As part of afamily lunch in Budapest, my wife and I chose a starred restaurant in the city, Essencia, located near the basilica and its very nice Christmas market.
A look back at this disappointing experience. As a reminder, here is the itinerary followed:
The concept
The recently starredrestaurant is based on a Hungarian-Portuguese fusion. Interesting on paper.
The setting
The decoration of the restaurant is very pleasant. Totally up to date, it is composed of light wood furniture, and Portuguese reminders distributed in the restaurant like a beautiful wall of azulejos.
The menu
Having visited the restaurant at lunchtime, the property offers a lunch menu, with a choice of 2 or 3 courses.
We will opt for the 3 courses formula fora little more than 17€ (yes, in a starred restaurant…) but with many supplements for some dishes.
The meal and the dishes
As a starter, I choose theMangalicsa ham, a very high quality pork, served with a toast of sourdough bread and black olives. Good, but very far from the level expected from a Michelin-starred property.
For the main course, I choose theseafood rice, which is quite good but rather nauseating. Flavors that don’t play well together.
For dessert, I chose a lemon tart, which was certainly good, but not particularly dazzling.
The service
The service is very good and attentive.
The atmosphere
The restaurant was almost deserted when we visited, but we had a good time with our family.
Bottom line
A beautiful place, but a very disappointing culinary experience. Not at all worthy of a Michelin star.
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