April 2026 - Stand, Budapest

There were quite a few Michelin star/guide options in Budapest. For our visit in April 2026 I chose the 2 star Stand as it promised to be one of the best - and it didn't disappoint.

As you'd expect, we were warmly welcomed and shown to our table in the stylish dining room. I'm sure there is no such thing as a bad table there... but ours seemed the best. We were right next to a frosted window with views into the kitchen, where we could watch the food being crafted on the other side of the glass. I love a chef’s table experience, and this ticked that box, just with a sheet of glass separating us from the action - all the views, but no cooking smell... winner winner.

We had 5 lovely snacks to accompany our initial cocktails. All were incredibly tasty but the interpretation of a traditional Hungarian Lángos was amazing. Imagine a savoury doughnut but with a dough made of potato, covered with delicious cheese - it was a real treat. The last of the snacks was a soup which had a remarkable pickled/vinegar flavour to it - really different but went down very well!

We (I) decided on the taster menu: 9 courses in total, with the opportunity for us to select different options at a couple of points during the menu, to make sure that we made the most of trying everything between us. We both went with the Hungarian wine pairing - partly due being intrigued to find out what it might introduce us to, and partly because we've loved Tokaj whenever we've tried it before.

The taster menu proper started with a smoked tomato consommé - this was served from a clear 'teapot', part filled with the smoke that made its way through the clear liquid. It both looked and tasted the part!

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Next up was the bread course which was followed by kohlrabi, apple and razor clams. I'm not sure that I've had kohlrabi before - it was an amazing combination!

The next course saw us go our separate ways for the first time - Gill had pumpkin and I had langoustine which was served with a buerre blanc with ginger and yuzu. It was incredible, one of the best things I've ever eaten... such a blend of flavours, all working perfectly with each other - I loved it!

The next 2 courses were the same for both of us. First a duck rillete complete with a mountain of grated duck liver, accompanied with sour cherry. This was actually one of the dishes that was being prepared on the worktop on the other side of the window into the kitchen, so we'd been watching the care and attention that went into preparing them for a while before getting to sample it ourselves. It was worth the amount of effort that went into it, we both really enjoyed it.

Up next was Stand's award winning signature dish - sterlet (a freshwater predatory fish) rolled with langoustine, accompanied by a caviar, dill and clam sauce, and served with the prettiest cucumber salad that you could imagine. This dish has been on the menu for over 10 years, and has largely stayed the same - with minor changes to the type of caviar dependent on availability. The combination of flavours worked perfectly. We both said it was one of the best things we've ever eaten (that is said quite regularly - and is true every time). The cucumber salad was a real highlight of the dish... the attention to detail that went into making it both look and taste as good as it did was off the scale.

For her next course Gill had pasta stuffed with mushroom and black garlic, and I had wagyu gulyás (goulash). The flavour of the gulyás was amazing. It tasted like it had been cooking for hours in order to add as much taste to the sauce as possible.

We both had grilled venison as our main 'main' before a palate cleanser which included a delightful apple granita. Then it was time for dessert. Gill had 'an apple a day', and I had Somlói - a traditional Hungarian dessert. Our puddings were both very different, but perfect for each of us - Gill's was a complex mix of flavours, mine was a combination of flavours too but was also really sweet!

Stand is (in the eyes of Michelin inspectors) the same standard as Restaurant 212 in Amsterdam that we enjoyed last year and the two seemed very similar to us too. Both had great, stylish locations, amazing food, and brilliant wine pairings. At both, the friendliness of the staff stood out too. It was a lovely and unrushed service at Stand (as it was at 212), and we enjoyed having the time to talk all things food and fine dining with the staff at points during and after the meal.

We loved our experience of fine dining in Hungary, and thoroughly enjoyed sampling some delicious local wines too. The pairing was innovative at times (with sweet Tokaj served with the duck rillete for example) but it worked perfectly, as all of the meal did.