Bajcsy Zsilinszky út 72 [map]
Pest Centre, V, between Nyugati (M3, T4/6) and Arany Janos (M3), 5 min
Rating: 5.9/10
Going to an Irish bar in Budapest is perhaps a little Irish, particularly when you have to pay through the nose for the experience. However, there are two valid reasons to visit: the football and the rugby.
With plenty of televisions and a range of channels, if you can’t see it here, you’re unlikely to find it elsewhere. Now that the English Premier League has shifted to Eurosport 2, the choice of venues is somewhat limited. To its credit, Beckett’s is reasonably spacious and does, at least, feel like a proper pub, drawing a good crowd for the big games. It also has Guinness on tap, if you've got a spare grand floating about in your wallet!
Sadly, Beckett's falls short in a few other areas. As with many Irish bars outside Ireland, the craic is a little muted. Service is really not the greatest: today, the poor barmaid is rushed off her feet, while her colleague faffs around with the TV remote, unconcerned by the burgeoning mass at the bar. If there's more than one game on, you may also find yourself shifted from one television to the next at the whim of the management. Elevated prices make this harder to swallow, while the food is on the measly side. The menu does have one saving grace: English sausages.
Unfortunately, with the lack of competition for sports bars, there’s little incentive to make any changes. As it stands, Beckett's provides just enough to keep the fans going back for more.
Service: 5.5/10
Atmosphere: 6.5/10
Value for money: 5/10
What people we know think: 6.5/10
From Nyugati, walk down Bajcsy-Zsilinsky utca, which runs perpendicular to the 4/6 tram-route. Beckett's is on the right, after a three minute walk.
Becketts, Beckets, Becket's, Irish Pub
Andy Sz.
Ferenciek tere [map]
Pest Centre, V, Ferenciek tere (M3), 0 min
Rating: 8.0/10
For coffee, cakes, waffles or ice cream on the run, Jég Büfé is fast, functional and reassuringly Hungarian.
This is not a cafe; you can’t sit down, for one. The more leisurely customers stand at the window counters, their eyes drifting out across Ferenciek tere, as they unconsciously persuade vast cream cakes to fit into their tiny mouths.
As with that other Hungarian institution, Hentes - the eat-in butcher's shop, there’s a procedure that you have to master:
- decide what you want
- remember the name
- mumble something incomprehensible to the woman at the cash desk
- pay
- take your receipt back to the counter to see if you've bought the right thing
God only knows what happens if you choose the last piece of chocolate cake and someone else claims it while you’re busy paying at the till! I'm sure there must be a system to deal with it though because Jég Büfé has an answer for everything. In the summer, part of the shop front opens up to sell ice cream; in the winter, a small round hatch ensures that waffles are despatched before your bus leaves.
There are plenty of sit-down cafes in the immediate vicinity so if you want to relax, there’s no need to compromise. However, Jég Büfé is convenient, cheap and a great place for people-watching. So if you’ve just got twenty minutes to kill, it’s ideal.
Service: 7/10
Atmosphere: 7/10
Value for money: 8/10
What people we know think: 7/10
In the metro underpass, look for bus signs that say "Buda felé". Jég Büfé is right there by the bus stop.
jeg, yeg, jegy, buffet, bufe
Andy Sz.
Soroksári út 8-10 [map]
Pest South, IX, Boráros tér (T4/6), 4 min
Rating: 9.2/10
This cheap bar, under the Raiffeisen Bank sign in Boráros tér, is a funny little place. Inside, it looks as if an interior designer, who also happens to be a teahouse enthusiast and a hippy, has thrown a bit of a wobbly.
The bar itself is part of the sinister-sounding ‘Cökxpôn Ambient Society,’ which is actually an organisation formed in 1999 for young artists and environmentalists who like ambient music. They have close ties to Tilos radio and regularly operate a tent at the Sziget festival. However, in spite of the name, acts booked to play here are varied - the Szilvási Gypsy Folk Band for example, are hardly famous for chill out sets.
Still, Cökxpôn isn’t for everyone. The toilets seem to be under construction (they aren‘t), and the location feels a little inconvenient, unless you live in the 8th district or are on your way to A38. But that‘s part of the appeal. If it were in Central Pest, full of people every night and spotlessly clean, then it wouldn‘t be anywhere near as interesting. It’s open from six pm until very late.
Service: 8.5/10
Atmosphere: 9/10
Value for money: 9/10
What people we know think: 8.5/10
Get off the 4,6 tram at Mester Utca and walk towards the river. When you get to the night bus stop at Boráros, turn left onto the square and start walking towards LUMU. Carry on for about two minutes and Cökxpôn is on the left, directly under the Maxell sign. hub choice
cokspon, cokspawn cock spon coxpon, cokspponn, coksponn, coksponn, cock sponn cok sponn
Andy T.
Egyetem tér 4 [map]
Pest Centre, V, Ferenciek tere (M3) & Kálvin tér (M3), 5 min
Rating: 8.1/10
Forget the New York Kavehaz and the famed Gerbaud; it's Café Alibi that keeps on being voted Hungary's Coffee House of the Year. On the hatstand, there's a bowler hat and a black umbrella. Painted posters advertise Italian coffee and Absinthe, while an antique cash register stands proudly atop the counter. The clinking of china mingles with the background jazz and the customers’ murmurs. Only the coffee itself departs from the 1920s theme by being really quite expensive.
The over-sized wall clock says five past six and free tables are becoming scarce. Perhaps it's the draw of the chocolate cake which I've seen paraded around a few of the tables. The blackboard menu, chalked up in English and Hungarian, is pretty ambitious too and at a very reasonable price: salmon steak and asparagus with creamy sauce; grilled 'young' squid in dill sauce...
Being next door to the University of Law, ensures a certain student presence but being so central, the clientele is broad, if strictly middle class. The location too beats that of the clutch of coffee shops a little further along Károlyi Mihály utca which have to contend with an absurd amount of traffic.
It's clear to see why Café Alibi has received such plaudits. Its bygone era feel is deliberate but not sterile, and an impressive food selection gives it the edge over many of its neighbours.
Service: 8/10
Atmosphere: 8/10
Value for money: 6/10
What people we know think: 7/10
From Ferenciek tere, head south onto Károlyi Mihály utca, which leads on to Egyetem tér, notable for its dirty orange church and a rather grand university building. Alternatively, from Kálvin tér, take Kecskeméti utca, which approaches from the opposite direction.
Allibi, alabi, allabi, alliby, allaby, cafe
Andy Sz.
Pest Centre, VII, Astoria (M2), 5 min
Rating: 8.3/10
What makes a place good? If it’s five star facilities then Szimpla Kert is rubbish. The building is a husk, a wreck; a rabbit warren of doorless rooms filled with a baffling collection of rickety chairs and tables that aren’t always capable of supporting your drink. And then there’s the famed ‘kert’: the open-air ground-floor concrete remains of a one-time building.
But Szimpla isn’t rubbish; it’s an institution. It’s as much Budapest as the Parliament building or Széchenyi Lanchid. There are no other serious contenders for ‘social hub of the city.’ Like it or loathe it, everyone knows it and just about everyone goes there: students, tourists, ex-pats, locals... the lot.
Three bars; two floors; one kert. There’s even a no smoking room that no one uses until it gets really packed. You can get food on the first floor too – toasted sandwiches that are edible if you’re really hungry. Of course Szimpla’s not what it once was. There are those who don’t like what it’s become, no doubt pining after the days when you could get a beer for half as much; when you could listen and hear Hungarian voices rather than the international prittle-prattle of excitable Erasmus students.
However, the current Szimpla is the only one I know and it’s ridiculously sociable, despite the absence of a dancefloor. It’s not the kind of place where people keep themselves to themselves. If you’re perturbed by the fact that you haven’t met any Scandinavians in Budapest yet, endure it no longer.
Budapest is a changing city: you can see it from one year to the next. The fact that the wheel’s still in spin is what makes it exciting. In five years time people will still be saying that Szimpla’s lost its vibe. Szimpla is a picture of Budapest today: take it or leave it.
Service: 5/10
Atmosphere: 9/10
Value for money: 8.5/10
What people we know think: 8.5/10
From the synagogue, walk along Wesselényi utca, past Szóda, and turn right down Kazinczy utca. A small cream sign indicates the unlikely entrance.
simpler, simpla, simple, szimpler, szimple, zimpla, zimpler, hub choice
Andy Sz.
