New York Café is the perfect example of how a wonderful experience can be spoiled by poor organization.

We visited on a Saturday, and the place is indeed absolutely stunning. There was a queue outside, with a waiting time of at least 30 minutes, which I found perfectly understandable considering the day and the time we arrived.

However, once we got inside, we had two unpleasant surprises. First, there were plenty of empty tables, certainly enough to make us wonder why such a long queue was necessary outside. Second, and this was what ultimately convinced us not to stay, as soon as we sat down, a waitress came over and told us that whatever we ordered would take at least 40 minutes to arrive.

I completely understand that restaurants can get extremely busy, especially during peak hours. However, New York Café is one of Budapest’s most famous and visited places, so a high number of customers should hardly come as a surprise to the staff. Better organization would make a huge difference.

It is a real shame because the location itself is spectacular, but under these circumstances, the experience felt extremely overrated. We eventually decided to leave, disappointed.

Fortunately, our day was saved by Gerbeaud Café, which is actually even older than New York Café and where the experience was wonderful — well organized, welcoming and truly enjoyable.

Beautiful place, unfortunately disappointing experience.

We had a wonderful experience at New York Café in Budapest! The atmosphere is absolutely stunning, and the food was excellent. We had the Eggs Benedict and the pancakes with mascarpone – both were delicious, fresh, beautifully presented, and definitely worth trying.

The service was outstanding and made our visit even more enjoyable. Our waitress, Bianca, was incredibly friendly, attentive, and professional. She took great care of us throughout our visit and made us feel very welcome.

Overall, a fantastic experience with great food, beautiful surroundings, and excellent service. A special thank you to Bianca for making our visit so memorable! We would definitely come back and highly recommend New York Café. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Unrealistically beautiful place, a must visit!

Incredible experience! The interior looks spectacular, literally like a castle filled with gold and crystal chandeliers. The coffee and traditional Dobos cake were excellent and served superbly. The prices are high, but you pay for the entrance to history and an ambiance that does not exist anywhere else in the world. Live music in the background creates the perfect atmosphere. It is recommended to come early in the morning to avoid the crowds at the entrance. A pure five!

This is a very touristy place. It’s the most famous restaurant in Budapest so you’ve got to go. The food is good, but it’s incredibly overpriced and you feel very rushed while you’re there. It’s lavishly decorated and it’s great for pictures of the beautiful ladies in your party. The history is great with all the writers and artists who used to eat there. I’m glad we ate there. I just don’t know that we would go back. There’s so much better options. We can relax and enjoy your meal without feeling hurried to get out the door. It seems like they’re trying to give you a luxury male but get you out the door quickly so they can turn the table.

Not long ago I bought a book called "150 coffee shops you should visit before you die" and thanks to this book I came across the New York cafè, which intrigued me for the reinassance style architecture. Discovering this cafe led me to book a flight for Budapest (yes, I booked a flight only for this coffee shop).

My experience was overall magnificent. I stayed two full hours and despite the long queue I wasn't rushed to leave (despite my table was booked for 1h). I had a first drink then a main followed by dessert and coffee.

The stuff was very nice, the food was really good and loved the entertainment with piano and violin player. In particular one violin performance was the Game of Thrones theme (a show that I love).

The overall experience was just mesmerizing and it's a place I would raccomend everyone to visit at least once.

I hope I'll have the chance to go back to experience this again.

It’s a nice, attractive setting, though very busy and crowded, which makes the service extremely slow. We wanted to spend a little time enjoying the place, but we ended up staying over an hour—waiting at least 20 minutes for our food and another 10 minutes just to get the bill. We knew it was a bit of a tourist trap, but we didn't expect such long waits for such a famous café. I’d recommend skipping it and going to one of the nearby restaurants instead.

Great place for coffee lovers and also affordable prices. It’s a very calm place to enjoy own company along with live music. It gives equal treatment for all kinds of customers. Better dress well,just like going to party so that you don’t feel embarrassed in front of the crowd. Great place for couples and families for memorable occasions.

The coffee place is beautiful. I reserved in advanced and there was no waiting time. They placed us at a very nice table next to the window, the service with Agnes was really good. She was very polite and welcoming.
The place is beautiful and the life piano music makes it feel very calm 🙂

I arrived early in the morning at 7:30AM and didn't have to wait in line at all. I highly recommend coming early!

Before visiting, I read many reviews saying the food wasn't great, so we only ordered drinks. To my surprise, the drinks were actually very good, and the Americano even came with milk. However, the prices are definitely much higher than at other cafes.

I must say that the staff serving us throughout the day were quite nice. However, at the very last moment when we were paying the bill, we were double-checking why there were four items listed when we had only ordered three drinks.

While we were looking, the male waiter rudely and unhappily pressed 0% on the tip option for us. Right at that exact moment, we spotted that the fourth item on the bill was already a 15% service charge. It was a very unpleasant way to end the meal, and with that kind of attitude, I would have pressed 0% myself anyway.

The venue itself is absolutely beautiful, and the live music created a lovely atmosphere, which we really enjoyed.

Unfortunately, our experience was significantly affected by the service we received from one of the waiters, Greggo. He appeared to struggle to understand our order, even though we specifically asked him to confirm that he had understood it correctly, and he assured us that he had.

When the order arrived incorrectly, we politely mentioned the issue, but his response was dismissive and came across as quite aggressive. He stated that we should have clarified it at the beginning, despite the fact that we had already confirmed the order with him. At that point, we had barely eaten any of it and still had over 70% of the ice cream left.

Our initial interaction with him was also disappointing. When we asked what the café’s specialties were, his response was essentially to forget the specialties and just order whatever we liked. Overall, his manner felt cold, dismissive, and unwelcoming.

It is a real shame, as the venue itself is stunning and the ambiance, especially with the live music, is beautiful. If you are visiting purely for photographs, it is certainly worth seeing. However, if you are hoping for a pleasant dining experience, you may be better off going elsewhere.

I would like to add that the gentleman who initially welcomed us and showed us to our table was very friendly and courteous, and the waiter who brought our drinks was also pleasant.

Restaurant building interior itself is really wealthy-looking and brilliant, however my expectations were different from what we got there.
The place is really overly crowded, chaotic and noisy in the evening, you can not even hear the music well, because there are so many tables very close to each other and so many people talking around. The inventory like tables or dishes' closets seem lower quality and are absolutely left out of the interior style.

Due to many customers - service is very slow, it took almost half an hour to only take the order and another 30 mins to serve them. Food was ok, I liked the Duck steak, but not that much the risotto with salmon. Pistachio and Coconut desserts were definitely two of the most delicious desserts I have eaten because of their rich and intense flavours. I would eat them again in the future.

Prices are acceptable, not very expensive.

Overall this place has a potential to be a high class fine dining restaurant, however currently I have a feeling that it's more targeted to the mass-customers and they don't really care much about the exclusivity or upscale, high-spending visitors. This is their strategy now. But for me personally, I could not get as much pleasure as I expected with the interior, because of the situation that I have explained above. Besides, I see that they answer every lower-rating review with the comment that they're sorry, but they don't seem to be doing anything to improve the situation

The New York Café is undeniably beautiful. The interior is stunning, very special and definitely worth seeing at least once.

Unfortunately, our experience with the service was very disappointing. To be fair, some members of staff were friendly, professional and well organised. However, the waiter who brought our drinks did not really explain what we had ordered. We ended up with a rather strange “smoothie coffee”, which was not really a smoothie at all, but more like coffee ice cream.

The worst part was when we wanted to pay. We asked to split the bill between the two of us, but were told that this was not possible because payment had to be made per table. That would have been absolutely fine if it had been explained politely. Instead, the waiter was extremely unfriendly and basically ordered us to sit back down in a very rude manner.

For a café of this reputation and price level, I would expect much better customer service. The setting is spectacular, but unfortunately the attitude of some of the staff really affected the overall experience.

We wanted to see and dine at the famous New York cafe. The building is absolutely beautiful. We ordered lunch and was a little disappointed. I had the Cesar salad with prawns. It was very small with a BIG price. The lettuce was yellow. I definitely had better. Service was alright. Not a 10 that’s for sure. My advice would be to go and see it but don’t eat there.

​This was our second visit to the New York Café in Budapest, and the experience was much more enjoyable than our first. During our previous trip, we visited mid day in peak tourist season and had to wait around 45 minutes for a table. This time, we arrived at about 9:00 AM and walked straight in with no waiting at all.
​The New York Café is famous for its breathtaking interiors rather than its food, and that reputation is well deserved. The architecture, grand chandeliers, and elegant décor make it one of the most beautiful cafés in the world. If you're visiting for the atmosphere and photos, you won't be disappointed.
​We ordered a few dishes and drinks, the food was fairly average for the brand.
​Arriving early made for a much more relaxed experience to appreciate the beauty of the place without long queues. It is close to the M2 metro line, falls on the big bus route and easily accessible by public transport.

The café is undeniably stunning and worth visiting for its breathtaking interior. However, the prices are quite high considering the overall experience. A special thank you to Balazs, whose kindness, professionalism, and attentive service were the highlight of our visit and made the experience much more pleasant.

It was a great experience overall. The place was beautiful and had a lovely atmosphere. The staff were organized and everything was handled on time.

The service charge is already included, but I didn’t appreciate the fact that a tip seemed to be mandatory. Also, a bottle of water cost nearly 5,000 HUF, which I found quite expensive.

Hi, my friend and I were really happy we were able to have breakfast in this beautiful cafe. We got here around and didn’t wait long. Absolutely loved the pianist, lovely! The Hungarian hot meal was delicious. Most importantly, Bianka provided us with excellent service and a warmth. Visiting from Chicago! Thank you

Having a cup of coffee here and enjoying the atmosphere and interior design was a really nice experience. The place has a lovely and unique atmosphere, making it a great spot to relax and enjoy a coffee. If you have a particular seat in mind, I would recommend making a reservation in advance to make sure you get the spot you like.

The cafe in itself was an absolute mess. Tables cramped together and waiters running around bumping into each other at every turn, it felt like an obstacle course just to get to our table which was at the very back of the restaurant with the window constantly sliding open to hit me on the back of the head.
It took 15 minutes for us to find a waiter to order our food and drinks.
Speaking of, if you want to get a coffee at the NEW YORK CAFE forget about it. Lukewarm at best for the low low price of 15€.
The service in itself was horrid, the waitress we had rolled her yes at us twice after we complained that the food that took 35 minutes to come was cold and salty. The goulash we ordered was fine, the mushrooms New York style pasta had a milky pool of sauce and was incredibly salty. It took 10 more minutes of “excuse us” and raising our hand to get the attention of the waitress.
My friend and I decided enough was enough and asked the waitress to return the food we took one bite of and then we earned our second eye roll, she said that we already ate so we can’t return it. We asked to talk to someone else and surprisingly the manager that came over was the best part of this experience. He was very apologetic and kind to us realizing his staff were lacking in every department. He told us we were free to leave and that he was very sorry for our experience, which we appreciated greatly.
In conclusion, tourist trap, extremely expensive for mediocre quality at best and horrible service. Avoid at all cost- instead go to either LARA cafe or the coffee shop across the street with great food and service.

Amazing food and coffe, unfortunately the dessert didnt came and when we ask about the bill, they was nice and they bringed the dessert discounted because of long waiting time. I totally understand on one side because was a busy day, but for this prices i expected better organization. Staff doesnt look rude or disrespectful, they look just too busy. Agnes was a nice guy a he solved our problem fast. Enjoy your time.