VakVarjú Restaurant — Restaurant in Budapest

Yesterday , I re-visited Vakvarju Budapest restaurant which first visit was in Feb 2025 trying my luck to have lunch without a reservation. Upon arrival, I was attended to by a waiter named István. He informed us that the restaurant was fully booked with reservations and there was no availability for walk-ins. However, he kindly asked us to wait for a moment while he attended to another customer ahead of us.

While we waited at the entrance, another waiter, whose name I believe is Márton (apologies if the spelling is incorrect), approached us. Márton, who chubby with thin hair, informed us that there were absolutely no slots available for walk-ins with rude manner. Unlike István, Márton made no effort to check the availability and dismissed us immediately. When we explained that his colleague had asked us to wait as he was trying to find a solution, Márton raised his tone and responded in an extremely rude and unfriendly manner, saying, "Then you wait for my colleague," and just walk away without further approach.

Fortunately, István returned shortly after and informed us that he had managed to secure a table for us with a one-hour window for a quick lunch due to an upcoming reservation. We sincerely appreciate István's proactive attitude, professionalism, and effort to accommodate us, even within a limited timeframe. Such dedication not only reflects positively on the restaurant but also enhances the overall dining experience for customers.

We would like to commend István for his excellent customer service and believe he is an asset to the restaurant. On the other hand, we were disappointed with Márton's lack of effort and dismissive attitude, which was in stark contrast to István's exemplary service. Staff like István help the restaurant maximize its potential and leave a lasting positive impression, while interactions such as the one with Márton can negatively impact the customer experience.

About the food - goulash beef soup is always tip top in Budapest while pork shop something new for us and taste good. Pulled duck pasta is absolutely must try food is really tasty and never had such good duck...

We went to the place as it was across the street from where we stayed. It looked like it was very popular, with occasional small queue forming outside. Ambiance is really nice, with arty and quirky touches, and it is quite spaciois. Two of us waited few minutes for the table to be available and escorted by stressed looking but patient and polite chap. We decided to have a couple of palinkas (spirit destilled from various fruits, just like grappa from grapes) while waiting for our meal and bottle of wine. Opted for apricot. For food, "fillet of cod roasted in dried tomato crust, on basil rissoto" sounded nice and the photo in the menu was full of promise. Guy who took our order, although somewhat robbotic, was quick to attend and do his bit. He did eventually brought us a Romanian wine, despite us asking for recommended Hungarian red?! To our surprise the food was brought to us within 5 minutes, before even our aperitifs were anywhere on the horizon - and it was utter dissapointment. The prommised dry toamato crust on top of cod fillets was a sheet of soggy brown mud and rissoto rice was totally undercooked, having a heavy, starchy crunch to it, in addition to being lukewarm. Cod itself was on the warmer side, not coocked completely bad, with just a bit of chewiness to it. Either we were given somebodies wrong order or their shefs were prepairing dishes in advance to save themselfs stress, but it was blatantly obvious that those two plates were sitting under the heater lights on the pass for quite some time - and any eatery worth their salt, and having a trace of pride in their work, would not bring them to table. We had a desert each, which were ok, tasty but nothing memorable. Just another place that has fallen victim to it's popularity and turned into just another turist trap. Avoid! There are some fantastic food...

We were excited to try this restaurant we had researched it in advance and it was recommended by our host. We made a reservation weeks in advance, and when we arrived we only had to wait about 5 minutes despite the line. The décor is fun and the atmosphere is exciting. There was a pianist playing a variety of tunes. The food was good, some dishes were better than others, but we had much better meals while in Budapest. We did enjoy our desert (pictured).

Now for the bad stuff: The waiters were incredible rude, short with us and impatient. Perhaps they were too busy for kindness or they don't like tourists, I am not sure. They came over for our order twice within the first five minutes and we had not even finished reading the menu. Typically I like having close attention from servers but they were treating us like we were wasting their time.

The restaurant was crowded and our table was in the middle of the main dining room. There was not enough room for people to walk by and we were bumped and jostled multiple times throughout the night. We are small people and don't take up much room so perhaps they could consider a little rearranging.

The bathroom was a disaster. The stall door was broken and would not close, and looked like it had been that way for some time. There was no toilet paper on the roll, but there was all over the floor . The counter had trash and there was water all over the place. I realize staffing might be short and it was a busy night but I've been in bus station bathrooms that were in better condition.

Overall, I'd say try it on a quiet night when they can provide better service, or skip it. There are lots of amazing restaurants...