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| - Wow, what a lovely place. I was aware of this before our trip to Cleveland, as my heritage is Magyar (Hungarian) and I was checking out places we may want to visit. I had not intended on driving out of downtown for this place, we were going to make a stop at the R&R Hall of Fame, however, after spending a lovely morning with the ladies at the Cleveland Hungary Heritage Society Museum, we were in the mood for it. They highly recommended the place, and I'm so glad we decided to take their advice.
This was about a 15-20 minute drive from downtown. It could potentially be faster as it is only about 6 miles away, but there was a lot of construction on the way and on Shaker street, where we ran into some detours. On the way there you will drive through some neighborhoods that look a little down, or just working on a turn around, but don't let that discourage you.
The restaurant is located on Shaker Square, which is a lovely area with some small shops and restaurants. There is a good amount of on street parking, but you will need some quarters for the meter (1 quarter=30 min.) The store front looks a little sleepy, at first I was worried it wasn't open, but when we opened the door we found a good amount of people seated, enjoying their meals; we went for lunch about 1pm.
We were greeted promptly and a table was set up for us. We only waited a few minutes between our arrival and being seated to be asked about drinks. All of the staff we encountered was welcoming and eager to please. Very interested in how we found out about the place, as well as finding out about our shared heritage. The person who spent the most time with us was a blond with very, very short hair who was more than happy to talk to us about her cooking, offer some tips, and direct us to a little Italian store that happens to have some Hungarian products available. She made us feel very welcome.
Now for the food...really, really good! It was great to see so many authentic options on the menu: starters, entrees, desserts, etc...and while my mother and I are both born and raised in the US, with our trips to Hungary and having Hungarian heritage on both sides of my family, we've had a good amount of this type of food. This was as good as anything we have had when in Budapest. They also some Hungarian wines on the menu too, my mother had the furmint, and they have Tokaji aszú, which is known as 'The king of wines, the wine of kings.'
For a starter my mother got the cucumber salad. A favorite of both of us, but something we don't make nearly enough of. They use an english cucumber and slice it wafer thin, as much water as possible is removed and it is put in some rice vinegar, sugar, paprika and some garlic on it. Served with some sour cream. Really nice take on it.
My starter was the beef goulash soup. I generally prefer my beef and veggies to but cut a little smaller so that I don't have to bite things in half and so that I get some of each ingredient in every bite...aside from that, it was fantastic as well. Mild flavor in terms of spice, although I would imagine you could ask for it a little hotter if needed. I generally like it hotter, but I was happy with the taste. The mini dumplings in it were tender.
My mother's entree was a small order of stuffed cabbage which can come with dumplings or mashed potato. She went with the potato, which was awesome when you had some of the delightful sauce on it! The sauce for the cabbage was so flavorful, perhaps the best I've ever had. It only had the slightest amount of tomato in it, and I'm imagining my mom will try and make it this way as well.
My entree was the potato pancakes, small order. Couldn't finish them because I was too full after the bread and soup. I did have half of the dish and the apple sauce, both were great! It is also served with sour cream.
There were many traditional desserts, as well as some cookies and strudel and poppy seed roll available for purchase to take home. We opted to take a poppy seed and apple strudel with us since we were so stuffed. I had both the next morning for breakfast, wonderful. I'm pretty sure some of the desserts are made in house, and some may come from a local bakery that does Hungarian desserts...either way it was all good stuff.
Highly recommneded, will be returning when we go to Cleveland again, no doubt about that.
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