HORDÓ RESTAURANT
—the rebirth of the legend
“Making poppy beans is turning two pages in the cookbook,” proclaims the well-known wall slogan jokingly, which perfectly illustrates the experimental and extravagant nature of modern-day Hungarian gastronomy. Yet, when it came to the planning of reviving the Hordó Restaurant, we voted for the traditional Hungarian cuisine, putting the new-wave principles slightly in the background, and trusting in the fact that the best recipes are the ones “ready” after the long experimentations of our ancestors. There is nothing better than grandma’s cooking: we feel every reader will agree, just think of grandma’s bubbling broth and those chicken breasts covered in crispy breadcrumbs at Sunday lunch.
In our opinion, the biggest drawback of modern catering is that a lot of things have to be prepared in advance, so even in the possession of the best recipes, the flavors will be very different from those of the homemade meals we all love. We have tried to create a menu, where freshness and the original flavors and aromas of the ingredients predominate, with modelling the way our grandmothers cooked.
“Merely working precisely and fine, just like stars are moving in the sky”—using Attila József’s lines as the source of our motivation, we spared no time and energy to create a menu, where the main focus lies on traditional flavors of Hungary and Vas county. Our team spent weeks with research: we read through numerous local cookbooks, and, of course, the old menus from the golden era of our predecessor, the Aranyhordó restaurant also played an important role. We hope that we can offer our guests a service and atmosphere that evoke the memories of the past, and thus in an authentic way.
It is a huge challenge to revive the past in a building that served the needs of locals impeccably for almost a century—yet, we hope that our work will result in a guest-centered restaurant that satisfies the needs of today’s time and stays unique and special at the same time, as well as preserves the spirit and the traditions of our predecessors living up to their reputation.
The spacious and segmented guest spaces make the restaurant suitable for balls, weddings and large-scale events, but it is also ideal for those looking for a place for a romantic–hideaway dinner.