all Budapest restaurants are entirely non-smoking now...

I share most opt HBink's assessments of restaurants, but emphatically disagree with both the notion that "the general situation is that dubious value and tourist traps dominate the scene". This is about as accurate as saying the same thing about NYC after being dropped into the middle of Times Square. The fact that one finds tourist traps in tourist districts should not be a surprise in any city.

And I also take exception to the notion that the very variable recent history of the Cafe Central places it at the top of the cukraszda (patisserie/pack) pack. It's a historic place, relatively carefully redone lately by new owners who also own several of the city's trendier spots, and among the things they have done is bring the pastry kitchen there up from ho-hum to competitive. But there are many far better and more consistent pastry options, depending on one's taste and interests ... consider the Auguszt, the Jeg Bufe (primarily takeout, as are Nandori and Kovacs Cukraszda) and for that matter the Cafe Alibi in some ways, the Cafe Gerloczy in others ....

Searching the International board on Budapest will yield a far more comprehensive and discursive range of options, though the restaurant scene is changing in Budapest and some of the older posts are showing their age ... the restaurants and places listed here are solid, but far from chowhoundish, examples of tourist-only venues, with the exceptions of the last three mentioned: Borkonyha (a bit sterile and austere for my tastes), Klassz (no reservations and often crowded, but wonderful consistently) and Bock Bisztro (excellent, but also a bit stark); one could add LaciPecsenye! and Pesti Diszno and Csalogany 26 to that list; up and coming, check out Baldaszti's on Andrassy and the restaurants in the bottom of the new business center behind the Keleti train station (the Eiffel) ... both are striving for a mix of hip and foodie. Of the Michelin-starred restaurants, my strong preference is for Onyx if you only have time or inclination for a single one.

The combination of good dinner, light food, and <$25 pp is a daunting one, though you won't miss the mark by all that much if you work at it. One primary problem is that the best of the light and inventive cooking takes place at the top of the culinary foodchain. But a solution is to mix lunches and dinners as main meals of the day (plainly, on different days); the lunch deals can be pretty incredible at very, very good restaurants.

Start out by considering Borsso, a marvelous nouvelle place that describes itself as French/Hungarian fusion and that has excellent jazz on many evenings. Likely a bit over your budget, but well within your family's preferences. http://www.borsso.hu/en/

Continue with Cafe Bouchon, a no less marvelous but quite different, comfortable bistro-like restaurant with a very diverse menu and a remarkable willingness, nay, eagerness, to adapt availability to the particular wishes/desires of those dining there, even newcomers. The host/owner, Lajos Tisza (who is there almost every night but not quite every night and the experience is not quite as remarkable without him) will turn the entire menu's description into a Hungarian rhapsody that, somehow, the food then delivers on. I dream of the asparagus season at Bouchon, and was lucky enough to be there this year for the first of the local asparagus, both white and green. But, the core of what makes it special is what happens when your family expresses its preferences...say, 'I don't eat red meat...' or 'What would you have that is comparatively light...?' and you'll be immediately met with a response along the lines of: 'What would you care for this evening? We can offer ....' And then a list of things not on the menu, each available in a variety of incarnations, one more intriguing than the next. http://cafebouchon.hu/eng.htm Don't be bashful about expressing your constraints and even your wistful urges

For lunches, consider Borsso's relative down the street, Cafe Alibi ... a great cafe with a large outdoor area in front of the law school building. Marvelous lemonades with fresh fruit, a terrific Alibi Salad with bananas and grapes and nuts and seeds over lettuce with a mustardy vinaigrette ... excellent breakfasts, a wonderful place to sit and chill out. http://cafealibi.hu/index.php?lang=en

And especially several upscale places with prix fixe lunch menus -- three courses for well under $20/pp: Csalogany 26 (http://csalogany26.hu/ ... the menus listed are dinner menus -- a 4 course menu with wine for about $50/person, an eight course tasting menu with wines at about $80pp, both stellar bargains for the level of cooking, and lunch at well under half that lower pricepoint with a daily menu).

Or LaciKonyha! -- a 3-clourse lunch for about $15 -- http://lacipecsenye.eu/#kapcsolat ... nouvelle Hungarian with brilliantly light fare.

Lunch or dinner at Cafe Gerloczy will give everyone in your family lots of options in the very center of the city and a wonderfully restful cafe setting: http://www.gerloczy.hu/cafe_and_restaurant/ and manageable within your budget (remember that there is no tax, and tipping around 10% is fine, though extraordinary service may well make you want to stretch that somewhat).

Fallbacks in even the most traditional restaurants might well include soups, and, in particular, variants on husleves, 'meat soup', which is a clear, intense broth with poultry and pieces of vegetable, sometimes some noodles, sometimes matzo or farina balls or other dumplings ... a bit heartier but still very light, look for tyukhusleves (chicken meat soup) or simply ask if you don't see husleves on a menu, before committing to a restaurant (HOOSH-leh-vesh).

Non-Hungarian food, as noted by others, is widely available and can be excellent ... I am a New Yorker, and am not unduly fond of others' efforts to achieve pizza (including the Romans'), but you'll find terrific light options at the fast food outpost of Vapiano http://www.vapiano.hu/ , and the city has any number of Indian restaurants, my favorite being Salaam Bombay: http://salaambombay.hu/ (but the Hare Krishna folk have a pair of excelent and very central and very inexpensive restaurants that are 100% vegetarian, one of which is essentially an upscale lunch counter: http://govinda.hu/english/contact-us/ ). And there's an excellent, modest and inexpensive Asian restaurant, Papir Tigris: http://papirtigris.com/index.php?lang=en I wouldn't call it 'light' but the Hummus Bar small chain of local places does marvelous (surprise!) hummus and falafel:http://www.hummusbar.hu/cms/index.php?lang=en

As to pastry, don't miss the Auguszt Cukraszda http://www.augusztcukraszda.hu/ , for my money the best kremes in Budapest (and the best milieu, but for a divergent view and a wider range: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204485304576645240754663616.html (note that although their top recommendation edges out the Auguszt in their, to my view, slightly misguided assessment, their foodie-pin-up centerfold shot is of the Auguszt's entry into the competition.... http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/im...

it is in fact better than any Indian restaurant i've found in London or NYC the past half dozen years, and the staff is attentive; the dishes with meat are at least as good, as are the breads

a friend with Indian background recently said that it was excellent but Taj Mahal in Budapest perhaps even better

Gundel is the only place I'm aware of in Budapest where a jacket is required; a tie is not, even there; you may feel uncomfortable some places without a jacket, but I can't really think of any offhand if your comfort level is defined by the other guests rather than the formality of the room. Maybe the Gresham.

Service charge is included in some places that tourists populate, in others not, worth asking if it's unclear or if there are inscrutable per-cent-based charges on the bill (the VAT is often broken out in hard to follow ways). If it is on the bill it is likely not enough to reflect good service. That is, I tend to use a standard of 20% (more if it has several levels of staff above the waiter) for attentive service that added to the meal; 15% for solid service. The service charge is often 10-12%, so when I like what I am getting I add on accordingly. If not, i leave it where it lies, and if none is included just tip 10%.

Likely you know this by now, but you surely ain't buying what you think you are. Baraka is not Asian and not newish, and Zagat is an utterly useless source for Budapest restaurant advice. Having said that, your meal is likely to be excellent.

Baraka is owned by a Hungarian/Israeli couple and was the first really serious fine dining restaurant in Budapest with a modern feel and menu. LuLu, now defunct, was the first pretentious but wonderful classic restaurant in the city, and Baraka, then in the center of downtown, was started by an extraordinarily talented Hungarian chef (Viktor Segal)and a marvelous Israeli (I think) pastry chef. Segal, former executive chef in one of the 5-star hotel chains who had managed massive operations around the world, including Tel Aviv where he ran a kosher kitchen, came back to Hungary to cook and brought with him a sense of Asian ingredients that he uses with an incredibly deft touch on traditional Hungarian dishes and ingredients. He left Baraka long ago (now he's sort of a tv chef and celebrity), but the restaurant, which moved out to the periphery, did not change its vision, direction, or quality. Or high prices. Or smallish portions. Order several courses, through fiscal caution to the winds (it will still be orders of magnitude cheaper than Paris or even NYC, though not, say, Portland, and you will have (or will have had) a memorable evening in a very classy room.

There is little to compare. Krizia os ok, not unpleasant, but neither memorable nor special in my view (admittedly others like it a lot; among the rather diverse range of folks I have eaten there with, mine is actually the most favorable take on the place, though; I do think regulars get very special attention from the owner, who is surely not inattentive to strangers, and he is a very nice guy with good taste in food). But Fausto's is in the running for being among the finest Italian restaurants in the world (perhaps excluding Italy, though in my view surely not excluding Rome). It is a fine dining setting, formal and even stuffy (in a manner that accommodates heavy-gold visiting seeming mafiosi on occasion within its definition of open-shirt-and-moussed-chesthair formality). Fausto's is a big deal and a great meal. And hard to find.

The other major competitor for serious Italian, less formal, less grand, a bit noisier but no less serious about a somewhat less experimental menu, is Pomodoro. And for a sitting-around-the-table-with-family Italian meal, Millenium da Pippa (sp?). For fast food Italian (slowish fast food, but likely the best place for a light salad in the center of the city) the Budapest outpost of Vapiano (a German chain of very fresh Italians speedy places).

Baraka is a tad out pod the way; a lovely room and a lovely outdoor setting in good weather. Food is consistently excellent, portions are not large. The original executive chef, Viktor Segal set the standards very high and he is perhaps the leading chef in Hungary, but he has been gone for many years (some of his dishes remain on the menu; there's an Asian fusion edge to them, but they consistently work very well indeed). The restaurant has evolved and developed without diminishing at all. It's a good, pricey, meal in a lovely setting. I get there about every 18-24 months, and other places far more often, but it is not a disappointment. The hotel it is in (Andrassy) is a bargain for its level of amenity, though also a tad far from the very center.

With the exception that I favor Onyx over Costes (but one can have very different feelings about Michelin-rated restaurants and about the Michelin ratings generally, and I have only had dinners at these venues so there may be differences there as well), blown pretty much nails it in what strikes me as a very astute setting of tasting notes.

of the two Michelin-starred restaurants in Budapest I prefer Onyx (among other things the executive chef is Hungarian, and a woman, and the menus are less self-consciously el-bulli-esque

if your brother is a dining-as-performance-art sort of person, then Onyx is a good choice; it's a very serious meal in a very good venue with very attentive, somewhat formal service; if Hungarian-ness is not essential, the Nobu might be a good choice; if it is, then perhaps Babel or the Muzeum Kavehaz; for Italian in a world class restaurant, Fausto's

for a somewhat more laid back Hungarian contemporary meal with serious efforts to explore and expand traditional dishes, Bock Bisztro in Pest or Csalogany 26 in Buda

BUT, if this is a about a having a meal, rather than about food as an end-in0itself, then without a doubt, for me Cafe Bouchon is the place to go for a family celebration ... it's a comfortable room with infinitely engaged and engaging service and a willingness to craft your meal in any direction you all (or individually) want. Our family goes there every time we are in Budapest and want to celebrate one another or heal wounds we have inflicted on each other; when it's pouring rain outside and the world seems grey, or when we've had a wearying day pounding Budapest pavements; it is a comforting place and the food is wonderful without dominating the company.

Borsso

It's a tad hard to understand what exactly you are looking fo (not sure how to juxtapose "gourmet experience, fabulous service and beautiful ambience" with "please keep in mind that we are American and are seeking straightforward, not too exotic, ingredients and preparations" and neither of these suggest that wer aren on the same page really when it comes to assessing restaurants). But among those listed, Vadrozsa is not a serious restaurant to the best of my knowledge. Basically appears to exist exclusively as a tourist magnet, and not an especially successful one at that.

Fausto's is exquisite Italian food, exquisitely served. The street is humdrum and the restaurant a bit difficult to find. On a 4 night trip to Budapest, unless there is something particularly appealing about having a marvelous Italian meal served by people with Hungarian accents and perhaps surrounded by other diners who either are or seek to emulate upscale members of the Sopranos cast, it would not be high on my list. Or if it were, it would appear behind Nobu, which indeed serves quite marvelous Japanese food in a rather more welcoming setting.

Onyx is a serious place with serious food and an earnest chef who is extremely devoted to what she does. It has taken the trouble to try to fit the Michelin-star mold of service, and by and large succeeds (and indeed recently got a Michelin star), but to my tastes the service is simultaneously a bit rough around the edges (I found my glass empty more often than I would have liked when I was there last) and too intrusive (I am not a fan of food as a performance art, and I fgound our conversation intruded upon too often to be told about the dishes we were being served by servers who were not able to answer questions that went beyond the descriptions they had memorized). But the food is wonderful and creative. Which puts it in a category that includes quite a growing number of Budapest restaurants, such as Costes and Babel.

The Gresham's bakery does a lovely job on breakfast and on pastries (the former quite rare in Budapest, the latter ubiquitous). I am very fond of the work of its Executive Chef, who is, I believe, Tuscan, and who seems to be committed to extremely high quality ingredients presented in consistently high quality classic preparations with modest personal spins. It is a throwback to a time when 5-star hotel restaurants focused on excellence and consistency, before the recent years in which food has become a destination and hotels have housed daring restaurants that draw custom in their own right. You will enjoy it, as well as its incomparable view.

But thus far you are missing out on anyplace that has a real sense of the city or its emerging cuisine (there really is no place devoted to its classic cuisine in a credible way, though I have not been to Gundel since it changed ownership).

For a feel of the city and a meal that immerses you in its spirit and its food (not the gypsy violin spirit or the chicken paprikas parody food, but the spirit of welcome and of cafe culture and the food prepared by a very talented person who understands that food is about enjoying what one eats and restaurants are about enjoying a meal, not just the food), I always gravitate to the Cafe Bouchon. Places that offer really interesting modern takes on Hungarian-inspired food include Bock Bisztro, Borsso, Csalogany 26, Borkonyha.

For a wonderful bowl of gulas soup, the Castro Bisztro remains about as good as it gets.

Borsso
Fuchsli - a wine bar
Raspi

all more or less opened within the past year

there's an interesting Mexican place on Veres Palne, tiny, hole in wall fast food Dos Gringos

Papir Tigris - relatively fast food asian, but a notch above the range of Gyors Bufe chinese fast food places, actually about three notches above...also on Veres Palne

A couple of world class chocolate places - Rozsavolgyi, around the corner from the Cafe Alibi on Kiralyi Pal utca, and Bonbon Manufaktura (!?) on Veres Palne not far from where it starts at Kossuth lajos utca.

Auguszt has the best pastry in the city center, in a very traditional pre-war sense (also quite good modern options) ... now in a rather upmarket setting, but still basically a local place; the Jeg Bufe is a bizarre and wonderful experience, mostly take-out, very socialist era, great post-war pastry

The Cafe Central is more of a restaurant that a coffee house these days, though one can have very good pastry there (i think they are outsourced by the Cafe Europa), but a more local place, very near, and quite wonderful is the cafe Alibi ... hard to find a warmer or better place for lunch, at Egyetem (University) ter, just across from the law school

In general, while I like Fulemule a good bit, I find Rosenstein the better of the two traditional Hungarian-Jewish restaurants in the city, and the more comfortable place to sit and have a leisurely meal. Klassz is indeed a special place. If you have the fortune to visit the Central marketn on a Friday or Saturday, walk all the way to the rear and then keep walking ... there is a Farmers' Market section out at the very rear of the building, on past the restrooms and the dog food shop and the mushroom ladies ... spectacular artisanal dairy (they are actually there 7 days a week), artisanal salami, and fruit and produce in season, including occasionally truly fresh, bright red, paprika and preserves.

I should add that Cafe Bouchon, which always has a couple of vegetarian options on its daily menu and a small range of options on its regular menu, has been great for our veggie friends -- just flag the preference when you get your menu and they should be happy to talk with you to learn your tastes, preferences and restrictions and offer you a variety of off-menu options.

yes, krinkle cut, thick, large, like Nathan's has traditionally been -- varied in length to reflect where in the potato's geometry they originated, and yet...there's a subtle difference i think ... the outside puffs away on an occasional fry and inside there are tiny granular bits ... like a true french fry but it seems less solid ... i am not certain these are reconstituted, could just be soaked for a very long time or frozen and refrozen, not sure at all

yes, but BK is not Nathan's

Ok, I realize that in the decades-long degradation of nathan's from the sublime down to the ridiculous and continuing on through to the abjectly tragic this is just a drop in the bucket (or was that KFC)

BUT

Has anyone else suddenly tumbled to the suspicion that nathan's fries, which are still in some ways defensible, are no longer really French fries but a sort of fry-shaped tater tot made from tiny chunks of potato-like substance?

your budget is unrealistically low for the neighborhood ... for dinner for two with a couple of drinks, plus tax and tip, figure $60 or so for one course, closer to $80 for two or three...ate at Ottomanelli's last night, had a main course each, one ginger ale and one coffee - $46 before tip

meanwhile Ottomanelli's food has been taking a nosedive the last two meals we have had there; the steak last night - in many ways their trademark dish since they are owned by a butcher - was at the level of Tad's - gamey (not aged, gamey), tough, thin, and strangely shaped for a NY strip; the chicken parm, which has always been really great old-line red sauce italian, was just fair, and significantly under-sauced and cheesed ... a serious decline in the kitchen, either technique of a new cook or ingredients on the cheap or both

-----
Ottomanelli's Cafe
1626 York Ave, New York, NY 10028

Actually, 'almond oil' in a recipe is generally a substitute for 'bitter almond oil' especially in biscotti which are kin to amaretti and the cherry pits that make the amaretto flavor are close kin to bitter almond (as are the apricot pits from which the pseudo-drub laetrile was derived).

As I understand it, which is hazily, true almond oil was made from a mix of almonds and bitter almonds, and true bitter almond oil is a fairly potent poison, rendering it essentially (so to speak) unavailable in commercial form at the supermarket or gourmet market (perhaps one can buy it underground from the mob?).

At any rate, when I was a kid, one could still get Dr, Oetker pure bitter almond oil in tiny vials, and my mother used to add the most infinitesimal drip as a flavoring. It was/is considerably stronger than almond extract, in the sense of a little going a long way, though the extract seems to have a kick because of the alcohol. It also has a quite distinctive flavor (though that may be less obvious since it is so tied to what we think of as almond flavor).

Today one can find artificial bitter almond oil, which I believe is artificial only in the sense that it is derived from something other than bitter almonds, and it tends to be labeled 'almond oil' and it still; packs a wallop. Simply try touching the lip and then washing your hands and then lick your fingertip - it will likely be very present still.

It's also the flavor that gives the best marzipan - I am thinking Elk Confectionary here - its very distinctive flavor.

So, for biscotti that have a clear amaretti or almond flavor, I would personally not substitute.

that pretty much says it all ... after about 8-9 months without hitting H&H i bought a bagful out of the oven an hour ago - plain and pump - and was jarred by the price but staggered by the texture and taste ... even the color pattern of the browning when toasted -

whatever one thought of them in the past, they were distinctive to the point of uniqueness...

this morning they didn't give dunkin donuts a run for its money...

where did you wind up? and how was it?

I wholeheartedly agree. With several more years of grazing in Budapest cukrazdas (Hungarian for konditorei), I have come to appreciate deeply those that still at least partly provide a taste of the traditional Hungarian/Austrian dry-crumb, verging on dense bready, kind of torte, like Sacher's Sacher torte. I understand why people are often disappointed on first trying it, but I still find it seductive and eternal, even if understated. It's a very, very subtle cake, as becomes obvious when one orders it in the almost infinite number of places that bake their own. I have tried to make it at home and I'm here to tell you that it ain't easy to get that crumb right - texture, dryness, size. Bread crumbs are a helpful addition... In short, I wouldn't go to Vienna just for the Sacher Torte (wouldn't go actually for pretty much any reason), but when there it would be a crime not to have a slice at the Sacher just to know what the benchmark is. And if/when you do, follow notdefined's routine.

kind of wonderful...my mother used a beat up old blunt and dull small dinner knife that she reserved fo that exclusive function

Christmas Eve in Budapest is as quiet as it gets - when they wrote Silent Night, this is what they meant...About the only places you'll find open for dinner will be hotel restaurants, including a lovely little cafe, the Gerloczy (http://gerloczy.hu). I would book a reservation there for Christmas Eve if I were you...Christmas day things will start to reopen, especially in the tourist areas. You might check whether Rosenstein is open (a wonderful restaurant with Jewish roots: http://www.rosenstein.hu/en/index.html )...Csalogany would be my choice between Klassz and Csalogany ... both wonderful, but they are in different leagues. I might also opt for the outdoor grilled dishes at the Christmas Market in Vorosmarty ter over the Central Market steam tables, but perhaps you can do both.

did you ever find her? and might you know what she is doing now? i lost track of her after she left Yura's on Third Avenue

where i come from it's a cast iron pan, but one with a very low edge (1/8 inch or so) and the flip is pretty lowkey, just enough to clear the pan, an inch or two perhaps ... if the pan is well greased and hot enough to bubble the batter a tad, it's a deft little flick o' the wrist

I like the Meridien, and believe their pastry chef is among the best in the city. These suggestions are solid, but like many concierge suggestions, very tourist-driven... and there are, to my tastes, somewhat better options in most of these categories...

For example, I far prefer Cafe Bouchon to Cafe Kor (the former was started by staff who were at the Kor in its glory days), but it is further from the Meridien, very near the Opera and Peretta Theatre...I yearn for the Bouchon milieu and food when I am not in Budapest...

I prefer the Muzeum Kavehaz a couple of blocks away from Rezkakas over Rezkakas... the food is a shade better, the milieu a tad less heavy-handedly ornate (and more authentically restored), and I once had a problem sending a wine back at Rezkakas ... a small problem, not a big one, but it left a dent in my impressions of the place.

If Sercli is the place next to Bor La Bor, I like it a good bit and think that it is a sibling to the Bor La Bor wine bar in the basement of the same building...

Carolkyn Banfalvi's Food Wine Budapest is available in the USA but not in Hunghary; her other book is available in Hungary but not the USA (I forget the title); if you are looking for an English-language comprehensive guide to Budapest restaurants and eating (and drinking), her books are very solid indeed. And beautifully done.

If you are looking for something in Hungarian, the Kalausz guide is the most rigorous restaurant guide for Hungary, though its ratings are controversial.

Online, in English: http://chew.hu ... check their Top 33 list

If you are looking for a human guide, Carolyn Banlfalvi is not cheap, but is impossible to beat:

http://tastehungary.com/

also check out:

http://everythingbudapest.eu/Budapest...

due to be revised shortkly, but still has some good, if subjective, guidance...