Budanest and Beyond

We visited Budapest over the American Thanksgiving holiday in 2007. In doing so, we chose to forego our traditional Thanksgiving meal. It would have been odd to choose to travel and to hope for a Thanskgiving meal at the same time. Just the same, when we arrived at our restaurant for that evening - tired from jet lag - we were surprised when the menu of the day included two turkey dishes, one attempting to appeal to American visitors. We did not choose either of these, nor did we choose anything from the extensive daily special menu. We chose our meals from the regular menu which is a fusion of Hungarian and French cooking. Having just arrived and being in the mood for more traditional Hungarian fare, we opted for the Duck With Honey Cherry Sauce and the Steamed Pike accompanied by their famous potato croquettes and fried potatoes respectively. Both meals were rich, flavorful and plentiful: just what we wanted. We finished the meal by sharing a massive Crepe Suzette that four people could have shared and been satisfied.

As an accompanying wine we had a 2004 Gunzer Villanyi Cabernet, a blend of 60% cabernet franc and 40% cabernet sauvingon. It was a light bodied red that reminded us of a cabernet franc from the Loire. The nose was dark and earthy up front with some cooked red fruits. The profile started with big, dark, cooked fruits up front that tailed off slowly into good food acidity and soft, musty tannins. There wasn’t a pronounced structure evident in the tannins but this was a good wine to accompany food. It cost HUF 5000 or about $27 USD.

The restaurant is a cozy little place on Zichy Jeno utca 33 in the sixth district. It is a french inspired bistrot style restaurant. At first, we thought there may be a large tourist clientele because of the Thanksgiving menu options but most of the customers we observed were Hungarian speaking.

We look forward to visiting Café Bouchon again and trying some of the daily specials.