"I was first introduced to Pest-Buda in the 1960s. It was considered to be a good sort of elegant restaurant, with white tablecloths, mood lighting, even little umbrella lamps on the tables. I remember the lights shining through yellowed parchment and relics of the '48 War of Independence. There were plenty of them: swords decorated with cockades gleamed crosswise on the wall and everywhere, portraits of the famous heroes of the revolution looked down from the walls. I felt a solemn, but not overwhelmed, feeling of exaltation when I sometimes took the courage to sit down.
That's why the news of the revival of Pest-Buda made my heart beat faster. Without the relics of our struggle for freedom, but still in an appealing style, it came to life as a family restaurant with a chequered tablecloth." - wrote Pierre Vajda in 2011 about the reopening of Pest-Buda Restaurant.
Pest-Buda Restaurant was taken over by the Zsidai Group in 2010 when the previous tenant cancelled the lease of the restaurant, which had fallen into disrepair.
The renovation was not easy due to the historic character of the building.
The kitchen was created in the cellar, within the 17th century walls, using modern kitchen technology, and the dining area is a tribute to the creativity of interior designer Tibor Somlai.
A special feature is the wallpaper. We have a story about that too.
The textile artist Éva P. Szabó designed the so-called Pest-Buda textile in the 1940s, and Tibor Somlai received the weavings from it, who wanted to use it as decoration for the 1996 Budapest World Exhibition, which never came to fruition.
The Expo was cancelled, but the renovation of Pest-Buda Restaurant came along, and Tibor's dream came true: the textile, which features 19th century engravings of Pest-Buda, was photographed and printed as wallpaper on the walls of the Pest-Buda.
And so Pest-Buda, with its red chequered tablecloths, reopened freshly with grandmother's kitchen on 18 May 2011 at 3 Fortuna Street...
