (see pictures), Everything was at a very high level, I can not fail to mention the staff. The staff were professional, very friendly and polite and when I wanted to leave a tip they warned me that the service was already included (very rare, as you almost always do not warn). So we went there for a second time, we took the same seafood salad (picture 4 shows the size of the portion and the seafood in this salad), lasagna and gnocchi with prosciutto

❕I wholeheartedly recommend this place for people with a good appetite and taste for food :)

Would love to come back to your place again, I miss it...