The UK group needed food tonight, but all the restaurants we wanted to eat at on the spur of the moment were playing coy. Yes, we could be seated, were were told at Menza - if we wanted to wait at the bar for two hours.
So we decided to head towards XIII district. Possibility of some interesting eateries, and the walk is entertaining on a Friday night for the visitor, through a Teréz körút crowded with all forms of Budapest life.
On our way we ran into the Noa Grill House. Looked interesting, and we noticed that there were some tables open. We decided to check it out.
From the outside signage and slick graphics on the menus and table cards, Noa Grill House looks like it would have to be part of a foreign restaurant chain. But it is in fact a local restaurant, with a sister café down the street near Nyugati Palyaudvar.
The food was surprisingly good. I didn't have much expectation of this place, figured it was just a decent place to take 4 starving people from out of town. But it was very nice, and though it has a few entrees on the menu that break the 4000 forint ($20) barrier, the price is reasonable for the quality. The menu features Hungarian classics and more universal cosmopolitan fare if you're tired of magyar comfort food.
They also have televisions on the walls.
Yes. Really. TV. In a restaurant.
THERE SHOULD NEVER, EVER BE A TELEVISION IN A RESTAURANT!
Television in a bar? Fine. Always nice to go someplace to meet with the lads and watch some World Cup action or see the San Francisco Giants put a beating on the L. A. Dodgers. Those big plasma screens serve their purpose well when you want to focus on the action over a few rounds. But that's for bars - not restaurants.
A restaurant is where you meet with friends, catch up, enjoy some food together, share jokes and stories. No matter how addicted you are to TV, you have to think it a mite odd that you yourself would take the trouble to sit in a public place with your special people only to space out on a monitor on the wall above the bar while they tell you about their lives.
This one guy I saw at Noa Grill spent the whole time with his glazed eyes staring over the shoulder of his girlfriend, totally ignoring her as he watched some spiky-haired dipshit on Megasztar sing "Careless Whisper". Grounds for breakup?
Four satisfied diners a little tired of hearing about the evil of television screens in restaurants
And now I will keep mum and won't say anything about the food at Noa Grill House. I'll come back and write about their delicious Chicken with Lemon Grass and Winter Mushrooms over Jasmine Rice in more detail after they've ripped those damn things off the walls. Get a clue, Mr. Cohen!
