The best neighborhood bars Hungary

Timetable

Cafés and patisseries are open between 7am/8pm and 5pm/6pm and often serve breakfast, pastries, snacks and even lunch menus. Bars in Budapest and other major cities close around midnight/2am.

Budget & Tips

A drink/coffee won't cost you much more than €3. Hungarians like to drink beer by the pint (less than €3), bearing in mind that the best-known Hungarian beers - Soproni, Dreher, Arany Aszok - are fairly light, rather unremarkable blondes. But craft beer has made a big breakthrough in the capital. Hungary is also a great wine-growing country: wine lovers, you're in for a treat! Bear in mind that clubs and bars, and even cafés and tea rooms, do not always accept payment by credit card (which is becoming increasingly rare).

Age restrictions

Eighteen is the legal drinking (and smoking) age in Budapest and throughout Hungary.

What's very local

It's a must to try the delights of traditional tea rooms(cukrászda) and local pastry shops, where you can enjoy a coffee accompanied by one of these delicacies: dobos torta; eszterházy torta; krémes; rákóczi túrós; rétes, a kind of strudel; or zserbó. As for pogácsa, although sweet or savory, they are eaten as snacks or aperitifs. Hungarians eat them throughout the day, often for breakfast, with meals or even as a snack between meals.

Popular Budapest bars are often located underground, in a cellar that can be reached from the street (for söröző or borozó, or "PMU" neighborhood bars). They are frequented, depending on the establishment, by young students and less fortunate workers alike. A handful of ruin bars (bars located in old, abandoned or crumbling buildings, which have been creatively and eclectically refurbished, with the idea of preserving the building's aged appearance while adding a quirky, artistic ambience) are popular with Hungarians, but most are now almost universally popular with tourists.

Kids

If they don't drink, children can accompany their parents to bars without any problems.

Smokers

Smoking is not permitted inside.