🇭🇺Budapest, Hungary
The Gulyás Pilgrimage
The original goulash - a brothy, paprika-deep beef soup-stew with potatoes and little pinched dumplings. Nothing like the brown gloop the name became abroad.
Why this dish?
Gulyás means "herdsman," and the dish is cattle-herders' food: beef simmered with onions, a serious quantity of Hungarian sweet paprika, tomato, peppers, potatoes and caraway, often with tiny pinched csipetke dumplings, served as a hearty soup rather than a thick stew. (The dense brown "goulash" of British canteens is a distant, distorted cousin.) It's warming, deeply savoury and gloriously red from the paprika.
Paprika is Hungary's national obsession, and gulyás is its showcase - best eaten in Budapest, a city of grand thermal baths, faded-grand cafés and lively ruin bars straddling the Danube. Fly in, have a proper bowl with crusty bread and a glass of Hungarian red (or a shot of pálinka), soak in a thermal bath, and you've had one of Central Europe's most characterful days out.
Our Picks
Gettó Gulyás
- Address
- Wesselényi utca 18, Budapest
- What to order
- The gulyás (as a soup), and maybe a pörkölt (the thicker paprika stew) to compare; a glass of Hungarian red.
- Book ahead
- Worth booking - small and popular.
- Pro tip
- Gulyás is the soup; pörkölt is the stew. Order both if you're hungry and want to taste the difference locals care about.
Kádár Étkezde
Klauzál tér 9, Budapest
A classic lunchtime canteen serving Hungarian home cooking the old way - cash-only and lunch-only.
- What to order
- Whatever the day's home cooking is, plus a paprika dish; old-school, generous and cheap.
Good to know
Real gulyás is a soup; the thick stew is "pörkölt" - knowing the difference earns a nod. Paprika comes sweet ("édes") and hot ("erős"); pick your heat. Pair with Hungarian wine (Egri Bikavér, "Bull's Blood") or a pálinka. The Danube splits Buda (hilly, castle) from Pest (flat, nightlife); the thermal baths (Széchenyi) are a must.
Your day plan
Wheels up to wheels down.
Flight goals - what you're aiming for
- 07:00Depart London
- 10:25Land Budapest
- 11:05Bus + metro into the centre (40 min)
- 11:45The Danube embankment, the Parliament, the Chain Bridge
- 12:45Gulyás lunch at Gettó Gulyás
- 14:15Buda Castle hill, or a soak at the Széchenyi thermal baths
- 16:00Coffee and cake in a grand café (or a ruin-bar drink)
- 17:00Metro/bus back to the airport
- 18:30Depart Budapest
- —Leave well-fed and ready for the journey
