Budapest for first-time visitors

Best restaurants

Budapest eats on its own clock, and the 12 restaurants here are best read by their hours as much as their menus. The list stays inside a tight set of postal codes: 1011, 1013, 1051 and 1054. Hungarian and regional cooking anchors it, with a fish house, an Italian ristorante, a Japanese room, a Vietnamese kitchen and two fine-dining bistros around it. The schedules differ sharply: one address shuts at 20:00 and takes Sunday off, another runs to 00:00 every day of the week, and a third opens only from Wednesday to Saturday. This is a list for visitors who would rather plan a meal than stumble into one. Skip the laminated picture menus aimed at passing foot traffic, pick a time, and turn up when the door is open.