Perhaps you’ve encountered Maharaja at the Sziget Festival or at their original location in the third district. As the first Indian restaurant in Budapest, it has a fifteen-year history of tasty, authentic food. Having expanded several years ago to accommodate a constant overflow of hungry and dedicated customers, the same top-quality food and service is also available in a much larger location in the seventh district.
.jpg){kind=link}
The Pest Maharaja is a cool, air-conditioned basement space on Csengery utca, off of the busy Király utca artery. It’s easy to get to, but if you didn’t know where it was, you might walk past it without even realizing. Just look for the red door.
Inside, the restaurant is calm and quiet, decorated in deep reds and simple ornamentations like jars of spices and lentils and a few Indian paintings. Thanks to its basement location, the restaurant is divided nicely with arches and brick walls separating the area into more intimate spaces and concealing the fact that it can seat nearly a hundred people.
Maharaja does not offer a daily menu, preferring to concoct their almost entirely north Indian cuisine individually to order. There is certainly plenty to choose from as well, with well over one hundred choices of beef, lamb, vegetarian and fish dishes, and we found it hard to choose from among so many tempting items. For those who are new to Indian food, well-taken pictures of the dishes are incorporated into the menu and add to the temptation.
We started our lunch with sweet and cool mango lassis served in hammered copper cups while we asked for suggestions on the best items to try. This was a wise choice as the kitchen was busy preparing a large delivery order just when we arrived, and this is a sit-down restaurant where food is carefully prepared only after it has been ordered.
Having decided, we first tried the samosa chat, an interesting take on the traditional samosas found in every Indian restaurant. Made of mostly the same ingredients as samosas, this version comes chopped up and mixed with minced cucumber, onion, cilantro and some green chilies for added spice. Topped with a cool minty sauce and a rich mango sauce, it was a delicious beginning.
For our main dishes we decided to share prawns Monchoria and paneer Maharaja over vegetable pulao and Peshawari naan. Everything came beautifully presented in copper pots with large serving spoons and steaming hot. The good-sized prawns were cooked in a thick, dark sauce flavored with soy sauce and a bit of spice (we asked them not to get too carried away – but if you like it hot, they will certainly oblige). They were quite tasty without being too heavy to allow us to enjoy all the other delights on the table.
If you’ve had paneer before, you know that Indian cheese is a bit different than what we typically imagine cheese to be, with a crumbly consistency similar to tofu. We wanted to try a chef specialty, as this is often a good indication of a restaurant’s menu. The paneer Maharaja was a beautiful bright orange, with large pieces of cheese in a thick, fruity and almost sweet sauce. I am happy to say it was very satisfying and disappeared quickly.
While we were too full this time around to have a dessert, there are several offered including burfi and mango kulfi among others. Instead we enjoyed coffee and traditional Indian tea to give us a moment to reflect on the meal we’d just enjoyed and take in a few more minutes of the calm atmosphere.
The quality of food at Maharaja reflects a passion for providing authentic cuisine and the experience of many years in the business. If you’ve been a fan of the original location, but have not always been able to find a table, or if you are just looking for a good Indian meal in Pest, there will surely be a table waiting for you at Maharaja.
Text by Meg George
Photos by Daniel Freeman
Photos by Daniel Freeman
Starters
Mango Lassi
Samosa Chat
Mains
Prawns Monchoria
Paneer Maharaja
Vegetable Pulao
Peshawari Naan
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}