Europa Cafe and Vaci Utca – Budapest
Starting the day again at CoffeeHeaven we soaked up the atmosphere and the welcoming ambience at this cafe for the last time this trip before launching ourselves upon the Metro network. Our Budapest cards were due to expire at 1200 and we were in the city until 6pm, so we decided to make full use of them and headed out towards Mexikoi on the M1, alighting at Heroes Square. Our coffee instincts told us to avoid the cafe with the orange signage and we did just that, later learning from our taxi driver that his coffee experiences there were ghastly and the service minimal (self service at a coffee shop? – this seems out of place in Budapest). After marvelling at the statues and the castle we caught the metro back to Vorosmarty Ter and walked to the 21 Tram stop, catching it as far as we could in both directions (following the Danube the entire way) – a great fun and cheap way to view the bridges and the Buda on the far side. Stopping for lunch at West End Mall (400 shops) we consulted our cafe notes and decided on visiting Europa Kavehaz on Szent Istvan korut. The service was top notch with an overkill of staff and the quality of drinks good. The accompanying cakes were quite sweet but enough to take the edge off the coffee. Overall a good experience and the people watching opportunities from the terrace were pretty good too. Still full from lunch we were both glad of a sit-down but also were keen to head into town again for a list look around the shops before going back to our apartment and packing.
Time for one last coffee, this time on Vaci Utca on the southern pedestrianised area. I cannot recall the name of the cafe but the coffee was decidely average – no better than any we had consumed during the previous 3 days.
Overall I found Budapest’s coffee quality to be quite high and given the opportunity I would happily return, to take in more sights and cafes. The inspirations for coffee are taken from Italy here in Budapest but the service is more Germanic, efficient and polite but not too intrusive. We didn’t feel pressured to finish our drinks and move on at any time and happily lingered far longer than we would in other parts of Europe, soaking up the ambience and admiring the views (gastronomic and human).
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