Where to eat breakfast in Budapest?

When you book a hotel in Budapest, you will very often find that your hotel has included a breakfast in the price. For some this is a requirement, and they never book a hotel where the breakfast is not included. Still, some people come to Budapest and have done a booking where the breakfast is not included. That might be a coincidence, which they only get to know about as they get to the hotel, or they might do it on purpose to taste more local cuisine and breakfasts.

I have often met tourists asking for advice concerning where to eat breakfast in Budapest. Some of them have booked room in a hotel without breakfast included, and as they find out that the price for breakfast per person per day often varies between 16-25 Euro (typical in hotels with 4-5 stars) they rather eat somewhere else. In this article I will simply come up with some advices on where to eat in central Budapest. There are lots of other places which could be good in Budapest, but since the general tourist likes to live in the center of Budapest, these places could all fit into that category, and just after breakfast you are ready to go shopping in the Vaci Utca (as all suggestions are located in or very close to that street).

Places for breakfast in Budapest

Gerbeaud

Gerbeaud has probably not got the best breakfast in Budapest, but they have some quite nice menus and they give you the chance to eat breakfast in the most famous confectionery of Budapest. On the menu you can find croissants, brekfast rolls, ham and cheese omelett, cold plate with hams and cheese and other stuff. Most menus have juice or coffee included and they cost between 1300-3500 HUF per person. In Gerbeaud they automatically ad 15% service fee to the bill in the end.

Szamos

On the other side of the Vörösmarty square, only 150 metres from Gerbeaud, Szamos confectionery is located. On their menu you will find continental breakfast (1990 HUF), French breakfast (1450 HUF), Hungarian breakfast (1990 HUF), ham and eggs (1050 HUF) and a wiener breakfast (1450 HUF). If you want to try out some different options, you should and could try a breakfast at Szamos in Budapest as well, but this would not be our first option if we only were to eat breakfast in Budapest once or twice.

Cyrano

If you walk along Vaci utca from Vörösmarty square towards the Grand Market Hall and take the first street to the left, you will find yourself at the Kristóf square. There you can find Cyrano, a nice restaurant with good food, and they also have a nice breakfast selection for those left without breakfast in their hotel or apartment. In Cyrano they do not only have typical breakfast options, but they also have some good cake options and their prices are better than at Szamos and Gerbeaud, meaning that most breakfast options cost between 800-1700 HUF. Drinks are not included in the prices. As you order your breakfast you also get a „free starter” which is some butter and a delicious jam, popular among young and old!

Fruccola

Opposite Cyrano you can find Fruccola, a place known for healthy and tasty breakfasts in Budapest. The place is not only ideal for breakfasts, but they also have a good selection of lunch offers, and some of the best prices in the area. On the menu you can find „Bagel, butter, jam with 0,2l juice” costing 970 HUF, „Muesli, honey, yoghurt, fruit” costing 790 HUF, „Omelet with salmon, cream cheese and chives” costing 990 HUF, English breakfast (990 HUF) and much, much more. If you want nice atmosphere, great prices and healthy stuff, Fruccola is probably the winner… and let us not forget that the location is perfect.

Another Fruccola is located in Arany Janos utca 32, making that the place to visit for people living in the area near the Hungarian Parliament (Hotel President, Iberostar, Hotel Parlament and lots of other hotels).

Gerloczy

This place is a bit hidden away, but it is located near Ferenciek Tere, and the exact address is Gerlóczy utca 1 (1052 Budapest). This place have croissants, ham and eggs, omelets, some more traditional Hungarian breakfast options and of course menus including your breakfast and some drink to it. The price of the menus vary between 1000-2500 HUF, while the single meals without drinks cost between 250-1500 HUF. Do not forget that Gerloczy is a nice place to return to later, so if you like the breakfast, you might even want to dry a lunch or dinner there later.

Other places for breakfast in Budapest

All places mentioned so far in this article are located very central in Budapest. Most tourists will not travel a long way with bus, metro, trams and so on to get to eat some breakfast. Still, if you want to eat in some other places, specially known for their superb breakfast in Budapest, we can recommend some of the following places:

Villa Bagatelle, Németvölgyi út 17, 1126 Budapest

Villa Bagatelle is located not far from the Deli railway station (southern). In the place they produce amazing bread and they have some real good brekfast offers. Not to many tourists located in this area, but if you stay in this area, check out this one!

Sarki Fűszeres, Pozsonyi út 53-55, 1137 Budapest

The 13th district in Budapest is getting more and more popular, and in this area you can find quite a lot of apartments, nice hotels and tourists walking around. One croissant in Sarki Füszeres cost 380 HUF, while a traditional English breakfast cost 1900 HUF.

Deryne Bistro, Krisztina tér 3, 1013 Budapest

To get to Deryne Bistro you simply need to walk through the tunnel opening from Clark Adam square (this is where the funicular is located). The prices are average, but they have a wide specter of food on the menu, so everyone should be able to find something to eat for breakfast.

Bock Bistro, Erzsébet körút 43-49, 1073 Budapest

This was a good place for a while, but they no longer serve breakfast, so if you are in this area, visit Szamos located 150 meters away from Bock Bistro instead. We not long ago visited Szamos instead of Bock (as Bock did no longer serve breakfast) and here you can read about our breakfast visit to Szamos.

Some last words
If you think the price of a breakfast in Budapest is expensive, then you should not forget to compare the prices with the actual prices you would have to pay for a breakfast in your hotel in Budapest. As I mentioned in the start many hotels charge 16-25 Euro for a breakfast. 16 Euro is at the moment 4560 HUF, meaning that at all the places mentioned you will get a large and tasty breakfast for the same price. Therefore our advice is to skip the breakfast in the hotel, and check out everything that Budapest has to offer, also when it comes to tasty, interesting and creative breakfasts.

Good luck, good appetite and jóétvágyat (as we would say in Hungary)!

Breakfast in Fruccola

Before visiting Fruccola to eat breakfast there we had only heard of the place as a healthy place with good breakfasts and lunches. There are currently two Fruccola’s in Budapest, one located at Kristof tér (just by Vaci Utca) and the other one in Arany Janos utca 32. Fruccola also have a slogan saying: „Fruccola makes us happy. Happy is good

English breakfast in Fruccola at Kristof square

Based on this I had quite high expectations as I went together with my wife to Fruccola to eat breakfast there. It is useful to know that Fruccola at Kristof tér normally opens at 7.00 in the morning and it is open until 20.00 from Monday – Saturday. Fruccola in Arany Janos utca is open from 7.00-19.00 from Monday – Friday.

Fruccola has a nice feeling to it and once you walk inside and look at what they have to offer you might get hungry in a minute (if you weren’t hungry already). The cheapest you can get in Fruccola is a croissant costing 240. We decided to go for something a bit more expensive, so we ordered an omelette with salmon, cream cheese and chives and besides that an English breakfast with baked beans (we skipped those though), grilled mushroom, tomato, bacon, eggs and sausage. To drink we had some fruit juice which was really tasty.

To the breakfast we got an okay portion of bread, though not the typical white bread, but tasty, fresh and maybe we can even call it healthy bread. Once the omelette and the English breakfast arrived we soon understood that if we eat all of this, we will not be eager to eat a lunch at 12.00. It was a lot, and especially the omelette had an extreme size. As far as I noticed the others in Fruccola who asked for other kinds of omelettes got something in the same size, so be prepared for large portions if you decide to eat an omelette in Fruccola. Personally I did not enjoy the cream cheese in my omelette that much, but since I ordered an omelette with salmon and cream cheese, I do not really have the right to complain.

Fruccola omelette with salmon and cream cheese

The fruit juice was delicious so if you ever visit Fruccola to eat a breakfast, you should try drink one or more of the fruit juices on the menu. Except from my little thing with the cream cheese everything was perfect, and we can warmly recommend locals and foreigners a breakfast in Frucciola. The price of our breakfast was about 3000 HUF, which is an average price for a breakfast in Budapest.

For more advices and thoughts, read our article named Breakfast in Budapest.