budaveg – vegetarian Hungary your vegetarian home in Hungary

A short walk from the körút and Blaha Lujza tér, you’ll find the newest veggie eatery in an Indian cultural centre. It is in a small street just off Almássy tér.

The staff were very kind and welcoming and explained our choices: normally they have a soup,  one or two subjis, rice, pakoras, a Hungarian dish, a salad and cakes. You can buy a meal or set menus, raging from student (small 630 Hufs) to maharaja (everything they have for 1980 Hufs). Most dishes are lacto vegetarian, but there are always vegan options. Interestingly when we were there everything was vegan!

We had chickpea soup with peanuts, aubergine subji with rice and salad, small veggie burgers and pakoras on a skewer. I really loved the soup and the pakoras, so much that I bought a couple more to take home for the children.

This is the “bharata menu” and pakoras, it was very filling and great value for 1400 Hufs!

Bharata
Bharata Cultural Centre is the new home of Indian culture and cuisine: it offers yoga, ayurvedic medicine, meditation, dance and music courses,  and soon cooking classes! The cafe has special offers at the moment with really friendly prices. All food is lacto vegetarian or vegan. There are set menus, special offers for students, lassis and sweets.
Budapest 1074. Almássy tér – Tivadar u. 3.
Open: Monday-Friday:  12:00-8.pm; Saturday 6pm-9pm, Sunday closed
http://bharata.hu/bisztro.html

I have some very pleasant news, 3 new vegetarian restaurants have recently opened in Budapest. I haven’t had the good fortune to check them out yet, but I hope I can post some reviews soon!

Ganges

The Ganga Vega Cafe has a big brother now, a restaurant close to Octogon. They offer delicious vegetarian food, Indian menus, and healthy options. They offer home delivery too.
1064 Budapest Vörösmarty utca 31.
gangesetterem@gmail.com
+36.30.5306368; +36.70.6338981
www.ganges.hu
Open M-Saturday 12- 8 pm

Bharata

Bharata Cultural Centre is the new home of Indian culture and cuisine: it offers yoga, ayurvedic medicine, meditation, dance and music courses,  and soon cooking classes! The cafe has special offers at the moment with really friendly prices. All food is lacto vegetarian. There are set menus, special offers for students, lassis and sweets. Can’t wait to try!
Budapest 1074. Almássy tér – Tivadar u. 3.
Open: Monday-Friday:  12:00-8.pm; Saturday 6pm-9pm, Sunday closed

Hummus Bar

There is a new vegetarian hummus bar just a few minutes from the budaveg vegetarian B&B, at  Hollán Ernő utca 6. James had a Falafel plate and was very pleased with it.
Open: Monday-Friday 10-10pm Saturday Sunday: 12-10 pm
Tel: 06 70 932 8284

Mannatural 

This lovely vegan raw food restaurant has moved! Just a few minutes from the previous location to 1054 Budapest, Garibaldi u. 5. They also offer an “all you can eat buffet” lunch for 3000 HUF and dinner for 5000 HUF on weekdays. Please call or email to reserve for dinner: 06-20-776-9843, info@mannatural.hu, just pop in for lunch.

This means we have now 22 vegetarian restaurants and cafes in Budapest, pretty amazing! I have just updated the restaurants page and our ebook accordingly, which you can get by subscribing to our mailing list. We hardly ever send out any emails, and you can safely unsubscribe any time.

At the moment two lovely Italian girls are staying at the budaveg apartment, one of them, Chiara translated our website to Italian and we are very happy to give her and her friend a week’s stay in return! The are very busy during the day exploring Budapest, the museums and the christmas market, but last night we all went out to Napfényes Étterem, probably the nicest vegan restaurant in town.
The restaurant belong to a Rudolf Steiner inspired movement, and they promote healthy vegan food and lifestyle. They also have a vegan patisserie, organize cooking and lifestyle courses issue beautifully illustrated cook books and have a small health food store at the restaurant.


You’ll find there a fantastic selection of vegan dishes: soup, pizzas, pasta dishes, traditional Hungarian dishes, puddings and cream cakes from their patisserie, salads, and an impressive range of organic juices and teas.

We would have had a lovely time if our children hadn’t run amok in the restaurant; they were running up and down in and out of the kitchen screaming with delight. So much for lethargic veggie kids! Luckily the staff not only put up with it but even gave them some coloured pencils and paper and played with them to give us a breather and a chance to eat our delicious meals. Taking pictures is not my forte especially when I have to run after my kids. This is the only moment they actually sat on their bums.

James chose vegan breaded cheese with rice and peas, and tartar sauce, Lita chose “Fried Pancakes Filled with Vegetable Cream served with Mashed Potatoes and Onions”, Chiara and I went for the vegan Brassói with Lecsó, which is called “Ratatouille Seitan Cutlets” on the menu, and the kids got half portions each of yesterday’s special: Mixed Vegetable Pakora with Mashed Potatoes. The vegan Brassói with Lecsó is my favourite dish: lots of chips and seitan in a great spicy sauce! Here is a close up of the table:

The prices are great, mains are between 1500-2000 Hufs. We had a lovely time, but probably won’t go there (or any other restaurant) till they are at least ten, or go without them. So please it is your turn to dine out in style at a lovely vegan restaurant!
I’d like to thank the staff again for being so super nice!

Address: Rózsa u 39, District VII Tram: 4/6 at Király utca and walk, or 76 trolley bus.
Open: every day 9am-10pm
Vegan, non smoking, no alcohol, sells health food too
English menu, English spoken.
http://www.napfenyesetterem.hu/

This has been one of my favourite places since it opened, a real gem in the city. Napos Oldal is very conveniently located between Octogon and Nyugati tér easy to pop in when I am running errands or on the way to the cinema in the evening. The name means “sunny side” and it’s surprisingly sunny due to the corner location.

Half of the premises is a veggie cafe, the other half is a health food shop, selling everything from seitan to organic cosmetics. They have a wide selection of fresh salads, baked and fried vegetables, sandwiches and cakes. There is a different soup and main dish every day, you can see the daily offers on their website. There is also a wide selection of teas and other drinks. The menu  is almost always vegan, and the majority of the salads and sandwiches are too. My favourite is the seitan sandwich, and these are pre-packed so you can easily and quickly take them away.

They do a wide range of cakes from sugar free candida cakes to real patisserie beauties and none of the cakes (or dishes) contain eggs, yeast or white sugar. Obviously a real heaven for the health conscious or candida sufferers. Also the ingredients are  roughly 30% organic.

I chose two types of salads, bulghur and potato, a vegetable pie, a vegetable pancake, a carrot and walnut cake and a cup of green tea  for my lunch. Firstly the cups are BIG, which I just love, I love tea and I find small cups annoying, why go stingy on water?! The food was delicious and filling, the cake was a “healthy” cake, so not too sweet, but I like it that way.

You order at the counter, all the signs are in English, and you pay at the health food counter on the way out, I think it is great that you don’t need to queue twice if you want to buy anything. There is a nice and very light seating are with 5 tables, it was busy at lunchtime, but I always had a seat, as many buy takeaway.

Napos oldal is an amazingly peaceful place right in the middle of the city, highly recommended!
 
Address: Jókai u. 7. Metro: Nyugati tér on blue line or tram: 4/6 at Nyugati tér or Oktogon
Open: Monday- Friday 10 am till 8 pm, Saturday 10 am till 2 pm.
Tel: 1-3540048
http://www.naposoldal.com/

I was over the moon when I found this little veggie place a few minutes walk from our newly established veggie B&B in 2003 and I became a patron immediately. I just got hooked on their warm spinach pita bread, spinach is my favourite vegetable and I can’t have it too often.

The place is tiny, with only 4 chairs and 2 tables outside in summer, but I always managed to get a seat since most customers just pick up their food and eat in their office.
There is a lovely selection of sandwiches, warm pita breads, salads, and one or two main dishes a day and some desserts. They also offer water, fresh fruit juices, cocktails and teas. There is always a vegan and a macrobiotic option. The dishes are very imaginative, Indian, Hungarian, Italian and so on.  The food is free from additives and preservatives and filled with their loving care!
They make the sandwiches in the shop, the salads and the mains are made in their home delivery kitchen and arrive in the shop around 12. There is normally warm food till 3.30 or 4.00, but you can get sandwiches from 11.00-5.00.

I popped in at 11 just as they were opening up, I normally get up at the crack of dawn so by 11 I am usually famished and the nice girl behind the counter was very understanding and warmed up the previous day’s lecsó, my favourite traditional Hungarian food! It was delicious and just the right spiciness- we Hungarians love our paprika!

I was on my way to the airport to pick up a couple of omnivorous friends from Denmark, so I bought 4 sandwiches as well, two mozzarella tomato and two parmesan rucola baguettes, they were a massive hit and very good value for 690 Hufs!

Nem süti 
small sandwich bar, five minutes walk from the budaveg apartment right next to Margit Bridge,

Address: Jászai Mari tér 4./b (Pozsonyi u). Metro: Nyugati tér on blue line, tram: 4/6 at Jászai Mari tér
Open: Mon-Fri 11am-5pm
Ovo-lacto-veggie
http://www.nemsuti.hu/
https://www.facebook.com/nemsuti

Hummus bar is a franchise with 3 restaurants in Budapest, all very conveniently located in downtown and all offering a wide range of vegan food. The bar in Alkotmány utca is vegetarian, and the one in Kecskeméti and Október 6 utca are “normal” as they say on their website, which is probably not “normal” to us but they also offer a very good veggie selection.

They have hummus dishes, sandwiches, salads, soups and desserts and different hot and cold drinks. I had lunch at the Kecskeméti utca Hummus Bar the other day, I had a falafel plate with mint tea, the service was a bit on the slow side but the stuff was excellent. It has both indoor and outdoor seating and since Kecskeméti utca has restricted traffic it was very pleasant and metropolitan to eat on the pavement area and enjoy the city.

Hummus bar 
Middle Eastern vegan friendly cafes, (but only one is exclusively vegetarian) now at three locations.
English menu, English spoken.
www.hummusbar.hu


Address: V. ker. Október 6. str. 19 Vegetarian friendly
Open: Monday-Friday 11.30-10pm Saturday Sunday: 12-10 pm
Tel: 3540108

Address: V. ker. Kecskeméti str. 1 Vegetarian friendly
Open: Monday-Friday 10-10pm Saturday Sunday: 12-10 pm
Tel+36 (70) 932-8284

Address:1054 Budapest, Alkotmány utca 20 Metro Arany János utca (blue) Vegetarian
Open: Monday-Friday 10-10 pm, Saturday-Sunday 12-10 pm
Tel: 302-13-85

We have been long time fans of the restaurant Napfényes Ízek- Sunny Tastes, they have superb vegan food and amazing vegan cakes. A few years ago they opened a vegan patisserie bit off the beaten track on the Buda side of the Árpád bridge. First they only sold entire cakes on order -which is great if you or a budaveg guest has a birthday- and delivered cakes to health food stores around town. We tried they vegan chocolate birthdaycake once and it was absolutely delicious and fooled non vegans thinking it was a “proper cream cake”!

A few month ago they opened a tiny shop right next door and now you can buy individual slices and ice cream. They are only licensed to sell cake, so it is not a real patisserie; there is no tea or coffee, and no seating area indoors, it is mainly to take away and to try the different tastes before you decide on your birthday or wedding cake.


I popped in the other day to pick up some treats for our family. There were four different ice creams and several different cakes, cream cakes and savoury ones. The lady was super friendly and we had a good chat about ingredients. All is vegan of course and they don’t use preservatives, colourants and artificial sweeteners. They use carob instead of chocolate,  cane sugar instead of beet sugar, and they use spelt wheat in many cakes, they also had gluten free millet cakes. Also they prepare some cakes with xylitol which has an amazing list of benefits, I am so impressed that I decided to try using it at home too.

I got “krémes” which is a custard cake and sacher torte- a jam filled chocolate cake, both very traditional in Hungary. The  ”krémes” was almost like a real one, really creamy, lovely taste, the sacher was also very delicious, though it didn’t remind us of the sacher but rather an English Christmas pudding. Yumm, just look at our daughter:

Napfényes Cukrászda
1037 Budapest, Kiskorona u. 8.
Tel: 06-1-242-3229, 06-20-315-3333
http://www.napfenyescukraszat.hu/ 

Open: Monday-Sunday 10-6 pm

A vegan restaurant where the chef doesn’t do any cooking? Intriguing, isn’t it? This was my first raw food restaurant experience, since this is the first raw foodie place in Budapest. Raw food for most of us means salad with fresh juice but here I was presented with a selection of  main courses and cakes.

Mannatural is well hidden in a small market building though right in the city centre a few minutes from Arany János metro stop. There is a seating area at the bar and at big stone tables and the place is surprisingly sunny!

They had two main dishes on offer and I chose the stuffed paprika with sweetcorn sauce and salad, which was very tasty. I dived in and only remembered to take a photo after I had eaten half of it. But click on the photo and it will take you to the Mannatural album on flickr with some pro images of their dishes. Around me every other customer was eating the chocolate cake which looked really delicious but it was one of the rare moments of my life when I just didn’t fancy a pudding. (No I wasn’t sick just had an ice cream half an hour earlier). I asked a friendly guy next to me at the table and he confirmed that it was indeed just as yummy as it looked.

Ákos, the manager was behind the bar and was happy to answer my questions about the food and the restaurant. They opened 5 weeks ago and at the moment they only open at lunchtime, however they have now an area on the first floor as well where they are going to hold active and passive raw food classes- which means you can watch and eat or prepare the food with the chef. Also in November they open their raw, vegan patisserie!

They also do home delivery, you can check the actual offer on their website.
He assured me that they are vegan, the only exception is honey in the lemonade. 80% of the ingredients come from organic sources and they in fact have 3 organic (biodynamic)  gardens around the capital from where they get their fruit, vegetables and honey. All food is made of fresh sprouts, grains and vegetables and special blenders and ceramic knives are used for the preparation. They have a blog in Hungarian with great recipes.

Mannatural is in this market building, the entrance is from Hold utca or Vadász utca.

Address: 1054 Budapest, Hold u. 13
Open:  M-F: 11:00-15:00
http://www.mannatural.net/index.php?oldal=fooldal

Bio ABC is one of the best equipped organic food shops in Budapest and right next door they run a cute little vegan eatery and juice bar.  They are on the “little ring road” between Kálvin Square and Astoria.

This is a vegan eatery, with the exception of honey in some cakes, and the majority of the ingredients are from organic sources. They do salads, fresh fruit and vegetable juices and couple of warm dishes a day. Today for example they had carrot, apple, beetroot, melon, orange and sand thorn juice. There were soups, and three main dishes, all vegan of course. I chose the special offer (which you can always check on their website) and it was potato, squash stew, tofu, grain burger and salad; it was 850 Hufs, very tasty and quite a good deal, don’t you think?


I also got a plum strudel for pudding; 350 Hufs. There were a selection of cakes, some sugar free, some made with cane sugar. My plum strudel was delicious, full of real fruit.

They seem to follow the Rudolf Steiner “grain of the day” in their menu- with one exception: on Thursday they have buckwheat instead of rye. The small place was packed when I was there;  nice to know that so many are into vegan food in our corner of the world! There is only space for 6 chairs and many people get a  take-away, in fact all the food is prepared by 10 am and people are encouraged to pick up their lunch early to avoid queueing.

Address: Múzeum krt 19.
Phone: +3613173043
Open: 9am-6pm
http://www.bioabc.hu/

Just a 5 minute walk from the budaveg vegetarian apartment you can find the nearest vegetarian cafe: Keleti Életmód Centrum.

It is in fact a lot more than a cafe: it is an alternative health centre, a health food shop and an organic vegetarian cafe. They serve organic fruit and vegetable juices, coffee, teas, salads, sandwiches, pizzas, warm meals, healthy cakes, sugarfree deserts, organic ice cream, etc: there is food for vegans, diabetics, gluten intolerants, and people on a candida diet.  Most of the dishes are vegan, some lacto vegetarian, and they are always clearly marked. They aim to serve exclusively organic food, at the moment roughly 90% of what they serve is organic.
They open at 8 in the morning and offer a good breakfast selection: pastries, porridge, soya sausages, sandwiches and of course coffee and tea.

At lunchtime they have a set meal of two dishes, the menu changes from week to week, you can check the menu on their website or pick up the small flyers in the shop. You can call and order lunch in advance or just pop in but they are normally sold out of the set menu by 3 pm. I had a seitan sandwich, a langallo Hungarian style, a bit like a pizza with grain sausages, and a tofu-plum cake- all really delicious.

The cafe has a lovely atmosphere, small tables and nice decor, and lots of books to entertain you! In the summer you can sit outside and enjoy the breeze from the Danube and the nearby park, you can also ask for a takeaway.

The natural practitioners are upstairs offering everything from massage to kaballah and NLP.
The health food store is well stocked with vegan delights; soy and seitan sausages and slices, organic bread and pastries, juices, jams, glutenfree and diabetic products, organic fruit and vegetables.

They have a very generous loyalty card: for every 1000 hufs you spend, you’ll get a stamp- when you have 10 stamps you get a breakfast for two!

Open: weekdays 8 am-8 pm
1137 Budapest, Pozsonyi út 16.
Tel.: (1) 339-0209
info@eletmodcentrum.hu
http://www.eletmodcentrum.hu/