Miksa Café Ökobisztró opened on Falk Miksa Street last year, offering a variety of affordable health-boosting delicacies. After getting over the initial difficulties of operating a modern Budapest business with a strict dedication to environmentalism, the place quickly evolved to achieve its lofty goal: everything is recycled, procured from small producers, or just green and very positive.

The bistro consists of a small ground floor and an upper floor with a children’s corner, and also a sidewalk terrace with a few tables, which is a great spot in the summertime, since the tables are in the shade almost all day thanks to the healthy trees lining Falk Miksa Street – a beautiful lane near the Parliament House best known for its high-caliber art galleries.

The interior design of Miksa Café Ökobisztró continues this aesthetic appeal with playful shelves made from scrap wood and reused suitcases, but the star of this place is the counter, where we can buy sandwiches, fruit parfaits, and lunch menus that cost 1,250 forints. This latter offer always includes a soup and a main dish, such as turnip pottage with a sunny-side-up egg, mustard Mangalica spare ribs with bulgur, Romaine lettuce with smoked ewe cheese, and so on.

The sandwiches are also exciting, and cost 600-800 forints – which might seem as a high price at first, but we must consider the quality of the ingredients. The locally baked buns hide delicious treats, like Mangalica spare ribs, buffalo sausage, or salami made with Hungarian Grey cattle. The selection is constantly changing, depending on what ingredients they can obtain at the time, guaranteeing continual freshness.

Naturally, dishes are designed for people with all types of special diets and eating preferences, with their ingredients clearly marked to help customers choose: GF = gluten-free, LF= lactose-free, SF = sugar-free, V = vegetarian, P = paleo.

Moreover, there are plenty of other eco-friendly products to purchase here, like oils, creams, and cleaning products made from natural ingredients – which are frequently used to clean the shop as well, even though the management frequently has to fight about this with the authorities, who consider toxic bleach as a more effective cleanser than, say, tea-tree oil.

Another important mission of Miksa Café Ökobisztró is to display that everyday environmental awareness is important, especially when considering what we eat and whether we sort our trash for recycling. They take this mission so seriously that, for example, there are eco-diapers in the built-in changing table, meaning these have no label on them (the dye can be harmful) and are made from biodegradable materials.

In addition to protecting the environment, Miksa Cafe has plenty of other plans for the future: such as the organization of slam-poetry evenings, starting a home-delivery service, and the catering to other special dietary needs.

Address: Budapest 1055, Falk Miksa Street 5
Opening hours: Monday - Friday, 7am - 5pm

Published on XpatLoop.com with the permission of We Love Budapest