Date: February 19, 2011
Adventure #46
For a Saturday lunchtime outing, my friends and I opted to head back in time via Kádár Étkezde - a Jewish/Hungarian restaurant in the heart of Budapest's VII District. This eatery has been more or less unchanged since Communist times and still draws a loyal lunch crowd. The cozy restaurant is composed of tightly packed tables with red and white checked table cloths protected by plastic covers.
Its wainscot walls are decorated with mismatched framed pictures of local celebrities, old maps and and
hilariously timeworn signs, like this one that barely divides smokers from the non-smokers. (A wise Hungarian friend once told me that non-smoking sections in Budapest restaurants are like having designated non-peeing lanes in a swimming pool.)Fortunately, I came to lunch with veterans of the establishment, because there are a few rules every patron should know Kadar's dining rituals:
- Each table has a bottle of seltzer water. Pour yourself glasses of water, but be sure to count them, because you are charged Ft 50 per glass (25 cents).
- You must also count how many pieces of bread you consume, because, like the water, you are charged per slice Ft 30 (10 cents).
- At the end of your meal, you must go to the front of the restaurant to pay the owner who is dressed in a white shirt and pants like a sanatorium worker. Precisely recite everything you ate down to the last piece of bread and glass of water, while he adds up the total on a slip of paper. If you seem to be underestimating your consumption, he will interrogate you.
I came to the restaurant specifically to try a traditional Hungarian meal of a goose leg and sólet, a Jewish bean stew. It was every bit as tasty as its reputation promised, and it made me pleased that I finally got to enjoy a Magyar institution. Plus, the fact that the owner didn't question my eating habits was a major boon.
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