Pasta, pizza and spritz: 6 excellent Italian restaurants with a captivating atmosphere

The Michelin-recommended Avalon Ristorante in Avalon Park has been providing an authentic, high-quality Italian gastronomic experience for over ten years. The elegant, yet friendly and cosy interior evokes the sophisticated style of the southern Italian Riviera – not to mention that a few years ago it was awarded the title of the restaurant with the most beautiful interior design solutions in Central Europe. In the establishment, nestled in the embrace of the Bükk Mountains, you can order lunch and dinner, even with dishes served according to the "small plate" concept, true to Mediterranean eating habits. A rich buffet breakfast is also available for hotel guests. The menu includes grilled dishes, homemade pasta and seafood delicacies, and the perfectly blistered Neapolitan-style pizzas are baked in the Morello Forni oven by the Avalon's own pizza masters. The dessert palette also conveys the authentic Italian feeling. All this is topped off by the exceptionally attentive, friendly service.

Sophisticated yet relaxed, Gusto 13 Bistro & Delicate in Veszprém offers a taste of Italy at a friendly price, with the GustoDéli menu at lunchtime. The bistro, located close to the city centre, has an elegant, modern and intimate atmosphere, where the dishes are made with serious professional knowledge and real passion. The menu features seasonally updated, creative dishes – rich salads, meat-free options, exciting main courses, and mostly homemade pasta, which can also be ordered gluten-free. The Gusto 13 team has also thought of the little ones: they have a separate children's menu for toddlers. In good weather, it is especially cosy to have lunch or dinner on the terrace!

Hello Hungary tip: Not far from the restaurant, the team’s delicatessen, the Gusto Delicate, offers further culinary delights – coffees, craft beers, syrups, teas, pastas, premium cold cuts and other producers’ delicacies are also available. The ingredients for the sandwiches made locally are sourced from the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, but their Italian coffee, roasted in their small factory in Udine, is also divine!

You can find a piece of Tuscany in Balatonakarattya, thanks to il Mercato Ristorante e Gelateria. Entering the Mediterranean garden opening from the Rákóczi Square in Akarattya, you can feel as if you have been teleported to Italy: wrought iron furniture, Italian music and mouthwatering aromas welcome you. Arriving here is a little more than going to a restaurant, the owners strive to bring the genuine “dolce vita” feeling of life in every way.

The family-owned restaurant sources the ingredients from southern Italy. The Neapolitan-style pizzas are baked in a wood-fired oven, and the Mercato's enoteca offers excellent selections from renowned Italian wineries. When the weather is nice, the grill glows on the terrace, and there are regular gastronomic and musical programmes – it is worth following their events on social media.

Do not let the retro interior fool you when you arrive at the Pavilon in Balatonboglár! The restaurant operated by Dorisz and Róbert Antal-Tizedes is Italian to the core! The menu of the pavilion, which used to be a cooperative liquor store, is not extensive, but you can still choose from exciting items: among others, you can taste excellent Neapolitan-style pizzas, seafood, tomato tripe and vitello tonnato. It is always worth checking out the weekly offer and browsing the wines from mostly local wineries. As has been the practice in recent years, the Pavilon is not only open in summer – you can visit the restaurant in Balatonboglár at any time of the year for a delicious spaghetti aglio e olio, for example.

Certainly, many of us can agree with this statement – ​​there are few people on Earth who remain angry after a mouth-watering slice of pizza and an excellent Italian espresso. Thanks to the stone-ground flour, selected, seasonal ingredients and 48-hour leavening, the Miskolc unit will have the Roman-style (i.e. rectangular) pizza as it should be: light, yet crispy, tasty and filling! Of course, due to its size, you can taste more of the slices, what is more, it is worth doing so, since the Miskolc restaurant works with excellent ingredients. The pizza – and of course, world peace – goes hand in hand with excellent Italian coffee; the owners have this brought straight from Italy, and they make it with a 1961 coffee machine so that the espresso is flawlessly Italian. It is good to know that you can taste the excellent slices not only in Miskolc, but also in Debrecen!

Ristorante Azzari takes you to Italy while remaining true to itself and the needs of its local clientele. The atmosphere of the classic trattoria is intimate and family-like, and there is real expertise and passion behind the dishes. The pasta is homemade, the ham is from Parma, and the mozzarella is made from buffalo! Most of the ingredients come from local farms and producers: for example, lamb, fresh herbs, or artisanal goat cheese. The thin-crust Neapolitan pizzas are baked in the Morello Forni oven, which, as experts say, is a guarantee of success. Azzari is worth visiting not only for dinner, but also for a delicious, quality lunch menu – a friendly atmosphere, Italian hospitality, and a true culinary experience await you.

The sourdough-adventures of Szabolcs Szabadfi, or as everyone knows him: Szabi, the baker, perhaps one of the most well-known bakers in the country, are known by almost every Hungarian who is familiar with gastronomy. After the success of Panificio Il Basilico in Szentendre, he opened his new, nearly 3,000 square metre bakery in the heart of the town, next to the main road, which is at once a garden, a display workshop, a bakery and a stage for workshops. In the fragrant plant, the counters are crammed with fresh breads, rolls and sandwiches, while enthusiastic gastronomic adventurers can participate in workshops in the workshop in the back garden. At the end of the courtyard, there is the lush garden of the Bazsalikom Bakery, where so much is grown for the products made in the bakery.

The cypresses, lavender fields, olive groves and vineyards of the Tuscan countryside exude an amazing atmosphere. This Mediterranean milieu can be brought into the interior of any restaurant with green moss or plant images or plant walls from the MoosMoos. These maintenance-free design elements made of real flowers and lichens not only create spectacular green surfaces, but also contribute to the well-being of guests, evoking the tranquillity of nature. Whether it is the rustic atmosphere of a trattoria or the clean world of a modern bistro, the MoosMoos world can harmoniously fit into any interior, while giving the location a unique character. The installations do not require maintenance, while providing a special sight – so a little Italian "verde" can be added to any restaurant, regardless of the season.