Having not posted for quite a while I'll be doing a bit of summarizing and listing in the next few posts, which at least has the advantage of conveying quite a bit of information in a relatively waffle-free format. Apart from the first sentence, that is.
I haven't been out sitting drinking in pubs very much since August, as a freshly made (brewed?) Dad. I have, however, picked up a few bottles of beer to drink at home in front of the PC / TV, once the little chap has gone off to sleep. The problem with this in Budapest is that all but a ahandful of the shops all sell the same Hungarian macro-lagers, with their "magical" maize, and generally Pilsener Urquell is the only half-decent beer available. I mentioned that Tesco have a slightly wider range of Czech beers, but having tried all of them several times I started to make special trips to special little shops. Three are worth mentioning, listed here in ascending order of greatness.
3. GRoby
This is a chain of a few mini-markets - or perhaps cramped supermarkets might be a better description - dotted around Buda and Pest. Its not a place to do your everyday grocery shopping, unless you like paying extra - I had written these off as something like the CBA chain - a shop I only go to when the better value places are closed or too far away. On such occasions I go in, find that all the milk and bread costs more than it should, get annoyed at having to get out of other people's way all the time without knocking over stacks of tins in the extremely narrow aisles, then leave vowing not to go back. Until next time.
Or until, that is, I noticed that they actually have a wider than usual range of bottled beers.
First off they have a pretty good selection of Belgian beers. I know they can be nice but I can rarely bring myself to shell out 750ft or more for one of those cute little bottles. I keep meaning to try a range of Belgian beers, then remembering how they cost about 1 or 2 euros in Brussels, and my stingy side gets the better of me.
Then there are a usual couple of English beers that pop up from time to time in supermarkets in Budapest - Wells Bombardier and Banana Bread Beer. I was feeling less penny pinching than usual one day and bought a bottle of the latter, and was pleasantly surprised - after not having ale for months the range of malty flavours present was a a treat, and a nice change from all these lagers and (sort-of) IPAs with their dominant hops. And there was a hint of banana in there too. I think they had cans of Courage, or Director's or something too, but I didn't bother with them, as I wouldn't bother with them in England either. The Bombardier is available on tap at the Pointer pubs - but thats another story.
Finally, at a more acceptable price level for beers for less special occasions there were a couple of beers from a couple of smaller Czech brewers. I tried two types of Zlatopramen - the standard lezak (light), which was a a decent pilsener, and the "half and half", amber coloured poltmavy, which was OK, but with a bit too much dark malty coffee type stuff for my liking. Slightly cheaper, and of similar quality were the offerings from Litovel. I first tried this at the Czech beer days on Deak Tér in the summer (another untold story) and enjoyed both their standard light pils and their more reddish, maltier poltmavy -particulary the latter.
Sadly I didn't see the Litovel last time I popped in, but it has been out of stock before, so it may return to the shelves at some point. It seems that it is imported to Hungary by a small entrepreneur, so it might depend on the size of his garage and how recently he has taken his van to Moravia.
GRoby has since been rather eclipsed by the other two beer shops I found, but I'll still pop in if I am passing. And I am still not quite sure how to say the name of the shop. Is it "Gay Robbie"? If so, that would give it extra points. They also sell some rather tasty bread - for slightly more than I usually want to pay.
I haven't been out sitting drinking in pubs very much since August, as a freshly made (brewed?) Dad. I have, however, picked up a few bottles of beer to drink at home in front of the PC / TV, once the little chap has gone off to sleep. The problem with this in Budapest is that all but a ahandful of the shops all sell the same Hungarian macro-lagers, with their "magical" maize, and generally Pilsener Urquell is the only half-decent beer available. I mentioned that Tesco have a slightly wider range of Czech beers, but having tried all of them several times I started to make special trips to special little shops. Three are worth mentioning, listed here in ascending order of greatness.
3. GRoby
This is a chain of a few mini-markets - or perhaps cramped supermarkets might be a better description - dotted around Buda and Pest. Its not a place to do your everyday grocery shopping, unless you like paying extra - I had written these off as something like the CBA chain - a shop I only go to when the better value places are closed or too far away. On such occasions I go in, find that all the milk and bread costs more than it should, get annoyed at having to get out of other people's way all the time without knocking over stacks of tins in the extremely narrow aisles, then leave vowing not to go back. Until next time.
Or until, that is, I noticed that they actually have a wider than usual range of bottled beers.
First off they have a pretty good selection of Belgian beers. I know they can be nice but I can rarely bring myself to shell out 750ft or more for one of those cute little bottles. I keep meaning to try a range of Belgian beers, then remembering how they cost about 1 or 2 euros in Brussels, and my stingy side gets the better of me.
Then there are a usual couple of English beers that pop up from time to time in supermarkets in Budapest - Wells Bombardier and Banana Bread Beer. I was feeling less penny pinching than usual one day and bought a bottle of the latter, and was pleasantly surprised - after not having ale for months the range of malty flavours present was a a treat, and a nice change from all these lagers and (sort-of) IPAs with their dominant hops. And there was a hint of banana in there too. I think they had cans of Courage, or Director's or something too, but I didn't bother with them, as I wouldn't bother with them in England either. The Bombardier is available on tap at the Pointer pubs - but thats another story.
Finally, at a more acceptable price level for beers for less special occasions there were a couple of beers from a couple of smaller Czech brewers. I tried two types of Zlatopramen - the standard lezak (light), which was a a decent pilsener, and the "half and half", amber coloured poltmavy, which was OK, but with a bit too much dark malty coffee type stuff for my liking. Slightly cheaper, and of similar quality were the offerings from Litovel. I first tried this at the Czech beer days on Deak Tér in the summer (another untold story) and enjoyed both their standard light pils and their more reddish, maltier poltmavy -particulary the latter.
Sadly I didn't see the Litovel last time I popped in, but it has been out of stock before, so it may return to the shelves at some point. It seems that it is imported to Hungary by a small entrepreneur, so it might depend on the size of his garage and how recently he has taken his van to Moravia.
GRoby has since been rather eclipsed by the other two beer shops I found, but I'll still pop in if I am passing. And I am still not quite sure how to say the name of the shop. Is it "Gay Robbie"? If so, that would give it extra points. They also sell some rather tasty bread - for slightly more than I usually want to pay.
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