MICHELIN Guide Budapest : two typical neighborhood restaurants take a new look at Hungarian traditions

"A discreet gem on the Pest side, where a warmly lit window reveals a bar of natural materials and a mezzanine lined with books devoted to Béla Hamvas, leads down to a beautifully vaulted cellar dining room hidden just below the Baberligét bookstore. Directed by Gergely Báthory, the concept is smart and funky like Erzsébetváros: guests can read or buy a book upstairs, then dine downstairs overlooking the glassed kitchen of French-trained chef Ádám Mede before returning for a quiet drink above. The wine program, curated by sommelier Peter Tüű and housed in a pretty vault adjoining the dining room, excels in both Hungarian and international selections. Mede preserves traditional Hungarian taste with local ingredients—freshwater fish, plums, mangalica—and revives forgotten bites like a regional deep-fried donut made with a rose-shaped metal tool served as an appetizer, plus a Gerbeaud slice reimagined with duck fat instead of chocolate. His open-minded love of Asian, especially Japanese, cuisine brings delicate sparks: sudachi kosho brightens Hungarian water buffalo, and shiso lends clove-and-cinnamon perfume to an exquisite traditional plum strudel by pastry chef Zsuzsanna Ötvös. Responding to demand, the team also offers a vegan eight-course menu that blends Hungarian ingredients, French technique, and Asian influences—think Japanese seaweed and green tea with local apples, and kumquat meeting tarte Tatin." - Le Guide MICHELIN