Menza - Budapest

Budapest is an incredible city. Even at London prices it would be a incredible city. At Budapest prices it is paradise. Aside from a few exclusive restaurants and bars, prices in Budapest average what you would pay in a student bar in any city in the UK. Yes people, £3 cocktails. To make life even easier, great restaurants here don't require a reservation or a two hour wait.

Eating out in Budapest is thus a dream because a lot of the great restaurants are completely affordable, available and often a lot more interesting than anything you find in London.

Take Menza. Eating here is like taking a trip in a time machine. You feel a bit like your walking into an ex Austin Powers set. Orange clashing wall paper, textured walls, 60s lighting -  Its so kitsch its cool, unlike so many wannabe kitsch-cool places. Its so 60s you can smoke indoors, although that's a theme common to most of Budapest.

On the Friday two friends and I arrived, tired after a day of sight-seeing the place was lively, the music party fever inducing and the crowd hip. So far so good and that was before we tasted the £3 cocktails. Which were great by the way.

We ended up waiting about 20 minutes in the bar before we tucked into some modern hungarian fare.

The service was "relaxed" but friendly, drinks came after the 10 minutes or so we waited for our  food but the atmosphere was so chilled out it was hard to get worked up, especially with a plate of food as a distraction.

My Chicken in Paprika Sauce with hash browns was a pretty good pacifier. My hash browns were on the garlicky side and the chicken was a bit dry, but the paprika sauce was so creamy, complemented with some sour cream, and so wonderful, they could have served me styro foam in paprika sauce and I would have crunched my way through smiling.

The bill came to roughly £12.00  for a cocktail, glass of wine and large main course. Bread was complimentary as a meal is not a meal without bread in Hungary.

4000 Forint lighter we bounced away from Menza feeling satisfied and onto Liszt Ferenck Ter, three very happy campers.


Menza
Liszt Ference Ter 
Budapest 
Nearest Metro Stop - Oktagon