We travelled to Budapest for 3 days in April 2024, so we had the opportunity to try quite a few places with gluten free food. We had read that Budapest was one of the top cities in the world for eating gluten free…we’d like to respectfully disagree. We felt underwhelmed by much of what we tried. Just because it’s 100% gluten free doesn’t automatically make it good. Does it have a lot of dedicated restaurants? Yes. Were we wowed by the food we ate? No.
Another disappointment was that a lot of the 100% gluten free restaurants were cuisines other than Hungarian (many Italian places). We didn’t come all the way here to eat pizza! We want authentic food like non-gluten free travellers would get to try. Same with the gluten free bakeries – where’s the typical baked goods we see at all the glutinous places?! That’s what would make this an amazing gluten free city: gluten free traditional food and bakeries.
The best food we had was at Bohemtanya, hands down, including the sponge cake dessert (which was better than what we tried at the gluten free bakeries). A note that we did not get to try the gluten free chimney cakes, as only one place makes them, and only on Wednesdays and Fridays (which were not days we were in the city). I was pretty bummed, but at least I got to try one in Prague! I have included a map at the end of this post of everywhere I had researched that I considered safe to eat at, even if we didn’t get to eat there. Of course, do your own research, ask questions, and reach out to restaurants ahead of time where necessary.
Anyways, here’s where we ate in Budapest and our reviews:
Bohemtanya
This is a 100% gluten free restaurant with traditional dishes, that was so good we went here twice! We tried the paprika chicken with tiny dumplings, their in-house specialty chicken which was a breaded chicken with cheese on top and a bed of rice, chicken stuffed with prunes and camembert, and a fried cheese dish with tartar sauce. They were all good, but the specialty was our favourite. We also got dessert – we asked the waiter for his recommendation, and he said sponge cake. OMG, it was so good! I’d go back just for that. It was a chocolate sponge cake with almost a mascarpone? And chocolate drizzle, with a hint of some sort of liqueur. Yum!!! This was by far our best food experience in Budapest.
Retro Langos
While not 100% gluten free, they have separate kitchen and fryer for the gluten free Langos. They also have a separate menu, as some of the Langos toppings are not gluten free. They also take a bit longer to come out, so be patient! We had the vegetarian (sour cream, cheese, red onion, tomato, olives) and the plain cheese one. The dough was great, not heavy or greasy despite being fried. Our two flavours were a bit too similar, we wished we had been able to get the chicken for one of them (not gluten free, though). The Nutella would be good! This place is one of the few I’d say to make sure you schedule in your eating itinerary.
Free! A Glutenmetes Pekseg
One of Budapest’s 100% gluten free bakeries. They seem to specialize in bread and pastry-esque items like croissants, rolled pastry with filling (almost like a crunchier cinnamon bun?), and little cookies. No cakes or brownies or that type of thing (so no traditional torte cakes or poppyseed cakes). We got one croissant, two of the rolls that were filled with chocolate of some sort, and four of these little empanada looking things that were stuffed with prune jam. The small pastries with prune jam were quite flaky and buttery. I really liked the chocolate thing, though; chocolate is the way to my heart! Overall, if you’re in the area it’s worth a stop, but I personally wouldn’t trek all the way out here again just for this.
Free Place Cafe
Another 100% gluten free café and bakery. We went in the afternoon, and they were pretty picked over. I got a sandwich; the bread was good and not dry at all. To go we got a Hungarian punch cube at the server’s recommendation, which is a piece of cake in cube shape and pink icing of some kind on the top and fruit filling? It didn’t have much flavour and we were very underwhelmed. Overall, if you need somewhere safe to eat, you’ll find it here, but don’t expect fantastic flavours.
Franziska Buda
This is a cafe with gluten free options including pancakes and waffles. They have a second location on the Pest side. I had a smoothie bowl and Ahmed had a smoothie. Our big gripe here was that it was super pricey for what we got (we thought anyways) – $30 CAD for two smoothies! Overall, they seemed to have decent gluten free options, but I probably wouldn’t return unless I really needed somewhere safe to eat and nothing else was around.
Kata
A 100% gluten free restaurant that is also lactose free and has two locations (we went on the Pest side). We were excited to eat here as we had read great reviews. We had the paprika chicken with egg dumplings and the breaded chicken breast with mashed potatoes. There was not much flavour or seasoning in the dishes at all. The salads that came with the dishes had more flavour than the dishes themselves. It was super pricey given the portion size and lack of flavour. We’d be okay to pay that much if the food was fantastic, or the portions were bigger, but neither was the case. We also didn’t get good vibes from the server (felt very much like we were being judged for not ordering more food or dessert, but why would we when the main course was that bad?). We were noticing other patrons sent back food or didn’t finish their dishes either. Overall, we wouldn’t return.
Coli Bisztro
A (small) bakery and grocery store in one, this place is 100% gluten free and located near the train station. It would be a good spot to pick up grocery items on the way to your accommodations if you arrive in Budapest by train. They had granola, breads, cookies, and other packaged goods. We had hoped for more baked goods as we had read it had a bakery, but there were very few options, so we didn’t buy any of these.
Note:
There is one place that has closed since we visited, FreeFrom A Konyha, which was located in a mall food court. If you’re finding this spot in any of your research, double check to see if it has re-opened or is in fact permanently closed!
NON-GLUTEN FREE OPTIONS:
Cafe Zsivago
Not at all gluten free but went for coffee and hot chocolate since it was open super late. It’s mostly drinks that are available here, with the odd (not-gluten free) pastry. The advantage here is that it’s open very late. A super popular spot for drinks after dinner with the locals.
Vaj Café
Again, not gluten free in any way, but had reviews for great coffee. It was very busy, and ridiculously expensive for 2 lattes. Ahmed wanted a treat, but a croissant was $5 CAD and up depending on the flavour you chose. Ridiculous prices. Coffee was decent, but nothing I’d run back for.
Map of Gluten Free Options
If you want more options, here is the Wanderlog map I made of everywhere I could find that had good gluten free reviews, labelled menus, and/or indications that gluten free was safe at their restaurants. Please note that I did not personally eat at all these restaurants, so do your own due diligence and reach out or check their websites/menus ahead of your visit.
HOW TO USE THE MAP: Click on the Wanderlog logo in the bottom right corner to open the full-size map up in a new tab. There, you can choose to just look at one category at a time or see all the categories on the map at once (click the 3 squares in the top right to choose). You can also export the map to Google Maps, share the map with others, or save the map.