I show one of my hangouts to you. We saw more fashion waves of the pub and restaurant business in Budapest from the end of the communism, Bavarian, Greek, Irish, Italian, Turkish, Chinese and other kind of buffets, taverns, bars were opened in succession, but my eternal favourite one is the Czech restaurant.

If I had enough time on a tour, I always tell this story.

 Enlightenment in Prague

 It happened at the beginning of the 90’s, when I was just twenty years old. We lived in a new world. The communism had just died in Hungary and in the Central-European countries. The Rolling Stones was on a European tour (it was the Urban Jungle Tour) and the last show was in Prague. I had never seen the Rolling Stones on stage before, and so far I had never been to Prague, that’s why we travelled there in August of 1990 with my friends.

 It was early in the morning, about six, when the train had arrived to the Central Station. We were very hungry. Fortunately we had a guide book of the pubs and restaurants in Prague, and we found information in it, that there was a pub, named Ů Pinkasu, nex to the station, which was open from seven. I do not know, why, but at first all of us ordered a pint of beer (as I said it was 7 am), than a Czech goulash.

The guide book and a copy of a Bohumil Hrabal's novel. Anyway, this fantastic, humorous novel is a life story of a waiter (Photograph: Kerékgyártó György)

When we had finished it, we started to read the guidebook again, and we found a citation from a writing of a famous Czech writer, Bohumil Hrabal. It said: there comes a moment for every gourmand when he/she wants to eat everyday dishes. If it happend to you, you have to go to the Ů Pinkasu early in the morning, to order a pint of beer, then a goulash and another beer at the end.

 I remember, we was looking each other: hey guys, we did the same! Waiter, one more beer, please!

 I am not a Restaurant Owner

 It was my first meeting with the Czech cuisine. We had been in the city for a week, we had got enoguh money, so we tasted almost everything. It was so great expirience, that my best friend and me decided, we open a Czech restaurant in Budapest.

 Well, I am not a restaurant-owner, but I still love Czech beer and cuisine. In the early 90’s it was cool to open a Czech pub or restaurant in Budapest, I visited all of them with my friends, but not all of them looked like a real Czech one. I think, the pub business in Budapest is in order, it is high quality and fantastic, but our culture is a quite different than the Czech one.

A tipical Czech course: beef goulash with knedly (Photograph: ferdi.hu)

 For example, in a Czech restaurant you do not need to order a pint of beer, the waiter brings you one, when you have a seat at the table. And if your glass is empty, he will bring you another one automatically, and he will do it until you ask him not to bring more.

 The Cuisine of the Monarchy

 As I said, there were and there are many Czech pubs and restaurants in this city, and more of them are cool. I tell you, why the Ferdinand is my hangout. It was a simple Czech restaurant is Budapest at first, but the owner of it, Mr Imre Martin, recognised, that the cuisines of the countries of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy are similar to each other, becouse these folks had been living together for a very long time, and they had learnt many things from each other. He wants to show the similarities and the differences to you in his restaruant.

 It is very interesting and exciting, isn’t it?

This is my favourite Czech dish: roasted pork à la Prague (Photograph: ferdi.hu)