New York Café

The New York Café is the most opulent of Budapest's grand cafés and one of the most photographed interiors in the city. It occupies the ground floor of the New York Palace, a richly decorated building on the Grand Boulevard that was built in the 1890s as the Budapest headquarters of the New York Life Insurance Company. The café opened in 1894 and quickly became a meeting place for writers, journalists, artists and editors; the influential literary journal Nyugat was closely associated with it in the early 20th century.

The interior is the reason most people come. Twisted gilded columns, marble, bronze, painted ceiling frescoes and crystal chandeliers fill a high, galleried hall, and the lower level gives a view up to the decorated ceiling. In 2011 the café was named the most beautiful café in the world in an international competition, a claim it still uses proudly. The building above is now a luxury hotel.

The menu covers breakfast, coffee, cakes, light meals and Hungarian and international dishes, and the White Salon restaurant serves dinner in the evenings. Prices are high by Budapest standards, reflecting the setting, and service charges may be added to the bill, so check before you pay. Many visitors come simply for a coffee and a slice of cake to see the room; that is perfectly acceptable and a good way to experience it without a full meal.

Queues form outside for much of the day, particularly from late morning to late afternoon. Arriving early, the café opens at 07:00 every day, is the best way to avoid them, and an evening visit is often calmer. Before 18:00 guests are generally seated in order of arrival, though online bookings are accepted at some times, and after 18:00 reservations are taken for dinner guests through the official website, which confirms them within 24 hours. The café is open until midnight from Monday to Wednesday and until 01:00 from Thursday to Sunday.

The café is on the Grand Boulevard between Blaha Lujza tér, served by metro line M2, and Wesselényi utca, where trams 4 and 6 stop. The Jewish Quarter, with its synagogues and ruin bars, begins just behind the building, so it is easy to combine with an afternoon or evening in District VII.