2020 will be the year of Asian restaurants, and we're so happy about it!
Eating in an Asian restaurant is not the cheapest, most basic option for a long time: more and more high-quality Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, and other Asian restaurants have opened in the city, introducing the highest quality and authentic recipes of Asian cuisine to the people of Budapest. Now two more of these locations have opened: a Japanese restaurant, Nebuta, and the new gem of China, Spicy Fish. Let's see them in details!
If we're talking about Japanese gastronomy, everybody thinks about sushi – and this is that we certainly won't meet at Nebuta. They focus on two other big favorites of Japanese gastronomy, ramen and katsu instead, with some appetizers and gyoza. Nebuta's concept is simple: high quality ingredients, small selection and quick service, so if a group of Japanese tourists come in, they too will be satisfied with what's on their plate.
The menu is simple, short, but at first it can cause some headaches due to the Japanese names. The emphasis is on ramen and katsu, we can get these in 8 different versions, so no boredom is possible. If we want some appetizer, we have 3 options, there are 4 types of ramen on the menu and we can get them in two sizes. Nebuta has their own version of schnitzel with cabbage salad, miso soup and rice, and there are combinations, so-called sets, where you'll get a little bit of everything. After the main meals we can add some sugar to our body with Floating Islands or plum gyoza.
Spicy Fish is probably the first Chinese restaurant in the city that is perfect for a first date. Quality, pleasant, well designed. The menu is quite long and eclectic, so if we don't know what to order, expect to spend quarter of an hour browsing the menu. In addition to Chinese food, there are 12 different Japanese ramen and even Korean bibimbap (a mixed rice dish with meat and vegetables). And while it is generally unlucky to have multiple countries' kitchens on a single menu, participants of Spicy Fish take their own kitchen rules seriously enough to make this place an exception.
After the appetizers, we can start with dishes that are easy to recognize for the European stomach, or we can try some hardcore Asian food. The name of the restaurant, spicy fish, for example, is a Sichuan specialty: A serving of river fish and bean sprouts comes in a huge bowl of boiling oil and full of bird eye chili and Sichuan pepper. Since most of the "juice" is oil, we get a ladle with holes, so we only have soft fish meat, lots of bean sprouts and spices in our bowl. If we go to Spicy Fish in a group - because this meal is not about one or two servings - it's worth trying, it is a real specialty.
