Le Meridien Budapest Concierge ROCKS!

[MSK]

First, let me say that I have not always been a believer in concierge's. Often, not always, their incentive is to send guests to touristy locales or places where they personally given "incentives."

But when posed with the task of finding some special &/or off the beaten path experiences for foodies celebrating a special occasion, these concierges rose to the task.

A beautiful night, wonderful service, interesting menu, beautiful presentations and above all, fabulous flavors made Mokka, near St. Stephen's Basilica, a perfect choice for a birthday celebration. Not traditional fare but a blend of Hungarian and French cuisine with Asian influences.

http://www.mokkarestaurant.hu/

For upscale, traditional Hungarian cuisine with live music and elegant service just off the popular Vaci utca boulevard:

http://www.rezkakasrestaurant.com/en/subpage.htm

Just down the street from Rezkakas, you'll find a more homey and personal, yet sophisticated Hungarian menu ,seek out the nearby Sercli. A new restaurant at the corner of Nyary Pal utca and Veres Palne utca, where you can sample exotic dishes such as wild boar soup, garlic catfish and rosemary lamb with speatzel in a bright and breezy location.

SERCLI ETTEREM budapest

Another popular and outstand ing suggestion which still has trendy, contemporary appeal is Cafe Kor:

http://www.cafekor.com/about.html

We stopped in to a beautiful courtyard at the Buda Castle for a wonderful light lunch at a cafe which turns out to be a popular dinner house too. We had a fantastic salad, Mediterranean Chicken Breast (stuffed with goat cheese & roasted peppers, wrapped in bacon, with a creamy basil sauce and ruccola-potatoes...yum) at Cafe Rivalda:

http://www.rivalda.net/index.html

One more suggestion for a newer, more intimate Mediterranean style eatery with live music located near , St Stephen's on a corner of oktober 6 utca to come when I can locate the name.

Also, for us chowhounds that enjoy the local food markets when traveling as much as the fashionable shops, you must check out Great Market Hall (Központi Vásárcsarnok) to see the local colors and tastes offerred to the residents. It's magic for the eyes.

What a wonderful city to visit!!! Enjoy!

[farago]

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...

[alexthepink]

The staff at that hotel are just fantastic...I stayed there for three months on business, came back a year later and they remembered my name (and that I drank bellinis!)

[LulusMom]

I also had a really nice experience in this hotel. Can't say I found a lot of great food in the city, but the fact that I'm not a big meat eater probably had something to do with that.