NEW YEAR'S EVE AT GUNDEL
Gundel Palace | 31 December 2026, 6.30 pm
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“They spent months perfecting it.”
Bakony-style dishes represent one of the most distinctive flavour profiles in Hungarian cuisine, a style associated with the name Gundel. In the early 20th century, the restaurant created numerous dishes that are now considered cornerstones of Hungarian gastronomy.
The creation of the Bakony ragout was not the work of a single moment. When the Gundel restaurant first opened, the kitchen team at the time spent months refining the proportions of paprika, mushrooms, and sour cream to achieve the rich yet harmonious flavour profile that today defines the “Bakony” style. It was this careful experimentation and precision that elevated the dish from a traditional fare to the level of refined dining.
At Gundel, Bakony beef is served with a smoky taste of cottage cheese pasta. The combination of the juicy meat, the creamy ragout, and the distinctive side dish offers one of the most complete experiences of Hungarian cuisine, where every element is about balance and harmony.
The perfect balance of flavours—try it at Gundel.
A Hungarian dish with paprika, mushrooms, and sour cream.
It was developed by Károly Gundel.
A perfect balance of flavours.
Made with mushrooms, peppers, and sour cream.
At Gundel Restaurant.
Dishes prepared in the Bakony style are made with sautéed mushrooms and topped with a sour cream sauce. They are served with many different kinds of meat—with red meat lovers in mind, we grill sirloin steak (cooked to the guest’s desired doneness, of course). We prepare a thick mushroom and paprika sauce with sour cream. The classic side dish is cottage cheese pasta made from homemade noodles, and—as is the most delicious way to prepare it—we lightly fry it in a cast-iron skillet in Mangalica bacon fat. The full-fat cottage cheese and sour cream come from an artisanal dairy farm. We sprinkle crispy cracklings on top of the pasta.
Károly Gundel created numerous dishes and flavour combinations that we now consider the foundation of Hungarian cuisine. They have become so widespread that we don’t even realize they originated in his restaurant’s kitchen at the beginning of the last century. With perseverance, he tasted his way through sauces, gravies, and stews—each conceived from different ingredients and in varying proportions. Even with the Bakony mushroom ragout, he spent months perfecting the ratio of paprika, mushrooms, and sour cream before the “Bakony-style” version could finally make its way onto the menu.
The question may arise: what makes a dish ‘bakonyi’ style ‘bakonyi’? In Gundel's day, the Bakony was a popular mushroom-growing region, and that is where the mushrooms came from.
Because there were many forests and hilly areas in Hungary, many species of mushrooms were grown. Thus, mushroom dishes were typical of Hungarian cuisine and are still popular today.
Many people serve "galuska" with the Bakony-style paprika-sour cream sauce, but it truly harmonizes with cottage cheese pasta. What’s the difference between cottage cheese pasta and csusza? First of all, it’s made from egg-rich csusza dough, which is a classic Hungarian pasta. The well-cooked pasta is mixed with cottage cheese blended with sour cream and then fried in a skillet with bacon fat. This allows the flavours to really come together, and the bottom of the csusza turns slightly golden brown.
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