Gundel restaurant

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Entrance to the Gundel restaurant

The restaurant Gundel ( Hungarian Gundel étterem ) is a restaurant in Budapest . It was one of the most exclusive restaurants in Europe in the first half of the 20th century and has been able to build on this reputation again since the 1990s .

location

The Gundel is located in the Budapest City Park right next to the main entrance of the Budapest Zoo. It can be reached on foot in 5 minutes from Heldenplatz .

history

The history of Gundel goes back to Johann Gundel, who left his parents' house in Ansbach in Bavaria at the age of 13 and went to visit his relative in Pest . On the way he met Eduard Sacher , then an apprentice in his father Franz Sacher's delicatessen shop in Vienna . The two became friends, and Johann began training with Franz Sacher. After graduation, in 1857, Johann Gundel continued his journey to Pest, where he worked for a while in his relative's inn as a piccolo and attended a waiter's school.

Due to his qualifications, he got a job as head waiter in the elegant Budapest Golden Eagle , later married and in 1879 bought his first restaurant, the Wiener Bierhalle . Then there were also the Gasthaus Blumenstöckl and the Hotel István Főherczeg , which could soon compete with the large hotels in Munich and Vienna. Johann Gundel died in 1915 at the age of 69. As a precaution, his son Karl Gundel (Gundel Károly) had taken over the business of his father since 1910.

Karl Gundel mastered four foreign languages, had learned the subject from scratch in his home company and then went on a journey to Germany, France, England and Switzerland. At the age of 25, he returned to Budapest and took over the Wampetich restaurant in the Stadtwäldchen. From 1920 to 1925 he also leased the restaurant of the Hotel Royal and from 1927 to 1948 the restaurants in the Hotel Gellért . He lived on the upper floor of the Wampetich with his wife and a total of 13 children . Karl Gundel created numerous dishes, including the famous Gundel pancakes with a nut, raisin, rum filling and rum and chocolate sauce.

From 1910 the reputation of the Gundel family increased. In 1937 Karl Gundel was commissioned by the government to organize the banquet for the visit of the Italian King Vittorio Emanuele . In 1945 he renamed the Wampetich restaurant in Gundel . In 1949 the Gundel and the Gellért restaurant were nationalized. In 1956 Karl Gundel died, blind, after several operations.

In 1980 the Gundel was placed under a preservation order, but has not been able to match the glory of bygone times since the nationalization. Ronald S. Lauder and George Lang (György Láng) , a Hungarian restaurateur living in the USA, bought the Gundel back from the state in 1991, with the intention of "... returning the restaurant to its former size and one of Europe's finest and most elegant eateries" . The new menu includes specialties from the world's most important kitchens as well as traditional Hungarian dishes. In 1999, the Sydney Morning Herald ranked Gundel in the top ten restaurants in the world, and this is reflected in the personalities who have visited Gundel over time. Albert of Monaco , Jacques Chirac , Queen Elisabeth II , Otto von Habsburg , Hillary Clinton , John Paul II , George Pataki , György Solti and Tony Curtis dined here . In 2000 the one millionth guest was welcomed.

Interior design and style

The dining room of the restaurant is designed in the style of the turn of the century. Large Art Nouveau lampshades adorn the ceiling. The floor is covered with a specially designed light-colored carpet, which is decorated with variations of the Gundel logo with two stylized elephants. In the middle of the room is an illuminated pedestal that carries a large porcelain vase with roses. About a third of the hall is slightly elevated and mainly contains large tables and offers space for a long banquet table. In the rest of the area there is mostly space for smaller tables.

To entertain the guests, a seven-member gypsy band under the direction of György Lakatos plays original gypsy music and Hungarian folk songs, as well as works by Franz Liszt , Johannes Brahms and Zoltán Kodály . A Gundel collection that is housed in the in-house museum includes works by the most famous Hungarian painters, including Mihály Munkácsy , Rezső Burghardt and Lajos Márk . A permanent exhibition of the Museum of Commerce and Catering is also housed there.

Another gem in the Gundel is the rococo- style Queen Elisabeth Ballroom with its Venetian chandeliers in white and gold . Last but not least, the Gundel offers a wine cellar in which you can find local wines from the South Balaton as well as top international wines.

Menu

The Gundel restaurant offers a mix of international specialties and traditional Hungarian cuisine. The menu certainly offers options for dining a la carte at moderate prices, while the five-course Gundel Sonata menu, for example, costs over 150 euros per person.

Controversy over the current level

Since reopening in the early 1990s, attempts have been made to build on the legendary reputation of the first half of the century. The extent to which this has succeeded, however, is controversial. Generally, the praise for the restaurant predominates, the restaurant critic Richard Vines expresses criticism of the kitchen and service with regard to the enormous prices, while he also expressly praises the ambience.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Richard Vines : Pava Scores Over Gundel for Dining in Budapest , in: Bloomberg.com , March 27, 2006

Web links

Commons : Restaurant Gundel  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 47 ° 31 '2.8 "  N , 19 ° 4' 38.2"  E