Customer Reviews

Food Wine Budapest (The Terroir Guides)

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3 star:		(1)
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Carolyn Banfalvi has poured her passion and knowledge of food and wine into this book. It is packed with information including essentials on getting around the city, a select list of further reading and websites, an outstanding culinary dictionary and a great primer on the delicious Hungarian wines.

Even if you are not planning a trip to Budapest, it is worth reading for the information on soups, meats, dumplings, and palinka. The coffeehouses and sweets are documented to great detail. This book will not disappoint. It is a great investment on the rich food culture of Hungary.

I have been to Budapest many times and thought I knew most of the good eateries. This colorful guide book offers up some tempting new suggestions in city where you can find some of the best fois gras and red wine in Europe. Having recently returned from Paris I can assure you that when it comes to value dining Budapest is hard to beat. Not only is the Hungarian fois better in most cases but it is a fraction of the price one often pays in Paris for smaller portions. For those who love red wines what's not to love about the beautiful vintages coming out of Villany. The author knows Hungarian food and you can feel the love for the country, its people and its cuisine as you leaf through this beautiful edition. Invaluable : Especially now that the dollar is so strong against the forint... Visit now and enjoy the real bargains this city offers up.

I travel a lot, and I travel, primarily, so that I can DINE. Accordingly, I've read a LOT of food-related guides, but never one quite as comprehensive, on-the-mark, and as readable as this one. When I first read the book (cover to cover, in preparation for a 2008 return visit to Budapest), I thought that the author must be some older, vastly-experienced travel writer, writing from a long experience with not only Budapest/Hungarian food and wine, but also coming from a broad background of food-writing all over Europe. I was (totally, joyfully) stunned to discover that the author was a young-ish resident of Budapest, and that this incredible guide was her first major published effort. Astonishing! I've read many, many food-related guides for places like Paris, London, Catalonia and elsewhere, and this book is the best one -- by far, bar none -- of all I've seen. I'm still suffering from a sort of happy disbelief at both the quality of the writing and the accuracy of the recommendations. Wow. Wow! The company that published this book should send the author on extended visits to other major cities, to parlay her perceptive skills and style into a series.

In short, if you're headed to Budapest (or anywhere else in Hungary), this is a must-have book.

I purchased this book as soon as it was available. My husband and I were planning our first trip to Budapest. We read through the book before we left, marking all the restaurants we wanted to try while we were there. We slipped the book, already looking worn and ragged with yellow sticky tags hanging out from two sides, into our backpack as we headed to the airport. And that's where it stayed as we walked the streets of Budapest for 11 days, enjoying some of the wonderful restaurants, the great food and Hungarian wines that Banfalvi recommends in the book. Each time we were ready to eat, we pulled out the book, filled with information about where to get good coffee, sweet treats, wine, or a good Hungarian meal.
Her food-related Hungarian-English and English-Hungarian dictionary was very helpful. Locator maps would have been useful, with numbers used to indicate locations of each place. We did discover, though, that Budapest is an easy city to navigate and it's not difficult to find what you're looking for.
If you're planning a trip to Budapest, you'll be glad you have this book in your backpack.

Carolyn Bánfalvi's book is like having a friend take you by the elbow (gently) and guide you through the maze of Budapest restaurants, markets, coffee houses and bars. I first checked out places I knew--accurate and without hyperbole. I also noticed that some bad spots were not mentioned at all. Brava! It is heavy to carry around--I'll just make a list of places I want to go. Excellent about the market halls. She captures the various spirits of the many places.

I stumbled upon this book while planning our first trip to Budapest. I couldn't put it down. It was a terrific read, very informative and packed with helpful information. Personally I appreciated the historical perspective of Hungarian cuisine. More importantly it was very helpful to understand the food and wine culture of Hungary. I immediately contacted Carolyn and set up a tour of the markets during my visit. While this is a review of the book, I can not say enough about the nearly all day tour. Carolyn took my partner and I through the Central Market Hall and then to a very contrasting market just outside the city. On our way back the metro went out of service. Carolyn scrambled to create plan B and we ended up at Castro Bisztró, a hole in the wall Serbian cafe that has become my favorite spot in Budapest. Carolyn's reviews of the bars, cafes and restaurants are dead on accurate. We have come to completely depend on this guide for all our food related needs in Budapest. We have made several trip to Budapest now as my partner teaches a college term there in January. Many of her students purchased the book after Carolyn took them on a student friendly tour and used it during their month in Budapest. We have also given this book to local Hungarians as a gift and they have come to cherish the book! I do hope a second addition is in the works as I have found several of the wine shops have gone out of business. Any food guide needs to be updated over time as places go out of business or move. I can't say enough about the book or Carolyn and her husband Gábor who operate [...] . During my last visit Gábor took me on a beekeepers tour, visiting a famous bee museum and a local apiary to meet a Hungarian beekeeper. You won't find a better resource or guide than the Bánfalvi's!

After 25 years in the wine business and years of food and wine travel I was astonished when, in preparation for a trip to Budapest, I ordered Carolyn's book and after its arrival found I just couldn't put it down.Her descriptions are so complete I feel like I've already been in Budapest instead of just anticipating my upcoming trip. As far as the absence of maps my suggestion is to buy a good Budapest map or just Google Budapest. This is absolutely the best food/wine/travel book about a foreign city I've read!

I bought this book for an upcoming trip to Budapest, because I am a foodie and I want to know where to go!

This book has two major drawbacks, which are easily addressed in subsequent editions.

First, there are no maps of any kind anywhere in the book. So unless you know Budapest very very well, you will be lost and have no idea where these yummy restaurants are. I had to map them on Tripadvisor (which also has plentiful restaurant reviews by the way...) just to see what neighborhoods they are in, and how far away they are from our hotel, important sights etc. This is kind of a pain!

Second, the book is quite heavy! It is a beautiful book- thick, glossy paper, nice fonts and typesets etc, but it weighs a ton! NOT ideal for carting around Budapest- its a veritable Hungarian food encyclopedia!!!

I recommend buying this book if you are a diehard foodie and want to know where the good meals are in Budapest. It would be especially good for someone staying in Budapest for an extended period of time (expats, for example). She has great descriptions and photos of the restaurants, and I believe she does a thorough job of combing the entire city for the best of the best.
If however, you are only going to be in Budapest for a few days, I do not recommend this book. Get a smaller Budapest book, and do a bit of restaurant research online (Tripadvisor or chew.hu are both good Budapest food resources) and bring a notebook with the names and addresses of the restaurants you really want to try. Or better yet, buy a map and mark the restaurants on it!

I'm glad I bought this book, but I wish it had maps. I also wish it wasn't such a tome! Lighter paper and narrower page margins would have made for a more portable book. Maybe the author will alter it for the next edition.

I bought this guide a couple of weeks before leaving on a solo trip to Hungary in the off season, November 2009. As it was my first time there, and I'm a huge fan of food and wine - this book became my bible for a few weeks. You just have to read the introduction to realize this book is written by someone passionate about their city/region and its culinary heritage who is keen on sharing their passion with the world, not just by a typical travel/food writer. It is extremely thorough, broad in scope from specialty shops to cafes to fine dining, history and evolution of the cuisine; history of the wine terroir and varietals; introduction to the culture and particular nuances of the city, translations, other small anecdotes that make the difference between a good experience and an incredible experience, especially when traveling there for the first time but also if its your 10th. I used this book to plan my entire trip around cafes in the morning, restaurants and shops for lunch and afternoon coffee, and finally dinner. I found all of the information, advice, and detail spot on. I'm now using it to plan my second trip to the Tokaji region this fall.

I bought this book for my trip to Budapest and found it invaluable! Food in Budapest is awesome - much better than you might expect. The book is great because it combines the history of Hungarian food and wine along with practical restaurant reviews ...it also seems to be the only book of its kind. So glad I bought it!