The 13 BEST Things I Ate in July (Budapest & Prague)

When I do my monthly recaps on YouTube, the food (or best things I ate) section is always by far the longest. Because I imagine most folks don’t care about (read: obsess over) food as much as I do, I thought I’d break this out into a separate post.

I also need more content if I’m going to hit my weekly blog goal 🥴

The Best Things I ate in Budapest

Dobrumba: fattoush & basbousa! 

This was one of the places we enjoyed so much we had to revisit. While our first visit was great, I enjoyed our second trip even more. Our first trip, we ordered the goat labneh zhoug (yum), couscous di pesce (pass), and piri-piri chicken (double yum). 

Our following visit, we went with the hummus paprika (didn’t do it for me), pomegranate chicken liver (!), and the labneh & spinach fattoush + chicken (OMG). Both times we visited, we went during lunch which netted us two free desserts on visit #1 and a free gazpacho (yes!) and free dessert on visit #2. 

After writing this, I now realize how much I basically liked everything we ordered, but two items really stand out: the fattoush and the basboussa(s). The fattoush is basically a “salad” with (so much!) feta, dates, baby spinach, marinated onions, spiced pita crisps and pumpkin seeds. I put salad in quotes because there wasn’t a ton of spinach and because there was so much everything else. The feta was divine and the pita crisps were delicious and added excellent texture. Adding the chicken really made it a hearty, full main (as with the first time, we way over ordered). 

The basboussa was the only dish we ordered both times–it was just that damn good. Their basboussa is a semolina cake with orange blossom syrup, toasted almonds and thick yogurt. The cake itself was so freaking moist and perfect both times, and the yogurt was plentiful and tart (making me feel less guilty about eating a dessert). The slivered, toasted almonds and pomegranate seeds added more yum and great texture/crunch. 

I know most folks aren’t thinking Arabic/Middle Eastern when they visit Budapest, but if I were to recommend one restaurant, it’d be Dobrumba. 

Szeráj: 🍆 yogurt/tahini “salad” & cheesecake 

Sticking with the Middle Eastern vibe was another place we visited twice: Szeráj. I believe I heard about them via Timeout’s “best places to eat in Budapest”. After checking them out on Google Maps and seeing 7,000+ reviews and a ‘$’ sign, I was in! 

We initially went to try their gyros (döner kebabs/wraps) and that’s just what we did. While both gyros and their respective meats (I got “beef” while Yunji got chicken), they were not the star of the show. 

Szeráj is a bit of a cafeteria style restaurant. When you enter the restaurant, you grab a tray and get in a long line. At the beginning are the gyro spits and main dishes. As you glide your tray along the counter, more fun greets you. I noticed a lot of folks getting this yogurt/tahini looking eggplant dish. So many folks ordered it that it became empty and needed to be refilled. As the tub refilled as I arrived, I had to pull the trigger. 

I suppose I forgot how much I like love eggplant (or at least when it’s perfectly cooked like it was here). In addition to that, the sauce (it was/is some sort of yogurt with maybe some tahini or something mixed in), was divine. Add up the fact that it’s a delicious cold dish while Budapest was 90˚F+, and you have a winning combo. 

After finishing our gyros and that divine “salad”, I had an inkling to settle my palate with something sweet. I summoned the patience and re-entered myself into the seemingly-never-ending queue. I ended up ordering two desserts: a massive baklava (yum) and a raspberry? cheesecake (🤯). 

While the baklava was good, the cheesecake was epic. Instead of a crumble or crust on the bottom, the cheesecake itself formed the bottom, ⅔ layer. On top was a raspberry (or some type of tart berry) mouse. The cheesecake was liter and silkier than it was rich, and the tartness from the fruit really balances things out. 

The eggplant dish and cheesecake–not the gyros–were so good, we decided to come back the following week. While we were able to secure the eggplant, apparently the cheesecake isn’t something available everyday (or guaranteed at all hours). Le sigh. 

Better to have loved and lost, right? 

Hungarikum: chicken crepe & cucumber salad 

The meal started with an amuse of bacon focaccia topped with Hungarian sour cream and a trio of paprikas (fresh and mild, medium sauce/paste, and dried/roasted and hot). You really get a lot of bacon from the focaccia. While the flavor was great, the focaccia could maybe have been a bit more moist. The sour cream paired *perfectly* with the various paprikas. A fantastic (and free!) way to start the meal–so far so good!

I was hesitant to order the dumpling appetizer but it was very, very good. Paired with the medium paprika hot sauce (which resembled sambal oelek to me) elevated the dish and made it perfect IMO. Though we ordered two apps, this was the brought out alone to start the meal.

After we finished the dumplings, we were served our main (duck), the chicken crepe, and cucumber salad together. The Hortobágyi crepe was so, so good. It reminded me of my grandma’s chicken enchiladas and to me this is the highest praise. The crepe was so thin and the layers were great. The sauce and the creme were delicious complements.

The duck’s skin was perfect and the skin and duck’s flavor were delicious. If I could make one critique, the duck leg was cooked a little over. The onion potatoes were a perfect texture in between creamy and thick, and I really enjoyed the flavor. The cabbage on its own was fine but when paired with the potatoes and duck together, it was delicious.

After using all the paprika/hot sauce early on, we were brought another trio. The medium sauce tasted great with the aforementioned onion potatoes.

While the cucumber salad may look simple, I think everyone should order it. I had first had this as a side with my chicken paprikash on my last trip to Budapest and loved it. It is so simple but so delicious. The acid is a perfect complement to the rich flavors of the meal, and the garlic sour cream is divine.

I would rank the chicken crepe and the cucumber salad as must orders. The dumplings and sausage were great, too. While the duck leg main was my least favorite, I wouldn’t hesitate to order it again.

Bors Gastro Bar: töki sando, truffle soup & French lady 

I’m not sure how I heard about Bors Gastro Bar. I am a serial pinner on Google Maps, so things just sort of find their way there and resurface many years later. What I do know is Bors boasts almost 5,000 reviews and has a crazy 4.8 rating. For the non-initiated, a rating that high is pretty epic in and of itself, but boasting that rating with that many reviews is pretty unheard of. 

For whatever reason, visiting Bors kept eluding us. It was one of the few must-visits on Yunji’s list, so I was determined to make it happen. The last Sunday of our trip we finally managed to go, and it was…very, very good. 

Why do we always visit the best places toward the end of our trips? 😅

Your first time at Bors might be a little confusing (it most certainly was for us–and I looked at menus AND read reviews lol). You can order a sandwich (or half), a soup, both, and/or salads and pastas. What’s most common is ordering their menu “normal” or menu “small”. A “normal” menu gets you a full sandwich and a cup of soup, while the “small” gets you a half sandwich and cup of soup. 

We opted to each order a “normal” menu each (at time of visiting that came out to ~$7/order). Once I saw the sandwiches being assembled and soups being poured, I was glad we ordered the full sandwiches. The sandwich halves looked tiny, and the “full” ones didn’t look much bigger either. The cups of soup looked tiny as well. 

“Yunji” ordered the French Lady sandwich (raspberry onion jam(!), chicken breast (🤢) & edamer cheese) and a truffle, potato, chicken soup. “I” ordered the Töki sandwich (garlic sour cream (!!), mangalica sausage, roasted bacon, red onion & “cheese”) and a chicken paprikash soup. I put each of us in quotes because we ordered everything to share.

The Töki ended up being my favorite (not super surprising). What was surprising was Yunji’s willingness to order it; she doesn’t like sausage or bacon (guess that garlic sour cream really sold her!). The sandwich had so much flavor. Both meats were tasty, shined alone, and complemented each other. The garlic sour cream was delicious and there was just enough melted cheese on the sando. Yunji’s truffle soup was so, so good. The truffle flavor came through, and while the chicken was a little overcooked IMO, the soup overall was delicious. 

The French Lady was my third favorite and was a bit tougher to judge. Some bites were delicious (raspberry onion jam should be something I carry with me everywhere), but other bites left more to be desired. I would still happily order this again, but I’d be more likely to try something new next time. The chicken paprikash soup was a pass for me. I love chicken paprikash but this just tasted like a minestrone soup with overcooked chicken breast. 

Caphê by Hai Nam: Vietnamese breakfast & cafe Phin; banh mi

Caphê by Hai Nam was a place I hadn’t heard of but was recommended by friends we made in Kotor who also spent extended time in Budapest. After checking their menu, my interest was piqued with their riff on eggs benedict (I get so tired of brunch spots just offering traditional benedict, avocado toast and pancakes).

Upon arriving for brunch we each ordered some fun drinks: I went with their coffee flight (an espresso and a cortado tasting menu) while Yunji opted for their Phin Vietnamese coffee. My espresso was a bit bitter (I typically drink espresso) and my cortado was yummy. Yunji’s Phin coffee took the cake though. Before I started to enjoy coffee, Vietnamese coffee (with all the crazy caffeine levels and condensed milk) was the only type I could drink. Theirs was great and was served with a glass of ice on the side (remember it was 99˚F some days).

After our drinks, we went with the eggs benedict that got us here and their Vietnamese breakfast. The eggs benedict was gorgeous! Their version includes steamed bao buns, Vietnamese chicken ham, poached eggs, sichuan pepper Asian hollandaise sauce, and seasonal salad. What the Vietnamese breakfast lacked in style points it made up with sheer breadth of yum: Vietnamese chicken ham, 5 spices pork, housemade paté, sunnyside egg, coriander, red onion, chives, bread on side.

Good news and bad news. Bad news: the gorgeous eggs benedict that got us there wasn’t so great. Good news: the unsuspecting Vietnamese breakfast was fantastic. The bread served with the breakfast (and typically used to make banh mis) was so good that we returned a few days later to have banh mis for lunch. 

The Best Things I ate in Prague

Kro Bistro & Rotisserie: pork knuckle special

This one is a bit of a surprise. After staying in Budapest (and researching restaurants in Prague), I was (and am?) fairly confident that Budapest’s food scene trumps Prague’s.

I was happily surprised, then, after trying Kro Bistro! Kro was one of the last restaurants I had found and added to my map/pins before arriving in Prague. This location focuses on rotisserie chicken and other meat-and-sides plates.

I went with the pork knuckle special as it had popped up in a few of the reviews I had read. The pork knuckle came with potato pancakes, horseradish coleslaw, kimchi, plum XO sauce, ginger mustard. While the meat was fantastic, I think the pickled veg (and sauces!) were the stars! 

I really enjoyed the bold flavors of each component of the dish as well as the ratio of meat to veg. Additionally, I left the meal stuffed but not feeling like I’d immediately need a nap. 

This meal was so good that we ended up returning to their sister cafe three days later to have brunch–which was also great! 

Pivo a párek: pickled sausage 😈 

We’ll end this section with another unexpected entry. I first found Pivo a párek on Google Maps as it was a highly rated bar that was extremely close to our Airbnb. As I continued doing my research, it popped up on another list or two as somewhere to check out for their solid beer (pivo) or their sausages (párek)–see what they did there? 

We ended up going there our first evening immediately after checking in and dropping our bags off. The bartender was super friendly and the beer was delicious. Fast forward a few days later where we had hit a few other beer bars around town and had a bite but wanted one more beer and potentially a snack. 

There was no menu to be seen (and what we originally thought was their sausage menu was more of a bar snack menu that didn’t have to do with the sausages). I finally mustered up the social courage to ask what kind of sausages they had. The bartender showed me the four types of sausage they had, and after I asked which one was his favorite (Slovakian style spicy), I chose that. 

Seeing my indecision and need for another order, he recommended getting the most traditional Czech pub snack: a pickled sausage! I’m always down for trying new things, so I gave him the thumbs up. 

While the Slovakian spicy sausage was great (would happily order it again), the pickled sausage stole the show! You got the flavor of the sausage and of the brine. It was sliced in the middle lengthwise and stuffed with onions, red bell pepper, and…pickles. This was such a nice surprise and something I hope to have our friends and family who visit try! 

Looking Ahead to August 

As I write this it is Wednesday, August 3, and I am getting hungry thinking about all the yummy food we had in July. We typically eat out for dinner on Thursday, all meals Friday & Saturday (though we typically only eat two meals these days), and brunch Sunday. I share that because we are about 24h away from Thursday dinner 😅

In August we have friends and family visiting us more days than not, that will also shake up our schedule and lead to more eating out (and trying new restaurants and dishes!). I mentioned early in the article how I think/thought Budapest has the superior culinary scene to Prague, but during our first few days here, I have been happily surprised. 

If you have been to Prague or are planning to visit, the name Ambiente will probably be one you come across. To my knowledge they are the largest restaurant group in Prague (and Czech Republic?). Not only do they have many restaurants, they experiment with many concepts. During our last visit in 2019, our favorite meals were all at their restaurants (Eska, Kuchyn, Kantyna). 

I hope to revisit our favorite spots from last time as well as try new places, too. In our first few days here, we went to two Ambiene bars (Dva Kouhouti, Pult) and one restaurant/bar (Lokal Hamburk). I’m looking forward to giving a great run down of the best things we eat (and maybe drink) next month! 

If you have any questions, please hit me in the comments. If you don’t want to wait and want to see where we eat/drink in Prague or see what we were up to in Budapest, please head over to my YouTube channel!