Passing Judgement

Borbíróság – The Court of Wines Restaurant

The verdict is positive on this great new wine-inspired restaurant behind Budapest's main market hall.

A FourBees Review

The Borbíróság (Court of Wines) restaurant opened in October 2003 in a deserted square just behind Budapest’s Main Market Hall.On discovering this new venue with the unusual legal theme, I immediately summoned my Magyar advocat. She was happy as she does not usually eat hot food, just the raw reptilian diet.
We went on a Monday evening and found the place relatively empty but still with a warm and inviting atmosphere - quite a relief after the hustle and bad tempers of Liszt tér and Ráday utca. The place is stylishly done up with bare brick walls, brown wood and wrought iron.
The ‘Court’ is on three levels, with a ground floor restaurant-wine bar, a gallery high above and a cellar bar down some steep winding steps. It's not immediately apparent that Borbíróság peddles the legal theme, until you see the menu. It will be in English, Spanish, German and other EU languages soon, but for now my lawyer was in legal-beagle heaven, chuckling away at all the in-jokes on the menu.
The different sections have jokey titles like ‘Alibi’ for the soups (450-590 forints), such as a cold Tokaj cream soup, ‘társtettesek’ (accomplices) for the selection of spirits and ‘enyhítő körülmények’ (mediating circumstances) for soft drinks and many more but I imagine you get the picture.
The paper mats resemble my lawyer’s newspaper of choice (after The Budapest Times of course) Magyar Közlöny (the official journal of the Hungarian state). This one has been altered to read ‘Magyar Közöny’ (Hungarian Indifference), amusing but the food was not indifferent at all, your honour.
While we perused the menu and chortled at all the witty one-liners, a young man appeared from the back room with some hot toast and a plate with lemon garlicky butter smeared about. A winning feature at Borbíróság is the huge number of high-quality wines all available by the glass. No more worries about not being able to finish the bottle, or the dubious migraine-inducing qualities of the house red.
Borbíróság suggest the wine for each and every dish on the menu and this is a great help if you want to step out and try some new vineyards but don’t know what food should accompany which brew. In a refreshing change from the unhealthy, smoky borozós (wine bars), Borbíróság realise that wine can be best, or rather only, appreciated when supped alongside food, and have suggested enhancing combinations of food and drink throughout.
However, the wines on offer change weekly and I found that every wine I selected from the wine list, in one of those cardboardy beige files (more legal sniggering from the other side of the table), was not on offer that evening and I had to chose again. No problem! I find it much more reassuring to eat in a restaurant where items are so popular they run out, rather than a place where things linger on wilting for weeks.
At the pre-renovation version of Fészek klubja in Pest's Kertész utca, the waiter even had the gall to inquire whether I'd mind waiting 30 minutes while the chef defrosted the last trout he'd discovered lurking at the bottom of the deep freeze - yum yum.
There were plenty of other options on the wine list and the trick is to go with an open mind and a willingness to try all. For the first course I selected a mozzarella salad with rucola (980 forints) and instead of the Ottó Légli 333 suggested for that dish, I had a Szeremley Rajnai Rizling (390 forints a decilitre).
The massive salad was quite splendid, with a huge heap of rucola, some beautiful leaves of radicchio lettuce that resembled rabbit ears, some superior quality ham strips and an assortment of fresh veg. The sharpness of the Riesling grape complemented the freshness well and created a kind of appetite stimulant.
My lawyer tried the Parma ham on little toasted soldiers, a good starter with the cheeky Szeremley Szűrke Barát (350 forints a decilitre).
The taped music in the Borbíróság was not, as legal beagle predicted, something from The Stranglers or perchance the Fun Lovin’ Criminals, but the rather more classy warbler Sade working her way through her Promise album. I could have been dining out in Islington, were it not for the extremely reasonable prices – and the excellent Magyar wines.
My main course was another winner. I found the grilled salmon (1,600 forints) on a bed of bay leaves, spinach with rose peppercorns and a lemon sauce to be the perfect companion for my glass of Irsai Olivér (210 forints a decilitre) from Öregbaglás cellars (when the suggested Németh Pince Veresföldi Chardonnay was not on that week).
However, despite its digestion-aiding tanginess, I couldn’t finish all the lovely little rösti (fried potato and onion) coins served with the fish. The dish was decorated with another artistic arrangement of carved carrots, cucumbers and, wanting a squirt from one of the lemon quarters I nearly de-oculised myself on the spiky antenna of dry-roasted spaghetti, a decoration along with fresh rosemary and dill.
My lawyer chose appley chicken with mushrooms (1,200 forints) and also found the portion a little overwhelming after the generosity of the entrées. She sipped on a Szeremley Muscat Ottonel (Ft210 a deci) and found the fruitiness of the Muscat grape to be a good mate of the apple and mushroom mix livening up the chicken.
Borbíróság’s proximity to the market is revealed in the divine selection and use of fresh vegetables, fruit and meat. However, here wine is the main thing, but that’s not to say the food is neglected. In fact I was more impressed by the selection of ingredients, collation, presentation and panache than I have been in a long while.
It is a quite deserted part of town, it feels like the world might have ended but nobody told us. Nobody walks past the gigantic shop windows looking out onto the darkened Csarnok tér. It seems a little out of the way, but in fact it’s very central and very easy to find. Just walk down Pipa utca on the left hand side of the main market as you face it and when you come to the square about 200 yards along, you’ll see the sign Borbíróság.
I imagine once people discover it, they will keep on coming, but for now I’m enjoying the peace and quiet and the excellent food and beverages. The verdict, m’lud? Ten out of ten in all departments. Borbíróság also offers a fixed price menu on weekday lunchtimes and a daily happy (wine) hour 4pm-5pm of half-price wine tasting.

Borbíróság – The Court of Wines Restaurant
Budapest - District IX
Csarnok tér 5
Getting there: Tram 47, 49 to Fővám tér
Tel: (+36 1) 219-0902
Open Mon-Thurs noon-10pm, Fri-Sat noon-11pm, closed on Sunday
Borbíróság website

THE STING
Décor 7/10
Cuisine 8/10
Service 6/10
Wine List 9/10
Ambience 6/10
The Bees' Knees 7/10