The city’s favourite all you can eat restaurant, Trófea Grill is passing the “value for money test” with flying colours. They are simply unbeatable: guests can choose from more than 100 Hungarian and international dishes at a reasonable (and fixed!) price, with drinks included. We took the risk of being spoilt by choice and visited Trófea, where every meal is a feast.
All three Trófea Grill restaurants in the city centre are unique on their own. We were lucky enough to test the one that opened 9 years ago in Király utca, Budapest’s popular street just a stone throw away from Deák tér. We arrived in time for dinner; when we entered, an attentive staff welcomed us, took our coats and showed us to our table situated in an enviable central spot. It’s easy to fall a victim to the buffet style restaurant’s charm: warm colours (gold, brown, beige and black), comfortable, leather covered seats and a modern interior is in perfect harmony with the artistic, antler chandeliers which Trófea inherited from the restaurant that formerly operated in the building.
What They Offer
From the bakery products to the one-course meals, side dishes and even the confectionary delights (diabetic too) everything is freshly made on spot. The show-kitchen is definitely worth a go: you can ask for salmon, beef steak, red tuna, shrimps, cuttlefish, marinated meat, Dijon pork medallions, shark and cheese to be grilled in front of your eyes. There are authentic Hungarian meals too, such as goulash soup, catfish stew with sour cream, stuffed cabbage, pancakes a’la Hortobágyi style, and the restaurant’s specialty, foie gras (goose liver) terrine, which is simply mind-blowing with red onion marmalade.
With such a huge variety of inviting meals (of which 80% is gluten-free) it wasn’t easy to decide on how to start off our dinner. My companion couldn’t resist a bowl of warm and thick fish soup (made with catfish). The flavourful appetizer isn’t over spiced, and you can challenge your taste buds by adding hot paprika. I picked pancake a’la Hortobágyi style, which is a savoury pancake filled with meat – made as a stew – and then baked in the oven with a sour cream & paprika sauce. It is smooth, creamy and incredibly delicious, a must-try! As this is the only Trófea restaurant in downtown Budapest with a wood burning oven, a slice of tasty, thin crust margherita pizza (made of ingredients sourced from Italy) also had to land on our plates. We set the bar high, but it came up to our expectations.
Dessert Section
The feast continued at the dreamy dessert section, where we were tempted by profiteroles, cheese cake, coconut balls, black and white chocolate mousse slices (with fructose) and plum dumpling cake among many other sweet delicacies, right next to the healthy, sliced fruits (melon, orange and kiwi).
We ended up dipping our spoon into tiramisu first, and it was heavenly! The cool cream, the mascarpone cheese and a hint of coffee melted into the dessert of our dreams. Then we fastly finished a tiny bowl of delicious panna cotta with an extremely fruity strawberry sauce and roasted almond slices on top.
Drinks
As our gastronomical journey was coming to an end, we decided to crown it all by drinking a glass of Törley sparkling wine, which is also included in the price, as well as quality Hilltop wine, Pasco coffee and Coca-Cola soft drink products (the ones in returnable glass bottles). Spending your lunch or dinnertime here jazzes up an ordinary weekday (or weekend) and makes any occasion more special, let it be a birthday, an anniversary, a wedding or International Women’s Day.
Trófea is open all year long, except for 24 December. For the prices (and discounts), check out Trófea’s website!
1061 Budapest, Király utca 32.
