Rukkola, a small salad bar near Kálvin tér, dismisses the prejudice according to which salad is not suitable for streetfood: in fact this is exactly its concept. The establishment, whose kitchen is half a step from the sales counter and with space for hardly more than four or five guests between its four walls, sells its salads packaged in paper boxes for takeaway.

A colourful mix

Currently there are 11 completely different salad recipes on the menu and Instead of bearing fancy names they each have a colour. There is the purple salad box, for example, which contains a mix of tomatoes, red cabbage, red onions, bell peppers, pumpkin seeds and honey-mustard dressing. Then there is the pink box with tomatoes, rocket, corn, olives, tuna, paprika and a balsamic dressing.

Besides leaf salads Rukkola offers two noodle salads, a purely vegetarian (green box) and one prepared with chicken breast (grey box). Most of the boxes are sold for a wallet-friendly HUF 990, and if you throw in an additional HUF 500 you can purchase the premium offers with even more promising ingredients such as salmon, pomegranates or fresh strawberries.

If you need some more time to get accustomed to consuming salad, you can try one of Rukkola’s sandwiches, available in four different versions: salmon, four-cheese, honey-mustard-chicken or Black-forest-ham.
Many clients drop in in the mornings to taste their home-made lemonades and coffee specialties. A loyalty card earns a free coffee after having purchased seven.

A healthy alternative to pizza and co.

The idea to open a streetfood restaurant specialising in healthy salads mainly comes from the personal experience of co-founder Bence Daróczi. He used to study near the location of the restaurant, and he knows what kind of expectations students have today in terms of food.

“There are many restaurants in this neighbourhood – especially cheap fast-food restaurants and streetfood shops – but they mostly only offer pasta, pizza and burgers,” Daróczi says. “There are hardly any healthy alternatives. However, it’s especially important for a student, who spends the whole day listening to lectures or studying in the library, to eat healthy and light food.”

He founded Rukkola in November 2015 with this twin brother and three friends, most of whom he met in university.
Rukkola is not Daróczi’s first entry in the world of gastronomy. In 2014 he and his twin brother opened the sandwich bar Lokal Twinz in nearby Bródy Sándor utca. When the twins were asked to share their know-how at the opening of another restaurant, they did not hesitate.

“The recipes, the design of the store and the concept are mostly coming from me and my brother,” Daróczi says. “Our co-founders helped with the financing.” He even designed the logo, which has a reversed letter “R” in its name.
Daróczi is considering not only opening further branches but also setting up a delivery service to homes and offices.

Rukkola has become a popular meeting point for health-conscious students in the neighbourhood, and more and more office workers are discovering it for themselves too. Although salad does not count as a traditional main dish, the hearty portions weighing around 400 grams should make most people feel like the little goat in the Grimm fairytale “The Wishing Table”, which bleats with satisfaction: “I am so full, I can’t eat a leaf more!”.

Rukkola

1 Baross utca, District VIII
Open Monday to Saturday 9.30am-7pm
Pre-orders at (+36) 70 645-7860
www.facebook.com/rukkolabudapest

Prices:
Salads: HUF 990-1490
Sandwiches: HUF 790-990
Drinks: HUF 300-480

Source: The Budapest Times

Republished with permission