New York Café Budapest: Is It Worth It?

Yes. Go and eat or drink something in this room while you are in Budapest. The interior is a dazzling 19th-century decoration; the café was built as the ground floor of an insurance company's building, and in the old days you could have your shoes polished, your hair cut and your clothes pressed here.

We ordered the goulash soup and the chicken dish the house is known for, followed by cakes. We loved the goulash soup. Everything we had was tasty, and the waiter who looked after us was genuinely lovely. We had not had a bad meal since arriving in Budapest, and New York Café did not change that.

Watch in the video · 45:37  walking into New York Café and ordering

According to the café, table reservations are only available for dinner after 6 pm; fill in the form and the booking is confirmed within 24 hours. Between 7 am and 6 pm there are no reservations and guests are seated in order of arrival.

Even when the evening is fully booked, they say some tables are kept for guests without a reservation. The café takes table reservations for up to 10 people; larger groups go through the events team (official information, October 2026).

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 7:00-24:00; Thursday to Sunday 7:00-1:00 (official information, October 2026). Hours can change, so check the café's own page before you go.

From the Hungarian side of the menu we had the goulash soup and the house chicken dish, then moved on to cakes. The current menu and prices are on the café's own website; prices change, so we do not quote them here. Where else we ate goulash and our favourite lángos are in our what to eat in Budapest  guide.

The writer Ferenc Molnár is said to have loved the café so much that one night he threw its key into the Danube so it could never close. Inspired by the story, the Hungarian sculptor Mihály Kolodko made a tiny bronze statue of someone fishing the key out of the river, in the side street next to the café. Look for it when you leave; we showed it in the video.

Watch in the video · 47:34  the tiny statue next to the café

The café is at Erzsébet körút 9-11 in District VII, near the Blaha Lujza tér stop of the M2 metro and trams 4 and 6.

Want to stay nearby? The café is in District VII, the area we stayed in, with the Jewish Quarter and Gozsdu Udvar within walking distance. You can see District VII hotels  Ad for your dates, or compare areas in our where to stay in Budapest  guide.