Food and Drink
Local red and white wines, Goulash, even Paprika powder are Hungary’s most well known culinary delights. But there is so much more to Hungarian cuisine, and in Budapest, all the regional flavours, traditions and ingredients come together.
Here, you can find out more about those rare seasonal specials, hidden regional delicacies, and familiarise yourself with the foods and drinks that make up Hungary’s culinary legacy.
What You Sign Up For
Anyone can go to a restaurant, pick a famous dish like chicken paprikas or goulash, and then pair it with a local wine. This page is not about where to find the best restaurants or ranking bars, it is dedicated to the foodies who want to go that extra step. Instead of just sampling the local food, you can go on bona fide Hungarian food adventures, like some of the following:
- Market walking tours
- Wine tasting sessions
- Food courses and workshops
- And more!
The point is, you aren’t just going to eat or drink staple Hungarian delicacies. You learn about the culinary traditions, take part in hands-on food experiences, and take home insights that only locals know.
Best Sellers: Food and Drink
There are lots of exciting foodie adventures to be had in Budapest, but if you are looking for some inspiration to get started – then why not go straight for the best sellers? These are the food experiences that have become a must-do for anyone interested in Hungarian cuisine. Are they the best foodie programmes out there? They rank pretty high, and give you an idea of what’s out there.
Hungary is famous for its wines, and Budapest is packed with wineries where you can sign up for exclusive wine tastings. But you can go one further. For the people who want to get their hands on unique, local wines, the Half Day Countryside Wine Tour takes you to Etyek. It’s about half an hour away by car, and a deep dive into a more quaint, local tradition of winemaking than an inner city winery.
Culinary walks are emerging as a top way to find new spots to eat – and sample high-end Hungarian foods. Most travel around the Jewish Quarter, or Central Market. The Food Tour Market to Tavern with 12+ Tasters does it all, mixing street food tasters with fancier sit-down meals.
Chimney cakes are so popular in Budapest that now there are culinary schools and bakeries that do crash-courses in how to make them. That’s right, you can learn how to make a chimney cake yourself, and at the City Centre Chimney Cake Workshop at Kató Néni Finomságai, you get to make 3 for the price of 1 course.
Best Food Walking Tours
A food tour is really a multi-course meal that can last a few hours and unfolds like a good book. You explore the streets of Budapest with a local guide, jumping into classic eateries and indulging in full meals or tasting Hungarian snacks or wines.
The key areas most Budapest food walks target are downtown Pest and the Jewish Quarter, and instead of falling into the tourist traps, your guide picks out those rare local areas that make the real thing. These walks can last a few hours, and the portion size can vary. Some will break up the food walk into lots of small samples, whereas others will construct a classic 3 or 4 course meal across different venues.
Heres a couple of best sellers (and one lesser-known food walk that should be a best seller!) to whet your appetite.
Foodapest’s very own Market to Tavern experience with 12 tastings and wines is the perfect crash course for starters who are new to Hungarian cuisine.
If you want something more local, even personable, then the charismatic Experiences By George group has a 20+ Tastings Market Walk that samples everything from fine dining treats to countryside staples.
And finally, Secret Historic Food Tour’s Óbuda food tour takes you outside the main hubbub of the city to extra authentic spots, including a 125+ year old restaurant.
Best Budapest Wine Tastings
Anyone looking to experience the Hungarian terroir, look no further. Hungary has over 20 wine regions, with classics such as the Eger Bull’s Blood red wine, Tokaji Aszú dessert wine, and Villányi Franc, and Budapest is the place where it all comes together. Instead of experimenting with wines at a bar or picking bottles from a shop at random, you can sign up for expert Budapest wine tastings in the heart of the city.
You don’t need to be an expert yourself, these are casual affairs where your sommelier will guide you through all the “greatest hits” of Hungarian terroir. Wine tastings tend to last about 1.5 to 2 hours depending on how many samples you taste, and at the end you can buy bottles of your favourites.
Budapest is packed with wineries, and many host their own tastings or wine sampling with charcuterie sessions. Nearly all cover the main Hungarian classics, so you can’t go wrong with any if you just want the standard ensemble. Wine enthusiasts who want to delve a little further, here are some tastings you should check out.
Wine the Gap has a Wine Tasting with 8 Wines and Tapas in its downtown bar where you get to try Hungarian classics like Eger Bull’s Blood, and a few lesser-known wines too.
At its downtown wine bar, the Essentials of Hungarian Wine Tasting Class by Taste Hungary changes its tasting arrangement regularly to keep things fresh, but it nearly always keeps an even balance of reds, whites, and finishes with a classic Tokaj dessert wine.
Bortodoor is another popular wine bar in Budapest. Its 8-Wine Hungarian Tasting reflects the company’s keen eye for up-and-coming winemakers and diverse blends, offering a mixed palate of whites, reds, a light red, and a sparkling wine.
Best Suburban Wine Tastings
If you are after authentic bottles straight from the winemakers themselves, you can always head to one of the villages or towns just outside Budapest. These are just 30 minues by car from Budapest, traffic-permitting. The most famous is Etyek, which is renowned for its white wines and picturesque old-town cellars. Etyek is not your only option, there are a few of these lesser-known treats that have wines that you won’t even find in Budapest.
These wine tastings double as a half-day programme where you explore quieter countryside wine cellars, learn a little about how they are prepared, and can buy a few bottles to go. The best suburban wine tastings are proper tours with private chauffeurs and guides, so you don’t need to worry about complicated public transport transfers or schedules, and can fully enjoy your time out.
You can explore the wine cellars in Etyek for a daytime or evening outing with City & Wine’s Countryside Wine Tour. It comes with a meal and wine tasting at local wineries, with plenty of time left over to explore the famous wine town.
An alternative to Etyek, the Páty Wine Village Tour takes you into the historic wine cellars that look like something out of Lord of the Rings. It is a quality option for anyone interested in quality whites and traditional winemaking.
Monor is known as the village of a thousand cellars, and the Half Day Wine Tour takes you to this historic sight, with a tour of a 150-year-old cellar, and finishing with a traditional Hungarian meal. And wines, plenty of quality, local wines.
Best Regional Wine Tastings
If you have a day to spare and you love wine, then you can easily arrange a trip to one of the historic wine regions outside Budapest. These programmes are half wine tasting, half sightseeing programmes, and as most are private tours, you can personalise the experience to your needs.
Sure, you can taste the great Hungarian wines from Eger, Villány, Tokaj or other regions in Budapest. But it doesn’t beat the real thing/ With the best regional wine tastings, you are heading out to these locations, going inside the wine cellars, and tasting not just the most famous bottles but also the lesser-known local specialities.
The Private Eger Tour with Bull’s Blood Tasting is one of the best value wine tasting packages out there. Included in the price you can see all the attractions in this historic city, and participate in an authentic wine tasting that includes the famous Bull’s Blood red wine.
Tokaj, famous for its dessert wine and Dry Furmint, is true wine country. With the Tokaj Wine Tour with Tasting and Lunch you can soak up the culture and taste some truly rare classics.
Another tasting by Wine The Gap, the Organic Wine Tour in Badacsony features a meeting with a local winemakers, and insights into the the famous wines from the region.
Best Budapest Cooking Classes
Instead of going to a restaurant, have you considered making the food yourself? With these activities, you prep the food with chefs, using authentic local ingredients, and then you get to eat your creation at the end of the class. It is the perfect way to experience Hungarian food, and some of these courses are also available in Hungarian! Meaning, locals do them too.
The best cooking classes in Budapest are run by professional schools or expert chefs who can teach anyone, from beginners to experts, all the nuances of Hungarian cuisine. Some of these courses also have guided walks through the Central Market, so you can shop for the ingredients and then put them into your food.
Chef Marti’s Market Tour and Authentic Hungarian Cooking Class is not just a lesson in Hungarian cuisine. It teaches you to make restaurant-quality food in a friendly atmosphere, and it starts with a journey through the Central Market to hunt for quality ingredients.
Another option is to go to a bona fide cooking school to learn how to make a classic 3-course meal. Chefparade’s Cooking School Hungarian Menu gives you the comprehensive cooking course you want, with drinks and palinka tasting to lift spirits as you cook.
Foodapest’s Cooking Class with Historic Market Walk is an excellent introduction to Hungarian food. You can book it for lunch or dinner, and if you book it at lunchtime, you also get a market walk (dinner doesn’t have this). This class is pretty easygoing and ideal for beginners or anyone who wants a casual cooking class.
Best Chimney Cake Workshops
Downtown Pest is packed with chimney cake kiosks and delicatessens, you don’t need to go far to find one and there are modern ones that put ice cream and other nontraditional toppings into your cakes. They are the perfect guilty pleasure, the diet-cheating snack that you must try. But instead of buying one, what if you tried your hand at making a kürtőskalács yourself?
Chimney cake workshops are very popular in Budapest, and there are very good options if you want to learn how these tasty desserts are made. It is a family friendly food adventure, and at the end you can either eat your chimney cake on the spot or take it away to eat later.
The Chimney Cake Baking Workshop at Kató Néni Finomságai is one of the best out there. It is a family run business, centrally located, and you build 3 chimney cakes in a class.
The Bespoke Adventure Makers have a budget-friendly chimney cake workshop, the Chimney Cake DIY Workshop. It is family-friendly, and runs you through all the basics of chimney cake building.
Perhaps the most professional chimney cake workshop, the Chimney Cake Baking Class is run by Cooking Hungary and creates full-sized, authentic cakes that you can recreate at home.