Brand new Liszt Restaurant is open!

The restaurant’s name, Liszt, is a playful nod to two distinct and crucial elements of its foundation: it refers to Franz Liszt, one of the world’s greatest classical pianists and a renowned Hungarian musician, and its literal meaning of ‘flour,’ one of the crucial ingredients of the unique bread baked fresh here every day.

Sticking with duality, the restaurant takes you back to the times when culture and gastronomy flourished in Hungary, the Golden Age of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Ingredients come from the lands of the former Habsburg Empire, spanning Hungary, Transylvania, the Dalmatian coast and parts of modern-day Ukraine and Slovakia, just by way of immediate example. Chef Gergely Kövér harmonises the flavours of yesteryear with modern kitchen technology, while sweet creations by pastry chef Zsuzsanna Karádi and the cocktail concoctions of Péter Gózon and Richárd Mihály put the icing on the cake.

A meal at Liszt also takes you on a magical musical and gastronomic journey. It all starts with Overture and Paraphrase, bread, butter and water served to guests before each meal, courtesy of the restaurant. The bread is made fresh on the premises – so tasty, you could just have that all day – while the water is filtered and bottled on-site.

Menu

The menu features starters (Prelude), soups (Symphony) and mains (Concerto). Among them you find crispy herring fillet with purple potato salad, marinated red onion and mustard seeds, duck liver mousse with pomegranate-rhubarb purée, duck ham and brioche  and an old fashioned consommé – cooked from various kinds of meat – with egg yolk confit, vegetables and bone marrow on toast. On a side note, we recommend you try the duck liver with the sourdough bread as well, they go together perfectly.

When it comes to the ‘Encore’ – or the desserts – pastry chef Zsuzsanna Karádi has crafted some truly original ideas, with one of the most exciting being the hand-crafted ice cream made with apricot jam, acacia flowers and the crust of Liszt’s special in-house bread.

Interior design

This gastronomical exploration of Hungarian history enjoys a harmonious environment, too. A room to the left is designed with turquoise velvet and crystal. Before the opening of the restaurant, this room was visited by some of the world’s biggest musicians, from Lenny Kravitz through to Sting and Plácido Domingo; their signatures are etched onto the mirrors hanging on the wall. To the right, sleek sophistication will make you feel like royalty. At the chef’s table, visitors can take a peek behind the scenes through the open kitchen. The interiors were conceived by prestigious Gold Key Award-winning designer Zoltán Varró.