eating out | thehub.hu | guide to budapest

Andrássy út 76 [map]
Pest Centre, VI, between Vörösmarty utca and Kodály körönd (M1), 1 min
Cuisine > Italian

Rating: 7.9/10

The pizza has been stolen. Just look around Budapest and you’ll find Pizza Huts, Pizza Marzanos (the thinly disguised Pizza Express) and lots of pizza slices from quick-fire window hatches; all of which are about as Italian as my aunt.

For other pizzas that have surrendered their nationality, there’s the atmospheric, commie-style Marxim, the super-cheap, edible-if-you’re-hungry Den Haag and the dough-heavy Darshan. Even in my flat, you may well find the charred remains of a distinctly Germanicized Doktor Oetker frozen cardboard pizza-wannabe. But where are the bona fide Italian pizzas?

Only a cynic or a rival restaurant would doubt Millenium da Pippo’s Italian credentials. The waiter’s Italian. The pizzaiolo’s Italian. The house wines are Italian (and perfectly drinkable). The photos of the Ferraris and the unidentified relative in the Juventus jumper are most definitely Italian. The tiles on the wall are... left over from the restaurant’s former metro-themed incarnation. Still, they do nothing to upset a comfortable, intimate, relaxed feel.

The menu, in Italian and Hungarian, is the right way round and scanning through all the pizzas and pastas will take you a while. English menus, and indeed, the wine list, are available if you ask. There are also some meat and fish options, if you want to be a bit less predictable, but the prices do creep up.

Eating out, I usually find myself going for the pasta-avoidance tactic, no doubt a symptom of too often finding that I could have made the same thing myself, for a fraction of the price. There is, however, no need to doubt Pippo's range of fresh pastas. The Ravioli Mamma reminds me that my reliance on pasta as a safety net is bordering on the sacreligious.

For pizzas you get what you pay for. The bases were thin and light, and didn’t require a knife fight to cut, which justified prices that are a shade more than many of the city’s alternatives. I decided on the Pizza Buffon (team-mates Totti and Del Piero are also on the menu), which had quite a busy topping but was oddly under-priced. The answer was in the artichokes, which might been more expensive and more flavoursome had they been fresh! The more modest-looking but pricier Pizza Pippo, on the other hand, with parma ham and basil, was much closer to the mark.

Not without flaws, Pippo still leaves room for some competition. However, after a few months of unconsciously munching through various pizza pretenders, it's a welcome reminder of what pizza, and pasta for that matter, ought to be.

Food: 8/10
Service: 7.5/10
Atmosphere: 8.5/10
Value for money: 7.5/10

Only a short walk from Oktogon along Andrássy, in a Hősök tere direction, Millenium da Pippo is small but easy to find on the left side of the road. Alternatively, walking down from Kodály körönd, the nearest metro stop, it's on the right.
pipo, milennium, millennium, de
Andy Sz.