Cafés & Restaurants

Where to go for food on a Sunday night after an evening in sleepy Buda? Most people will tell you to head for the "Pancake Palace" - the Nagyi Palacsinasója, or just "Nagyi Pali" as their fans call it. It's just off the Danube, not far from the M2 Metro's Batthyány tér station.

Now, since you are in Hungary, common sense should tell you that while you are at a restaurant whose name translates to "The Pancake Palace" you really shouldn't be expecting a huge stack of blueberry flapjacks topped with a big pad of gently melting butter and Vermont maple syrup pouring down the side of the stack in perfect symmetry like some fucking Aunt Jemima commercial.

However, like me, you're from America. And we know what pancakes REALLY are, don't we? Bizony!

Well we're not in Kansas anymore, Bozo. Here in Budapest you will have to re-think what a pancake is. What you get at the Nagyi Palacsinasója are really crépes - two more or less separate menus segregated between sweet and savory options. You can have a Brokkolis-csirkés (Chicken and Broccoli) or Mexikói-húsos (meaty Mexican) "pancake" generously topped with téjföl (sour cream) for a main course, and follow it up with a yummy Mogyorókrémes (Hungarian Nutella) or Pudingos gyümölcsös (Fruit Pudding) for dessert.

The prices are certainly agreeable here - most items on the menu are under a dollar. This is why it's so popular with Budapesti, whose wages are still trying to catch up with inflation. Of course you're getting light fare, but a couple of crepes for a couple of bucks has to be considered a fine bargain anywhere on the globe.

This may be why everybody who comes here is so excited they can barely restrain themselves from pulling out their Szankovits knives and carving up the heavy wooden tables with entreaties of love. Szeretünk, Nagyi Palacsinasója.