Étterem Mester - Az étterem-kereső. Magyarország legjobb éttermei, cukrászdái, sörözői és egyéb vendéglátóhelyei.

V. Boyd - 2011-08-02 10:51:58

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THE HOLSTEN RESTAURANT, KESZTHELY Hearty, spicy gulyás soup, homemade beef pörkelt that melted in our mouths, Hungarian solet with marbled, hard-boiled eggs and slivers of smoked goose breast accompanied by cucumber salad with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of paprika. Live piano music in an old-fashioned, living room atmosphere surrounded by flocked wallpaper and gold-framed mirrors. We finished our meal a great deal heavier, but also considerably happier. If you also want to enjoy these dishes and get the “Hungarian glow”, do not eat at the Holsten Restaurant in Keszthely. My family and I first visited the Holsten Restaurant in Keszthely two years ago with Hungarian and German friends. The quality of the food then was of an average standard if a little pricey due to the restaurant’s location on the high street. Our experience at the restaurant this year was disappointing. Maybe we tempted fate. We’d spent the whole week eating Hungarian food so we ordered dishes that are not typically Hungarian. I ordered a Hungarian pizza with bacon and salami while my daughter had a tuna pizza. Both pizzas had a topping that comprised a few (token) strands of cheese mixed with a paste of processed cheese whose flavour was so strong that it overpowered every other ingredient. The consistency of the processed cheese was also slimy like Dairylea. My husband and son ordered the Greek salad which was not served with a dressing but this is normal in the region. Unfortunately, when my husband reached out for the oil and vinegar bottles on our table he saw that the surfaces of both bottles were covered in a thick layer of furry grime. My son went to the neighbouring table to see if the bottles there were cleaner (they were slightly less dirty), but the vinegar bottle contained a preserved fruit fly. I don’t think it’s too much to ask that the restaurant staff regularly wipe oil and vinegar bottles and check the contents. If you are, however, a fan of various types of meat heaped high onto platters (aka “cemetery on a plate”), this may be the right restaurant for you. For 12 Euros per person you can have quantity instead of quality served with a pile of braised cabbage. The Holsten Restaurant in Keszthely is just one of the many examples of restaurants around Lake Balaton that are happy to lower their culinary standards (if they had any to start with) and increase their prices so that they may make a profit from tourists who visit once, find the food under-par, moan about it (but seldom complain) and never return. So, how can you enjoy well-cooked Hungarian food? Just visit one of the many Hungarian restaurants that are opening up around the world, acting as culinary ambassadors to their home country. If you live in Germany, for example, you can hunt for the Hungarian restaurant “Zum Csikós” in the Altstadt (old part of the city). That’s where we enjoyed all the dishes described at the beginning of this review. It is restaurants like this that show that traditional Hungarian cuisine has so much more to offer. But not, it seems, in the majority of restaurants around Lake Balaton and definitely not in the Holsten Restaurant in Keszthely.