Gettó Gulyás

Gettó Gulyás is a small restaurant on Wesselényi utca in the Jewish Quarter that concentrates on Hungary's great comfort dishes, especially the stews known as pörkölt and the soup that the rest of the world calls goulash. Its motto, Hungarian flavours reimagined, sums up the approach: traditional recipes cooked carefully with good ingredients, served in a simple, cosy dining room rather than a folkloric tourist setting.

The menu is short and changes with the seasons. Pörkölt, a thick paprika stew made with beef, pork, chicken or game, is the core of the menu, and the venison stew with juniper and porcini mushrooms is one of the dishes the restaurant highlights. Stews are traditionally served with nokedli, small egg dumplings, or with boiled potatoes and a sharp cucumber or pickle salad to balance the richness of the paprika sauce. To finish, try the house-made túrógombóc, soft curd cheese dumplings rolled in toasted breadcrumbs and served with sour cream.

It is a good place to understand the difference between gulyás, a soup, and pörkölt, a stew, which visitors often confuse. Portions are filling and prices are moderate for the area. The restaurant suits couples, solo travellers and small groups; larger parties should book well ahead because the room is not big.

Gettó Gulyás is open every day from 12:00 to 23:00. Booking through the online reservation link on the official website or by phone is recommended for dinner, particularly at weekends, as walk-in tables are limited in the evening. Lunchtime is usually easier. The restaurant's focus on a few dishes done well makes it a good first stop if you want to taste proper Hungarian stews early in your trip, and staff can suggest a Hungarian wine to go with them. Vegetarians will find fewer choices here than in most places, so check the menu online first.

Wesselényi utca crosses the Jewish Quarter between the Grand Boulevard and Károly körút. The Dohány Street Synagogue, the Rumbach Street Synagogue and the ruin bars of Kazinczy utca are all within a few minutes' walk. Astoria on metro line M2 is about five minutes away, and trams 4 and 6 stop at Wesselényi utca on the Grand Boulevard.