A Weekend in Budapest: Vegan Food

Budapest is an amazing city, but not a place I imagined being particularly vegan-friendly. I was wrong! I found it interesting that there were loads of dedicated vegan food places, but most general restaurants lacked vegan options. This meant that nearly everywhere we ate was 100% vegan – which was good because then we could try anything.

On the first night, we headed straight for Las Vegans, whose amazing burgers I’d seen all over Instagram. We first headed to the van in The Vegan Garden, and due to a lack of card machine (and a particularly unfriendly guy serving there) we had to go to the one at Karavan, just a couple of minutes walk away. And I’m so glad we did – Karavan is next to Szimpla Kert and such a nice place to eat, drink and just generally hang out! The burgers were as good as I had expected, I had the ‘Hot Cheezy’ and it was amazing. The next day, we ended up there again due to a lack of vegan food at the Christmas market. I went for the ‘Sweet Dream’ (without eggplant), which is the first vegan burger I’ve ever had with a fried cheese patty. I could eat it every day.

The Hot Cheezy from Las Vegans

Las Vegans menu

One of the main things I wanted to do in Budapest was to try vegan versions of some traditional food. Step forward Kosmosz Vegan Etterem. We found this on Happy Cow (a total lifesaver when you’re abroad). I had Bean Goulash, Cottage-Cheese Csusza (basically cottage cheese pasta with tofu), and Krémes, a kind of layered puff pastry with custard and cream. I also got to try the barbecue seitan with sweet potato fries. Because Budapest is so reasonable, a three-course meal for two including a bottle of wine was under £30! The restaurant was cosy, tucked underground off the street and very intimate.

The Cottage Cheese Pasta

Bean Goulash

Barbecue Seitan

Krémes

On our way to Margaret Island, we stopped by Vegán édes élet cukrászda (Vegan sweet life confectionery in English) and got a takeaway pizza with vegan cheese and tofu, and two cakes – one banana and one coffee flavoured. The pizza was nice and the base I think was gluten-free – to me, it tasted like rice flour. The cakes were incredible, if hard to eat without cutlery!

Tofu Pizza on Margaret Island, overlooking the Hungarian Parliament Building and Margaret Bridge

The coffee cream cake from Vegán édes élet cukrászda

Plantmilkyway is also worth a mention for their cakes – which are vegan but also gluten and soy-free. We had a tiramisu slice and a chocolate/biscuit cake – both were really nice!

Cakes from Plantmilkyway

Finally, Budapest Coffee Stand on Dob St is the best coffee we found – and I am very picky about my coffee!

An oat milk latte from Budapest Coffee Stand

I hope you enjoyed this snapshot into my favourite vegan places in Budapest. Have you visited any of these? Let me know in the comments!

Hazel x