The Budapest downtown area is a great place to start your trek in the Hungarian capital’s nightlife. There are lots of pubs, cafés and bistros where even the tight-budget traveler (yours truly) can spend a fun night out with friends. As the Astoria-Deák axis is the heart of the city, it has its fair share of cozy and moderately priced chill-out venues.
Some time ago, on my way from one campus to the other, a funny smell tickled my nose. There was a surprise blast from the past, and suddenly the images of a hometown bar came up, complete with old arcade machines running classics like Mortal Kombat and Cadillacs & Dinosaurs, oozing a strangely unique smell of cigarette smoke. That was a place I’ve often passed by as a kid in the 90’s but now I was standing in front of Szóda Café on Wesselényi Street. The place looked pretty fresh and a couple of weeks later I returned to scout this authentically smelling place.
First of all, don’t be puzzled by the entrance. Szóda is made up of the café and bar that’s on the street level, with a basement club downstairs where you can boogie if the DJ is present and/or play foosball with a friend or random bystander. Although the café area gets pretty tight and crowded if most tables are taken, Szóda radiates a unique atmosphere that might turn you not only into a frequent night visitor but an early bird coming in for an afternoon coffee and the free Wi-Fi hotspot. One thing though: if you have issues with dense cigarette smoke, try to catch the least crowded hours of this cool bar, as it gets pretty suffocating as the night progresses.
There are places where you first go by yourself and there are places which are introduced to you by friends. In my case, Mélypont (meaning Rock Bottom in Hungarian) is of the latter type. Going to this smooth bar – which, true to its name is ironically in a cellar – is like a trip back to the 70’s and 80’s of the Hungarian socialist era; old furniture, ornaments and posters complete your experience of the “Socialist-Realist Dream”.
One of the curiosities of Mélypont is the menu. Aside from the mandatory coffee varieties and alcoholic beverages, you have the chance to sample unique mixes of soft drinks and alcohol, plus a selection of authentic Hungarian snacks. It’s better to bring along a friend if you are not familiar with such student bars. If you don’t exactly know what the thing you ordered looks or tastes like, you and your buddy might end up drinking each other’s mix (not funny – I experienced this personally while lost in conversation…). Also, the door seems to provide excellent air conditioning, which is rather annoying in times of cold weather. Still, Mélypont is an excellent place to finish off a busy day with a beer or the Hungarian specialty called szörp, a tasty mix of fruit syrup and water.
Gyuri Schlichter
Mélypont Presszó
1053 Budapest, Magyar u. 23.
Szóda Kávé
zó
1077 Budapest, Wesselényi utca 18.
Tel.: +36.461.0007