By Riley Moore
Address: Budapest, Thököly út 18, 1076 Menu: asianstreetfood.hu Hours: Open · Closes 9 pm
If you’re anything like me, sometimes a craving for a good wonton soup kicks in on a chilly day, or a savory fried rice craving at lunch time sounds perfect, or maybe a sweet boba craving to finish off a hard school day. Well, with our campus location, we are in luck! There is a marketplace about a 10-minute walk from our school, and inside it houses individual stands that sell their own variety of Asian food. You’ll find places that specialize in pho, sushi, Thai food, dumplings, Vietnamese recipes, boba, and more. 8 individual stalls are guaranteed to deliver delicious delicacies.
I’m not going to lie to you, this place can feel a bit hectic sometimes, so possibly brace for that to be your experience as you walk through the doors. The first two stalls will be a boba drink place called Addictea to your right- and trust me when I say that every drink here is good. They have dozens of different flavor options guaranteed to satisfy whatever craving you are having that day. Personally, my favorite is the brown sugar tapioca drink, but sadly, they have been out of tapioca every time I visit recently. I tried asking if they would be getting any more eventually, but there was a bit of a language barrier, and I’m not sure we understood each other properly. But anyway, there are still dozens of flavors to choose from, and every time it is a delightful drink.
On the right side of the entrance is a restaurant that offers some comforting flavors in its soups and good dumplings, but make sure you bring cash! I would say that every time I buy from there, it is a 75% chance that their machine isn’t working and can only accept cash payments, so be prepared for that if your heart is set on eating here. One time when my family was visiting me here in Budapest, my little cousin tried the fried rice from this stall, and well…it wasn’t particularly checking off the boxes for us. It seemed a little burnt, and the flavors weren’t our favorites. However, I got bao dumplings from there, and they were some of the best I’ve ever had. So sometimes you might be ordering the wrong thing, it’s important to keep an open mind when trying new places.
To continue into the marketplace, you will have to go up a set of about 5 steps that will lead you to a little seating area and the third stall in this market – Tai He Lou. This one is one of my favorites, particularly one dish- their pork and green onion fried dumplings. One order of them costs 1900 forints, and you get about 10 dumplings that are extremely filling. Between that and maybe a side of rice, and a boba drink, I’ve had a delicious and filling meal with a sweet treat all under 3500 forints. Besides the appealing price range, these dumplings are just hands-down delicious. As I mentioned before, my family visited me, and of the four people visiting, everyone loved them so much that we had to get another order before the rest of our food even came out. If I’m going to recommend one food item, it would probably be this one from all the options.
Continuing from that stall and the little seating area, you will walk into the main seating area of the market. Above you is a massive skylight window that makes this place wonderfully lit up during the day. Decor is all around you, with fake vines scaling from the walls to the ceiling and parasol umbrellas placed to be looked up at. There are a few tables that are small and designed for one or two people, but as you continue, you’ll come upon the larger, high-top tables that can hold up to six people. In this open area, is where you’ll come upon most of the stalls and a much wider selection of food options.
The first restaurant is YY LiangPi, which specializes in Pho recipes. By just briefly scanning the menu, they have dozens of different options. Some with pork, some with chicken, some with sesame sauce, and others with hot and sour noodles. Just from the looks of it, this stall is the place to come if you’re craving any sort of soup. Directly across from that is Thai Food- the stall where you guessed it- get your Thai food cravings met. A quick glance at their menu and I see classic Thai dishes like Pad Thai, Pad Khi Mao, and even more options that look delicious as they hand them off to customers. Adjacent to the Thai stall is Sushi Yitian. This stall has dozens of different sushi rolls but also fried dish options like spring rolls or shrimp tempura. This stall also has a deli case out in the front that holds yummy Asian sweets like mochi, crepe cakes, and even more unique sweet treats. I talked to the store worker, and she told me the mochi is made fresh every day, and from my experience, it is very flavorful and extremely delicate. I got their mixed flavor pack one day, and it was delicious. It came with matcha, mango, chocolate, and strawberry as the flavors, and each one was good in its own way. My favorite was the mango because it tasted so fresh, with the matcha flavor coming in as a close second.
Next to the sushi and dessert place I just mentioned is a Korean BBQ-style place. They offer up a selection of different skewers of squid, prawns, beef, chicken, and more! The chicken fillets are one of my favorite quick bites here that always leave me feeling perfectly full. My boyfriend really enjoyed the beef skewers, and he said he would be coming back for them, so I think that means they’re pretty good.
Across from the BBQ place is Desi Flavors, a restaurant that has a more Indian based menu, with Chicken Tikka Masala, Chicken Korma, veg biryani, and more stars on the menu. I never grew up eating Indian food, so it always felt a little out of my wheelhouse, but my friend got Veg Biryani one time, and one bite of that seriously changed my life. Such a unique blend of flavors and spices, and the naan on the side just sent it right to the top of one of the best meals I’ve had at this marketplace. I now love trying new Indian foods, so I think this place is a great restaurant for anyone.
Desi Flavors is the last of the restaurants in the main seating area, but there is one more back room that houses a more laid-back atmosphere and one more food stall. Now I will say, there used to be two more stalls back here, but one has just recently shut down, which is why I think it is super important to support this place and these local vendors! The last stall standing in this backroom is the Vietnamese stall here at the Asian market. I personally haven’t tried this restaurant yet, but they are always making a meal, helping a customer, or sending a meal off. I think that because this is the only Vietnamese place within this market, it does well as it can offer a new type of food and flavors for people. One day, I will order from this stall, and I implore you to as well.
All in all, if you ever do make your way over there, you will realize there’s no proper way to summarize this market. It’s bustling and hectic, yes, but it also offers up just about any flavor or spice your mind could dream up and a real sense of community within its confines. Now, with today’s ever-growing world of big corporations taking over, I think it’s extremely important to be mindful about what we are supporting. When you go there and support these businesses with your money, you can tell that it’s going somewhere meaningful. The workers are all so kind and willing to help anyone with an open mind, and I can always tell that they want to have customers. They want to have customers, not just to get their money, but so that they can make good meals for the people around them. They want to care for the community, just as the community continues to care for them. So, if you ever find yourself craving any sort of Asian food, I highly recommend this as the place to fulfil your every craving.
Photos by Riley Moore
