Vegan products

Hi narcissi!

Welcome to Expat.com!

Armand

I am not an expert, but it perhaps helps if you say how vegan you are - no animal product at all?
It is surely possible to get these things, but this has not got that much of a tradition in Hungary, so it is a relatively small 'subculture'. I am not even sure if you can buy soy milk that easily everywhere (say, our corner mini-market, or a cheap Lidl not-so-super-market), but I'm just guessing - Budapest life is still being westernised at a rather fast pace...until now.

I usually do not distinguish vegetarian and vegan myself, but I can at least share the vegetarian eatouts and related links, I know:

Hummus Bar, a chain of kind-of-near-eastern style budget restaurant. Their site looked at via google-translate:
http://translate.google.hu/translate?hl … ermeink%2F

ups, I just saw chicken liver on one of the menus... it seems not all of them are vegetarian. But I like the vegetarian things.
I usually go to this Hummus which always seemed vegetarian to me:  http://goo.gl/maps/kb2qp


A few minutes walk from there, on the even side of Pozsonyi út (in Újlipótváros quarter) there is a small vegetarian buffet-restaurant, slightly more elaborate stuff. Can't remember the name, but it is here:
              http://goo.gl/maps/G513w
It has marvellous salads (according to my family's taste) extremely fresh stuff and all - but not that good warm dishes.
It is run buy a few girls/women who are apparently into this kind of food - I think, they will be happy to give you further advice on Vegan life in Budapest.
(Hummus bar is a chain, I don't think, people working there care are required to be vegan:)

Third, you can check out the places given here:
             http://wikitravel.org/en/Budapest#Vegetarian.2FVegan
but it could be somewhat outdated.

I also just found this page 'The Happy Cow' - nomen est omen:-)
http://www.happycow.net/europe/hungary/budapest/

Good luck, and you can also share your findings here:-)

Hi

My wife and I are vegetarians, not vegans, and we find it difficult to find good non-meat foods here. It really is hit and miss. We live in Pecs in the South with a very high population of students and foreign nationals who are non-meat eaters but it is still difficult. You do get the Herbahaz shops that sell vegan and vegetarian products such as Soya, soya milk, soya yogurt, vegan suasages etc. Supermarkets sich as Tesco sell some soya products. Lots of shops sell pasta that is egg free. Of course the choice of vegetables and fruit in Hungary is second to none and it actually has flavour, not like the Dutch and Spanish force grown products. Here fresh Hungarian produce has real flavour.Down Pozsonyi Way (in Budapest of course) walking from the Margit Bridge end there is a superb vegan shop and bistro on the left about two blocks down. Cannot remember the name but I remember the food and it was excellent.

Good hunting and I guess good cooking as this is the main way for vegetarians and vegans to live/eat in Hungary.

markru wrote:

...Down Pozsonyi Way (in Budapest of course) walking from the Margit Bridge end there is a superb vegan shop and bistro on the left about two blocks down. Cannot remember the name but I remember the food and it was excellent.

Hey, thats my bistro, mine! read above :-)

Explanation: Herbaház (ca. herbal house) is an online shop
http://www.herbahaz.hu/eng
there are other online shops with a similar profile, like
http://www.zoldbolt.hu/szepseg-egeszseg
but I dont know another foodie-chain, Im not sure how many try to sell fresh food over the internet...

EDIT:
Another 'bio'/organic MLM onlineshop (click in the English flag):
http://www.biyovis.hu/tapolcai

markru wrote:

Good hunting and I guess good cooking as this is the main way for vegetarians and vegans to live/eat in Hungary.

Cooking is certainly a way and not a bad one if you get stuff fresh from the market - but Budapest and Pécs are not in the same league, with all due respect. Even if general quality of life is regarded better "on the countryside", vegan/vegetarian food service is associated with city culture. (I'm afraid many students cannot afford eating out regularly, many of their lecturers definitely cannot, as I just learned)
I am moving to Debrecen for job, this is the second largest town in Hu (still called "countryside" by Hungarians:), and it already feels like an adventure;-p    And I am not even vegetarian...

Thanks everyone! Will have to check these out

I am very,very vegan, I do not eat or use any animal products (shampoo, conditioner etc.). As said before, I have found some shops and restaurants but I do still think that as in my home country, it probably is easier to cook at home also in Budapest. So I need to find all the ingredients on my own from supermarkets. I also saw from Tesco's website that they would have some products and at least here in Finland also Lidl has some soy products.

I think that even though the amount of vegan products/ shops/ restaurants in Budapest is small, it's huge compared to my hometowns (population under 150 000) And also I remember from my first visit to Budapest that there are many delicious fruits and vegetables even in the winter of which a vegan can be happy about

I can share a couple of vegan options for you. But I do second all the people above who say that unfortunately vegan (or even vegetarians) are not very well catered for here. This is a proud meat eating, meat loving place! I've been out with vegetarian friends who've had difficulty explaining the concept to the waitstaff, and who've been served food that is cooked in animal, usually pork, fat. I suggest you learn a few phrases in Hungarian to explain yourself, and you'll have a much easier time! 

So, two great options for lunches at least:

This first one is a restaurant in Pest, which is vegan and raw. Great food, fantastic cakes, and they do a daily lunch delivery service around the city.

MANNATURAL ÉTELMANUFAKTÚRA KFT.
www.mannatural.hu
Üzlet: 1054 Budapest, Garibaldi u. 5
Számlázási cím: 1027 Budapest, Horvát u. 2-12
Telefon: 06-20-6633504

This second one, I haven't tried, I've only just been told about it.

"Kakadu" a "rolling vegan kitchen" which does vegan food delivery around the city. www.kakadukitchen.wordpress.com

Also, whilst you may not be able to find soy products of other vegan products in the normal supermarkets or corner stores, we have a lot of "Bio" stores that sell natural products. Fireroller already gave you some links above.

Also, there is Culinaris, which specialises in imported goods. It's a little more expensive than the supermarket, but they will usually have things you can't find anywhere else. And today, they opened their webstore, so you can browse through in english and take a look at their stock. http://www.culinaris.hu/

Hope this helps, and welcome to Budapest!

Fireroller, what's the name of your shop/bistro?