At this year’s Volkswagen Dining Guide Restaurant of the Year Gala, Costes, under the leadership of chef Eszter Palágyi, once again received the Restaurant of the Year Award at a ceremony in Budapest. This year, for the first time, the country’s best confectioneries have also been included in the guide.
This year, the Volkswagen Dining Guide came up with a special Top10, as they have included 12 restaurants on this year’s list. Costes, that connects fine dining gastronomic culture with traditional Hungarian cuisine, came in the first place with 93 points, followed by Borkonyha (Ákos Sárközi), Onyx (Ádám Mészáros), Babel (István Veress), Costes Downtown (Tiago Sabarigo), Stand25, Fáma (Krisztián Huszár), MÁK (János Mizsei), St. Andrea Borbár (Ádám Barna), Olimpia, Arany Kaviár (Szása Nyíri, László Kanász), and Anyukám Mondta, located in Encs, the only restaurant from the countryside which made the top10.
The Dining Guide traditionally evaluates restaurants on how they meet the standards of fine dining. On this occasion, they have included two restaurants which are not considered “classic” fine dining restaurants, but rather have a progressive menu and a more informal style and service: Stand25, led by Szabina Szulló and Tamás Széll, who came fourth at the Bocuse d’Or cooking championship’s International Finale last year, and Olimpia (Adam Garai and Csaba Ádám). This year, then, the testers and gastronomy experts decided to include two other restaurants instead of “narrowing down” the list.
As usual, the jury consisted of international experts, led by Enrico Cerea, who is the chef of the three Michelin star restaurant Da Vittorio, near Bergamo. Other members of the jury included Nicola Portinari from the two Michelin star restaurant La Peca and gastronomy expert Fausto Arrighi, who spent 36 years at the Michelin Guide, the world’s most prestigious evaluator of restaurants.
The full Volkswagen-Dining Guide Top100 Restaurant Guide will be available nationwide from this Thursday, on February 22. This year, they have included the best confectioneries of the country as well. These were selected by the Dining Guide testers and two foreign experts. Gastronomy expert Zoltán Herczeg, leader of Dining Guide testers, was surprised by the rather low quality of the confectioneries and desserts. They have included 63 on their list out of the total of 100 places they have visited. The best confectionery is Mihályi Patisserie (Vác), which also received the Confectionery of the Year Award.
After 2009, 2012 and last year, this is the fourth time that the Michelin star Costes was named the best restaurant in Hungary, and the second year in a row that a restaurant run by a woman has won the award.
The best restaurants outside Budapest:
Special awards:
via diningguide.hu
featured photo: Dániel Mátyás Fülöp / 24.hu