Restaurant Review: Alabárdos, Budapest 1st District

Atmosphere:
Alabárdos, or halberdier i.e. the guy who wields one of those scary-looking medieval pole axe weapons, is cozy, intimate and comfortable, that’s once you’ve assured yourself that the arsenal of medieval weaponry on display overhead is safely secured to the wall plaster, so said our American Magyar guest who has a penchant for medieval history. He opined that it doesn’t feel particularly Hungarian, though the name and arsenal-décor in the 500-year old gothic house setting capture some of the militaristic flavor and siege mentality of the Castle Hill.

Who to take:
While thankfully none of the suspended halberds or sabres are used as eating utensils, a number of other creative means are found to convey the offerings from kitchen to palate.

This sort of flexible unorthodox attitude makes it a lovely place to take a strict sort of person whom you basically like but wouldn’t mind taking down a notch or two. For example, the Cream soup of asparagus with basil oil came in a narrow and tall glass, which makes for an interesting personality test -  do you drink it because that’s what you do with a glass, do you use a spoon since that’s how you eat soup, or do you go ahead and ask them so that you don’t make a fool out of yourself?

The latter is the approach we took and the answer, it seems, is eat it anyway you like, since customer satisfaction is the thing that matters here. However, you can sit back and indulge in a spot of wicked fun while watching your boss or your mother-in-law figuring out what to do with the soup in the glass or whatever; that’s after you have had a couple of practice sessions yourself, of course.

What we ate:
Regulars are often known to put their trust in the creative hands of chef Attila Bicsár, which is precisely what we did, although the restaurant also serves a seasonal ingredient-driven four-course meal for €52 or €62, or a five-course meal for €60 or €70, the higher prices applying when the main course is game (both exclude wine). Our culinary adventure centred around combinations of expressive, and very importantly fresh, flavors that seemingly wouldn’t work if you tried them at home but, however, came up trumps. 

To kick off, Duck breast hit it off with beetroot and carrot purée. The use of spring-picked rhubarb in the Grilled goose liver with rhubarb, orange jelly and walnut oil-mixed baby green salad added playful sweet and sour layers to the truly melt-in-your-mouth goose liver. Pike-perch from Lake Balaton with saffron sauce and fresh asparagus went as far as making our guest, a life-long asparagus hater, reconsider his views on pungent urine. 

Incidentally, the fish and everything else comes from Hungary, which in the case of fish is brave but the pike perch was every bit as exquisite as high-end sea fish. The exciting combinations continued all the way to the desert, which included the unlikely sounding but delicious Basil-flavored vanilla sorbet. All the way through the meal, our sommelier was on hand with excellent wine pairings (see related article). All in all a very pleasurable evening and our guest will be taking his father there.

Alabárdos
1014 Budapest, Országház u. 2.
Phone: 356-0851
Open: Mon – Fri 7pm-11pm,
Sat noon-4pm and 7pm-11pm"

Published with permission from the source: Budapest Business Journal