Duck in at the Horseshoe

A cozy little restaurant and a big plate of duck will warm not only the stomach and the rest of the body, but the heart and mind, too. Duck is fall comfort food, and, as the days grow shorter, darker and colder, what we really need is comfort. It’s going to be a long winter.Duck is heavy food, of course, much heavier than chicken. All that fat is no accident. Ducks need that layer of fat to protect them against winter’s icy waters. We need it to protect us, too.So, in search of thermal protection after a short walk through the fall night, we arrived at an intimate, cozy and homey restaurant in Buda’s District III: Rézpatkó Vendéglő. The name translates to the Brass Horseshoe Guesthouse. I prefer the word vendéglő to étterem, because it suggests hospitality. Rézpatkó does indeed exude this feeling of old-time family hospitality.Located just across the street from the Csillaghegy HÉV suburban train stop in northern Buda, Rézpatkó is easy to reach by public transport. That also gives it a special atmosphere as the HÉV rolls up to the station at regular intervals and you see the long green train’s moving lit-up windows illuminate the dark night.  
The restaurant has two separate rooms, smoking and non-smoking, and there’s a small outdoor garden dining area which you just might be able to enjoy this year if we get an Indian summer reprieve. Hope dies last.
The initial warming up was entrusted to Zwack Unicum, served in frosted glasses. That always gets the mood and appetite going. As Rézpatkó is a relatively traditional Hungarian restaurant, the menu consists mainly of well-known standards and updated versions.
Soups are generally about Ft300 ($1.75), and main dishes range from about Ft1,600 ($9.45) for poultry to about Ft3,000 ($17.70) for the most expensive steak dishes. Naturally, there are also fish dishes (trout, catfish, pike, salmon) and pork (don’t miss the pork beermaster style, ie, a beer-batter breaded pork cutlet stuffed with brains), and chef’s favorites, of which the pork medallions coated in tócsni is an absolute must.
But I had duck on the brain – and not yet in the stomach – so I asked for the farm duck platter with duck liver and steamed cabbage (Ft2,200, or $12.95). When I was told that duck was off the menu because they had rejected the bad looking duck at the market, I was crestfallen. But it was my lucky day. It turned out that there was one more portion.  
We also ordered sirloin steak with Roquefort cheese and garlic fried potatoes (Ft1,950 or $11.50).
The Nyirségi meat soup that came first had the piquant aroma of tarragon. The tasty, hot broth was full of tender meat chunks, peas, carrots and a stick-to-your-ribs potato dumpling.  Quite satisfying.

Heavenly

The steak was also quite good, though it could have been more tender. Roasted with a covering of grated Roquefort and served on a bed of absolutely delicious potato-chip-looking fried potatoes generously doused in garlic, this dish was a mouth-watering, well deserved treat after a long work week.
The duck, though, was what really did me in.  First of all, the size of the portion. This was half a duck, even too much for a glutton like me. Simple but delicious, the duck was complemented by the traditional garnish of heavenly, not-too-sweet steamed red cabbage, rice and steak fries. Bite after bite… after bite after bite… of this cold-weather food sent my stomach furnace into high gear and my brain into shut-down mode. I slept without blankets all night.
Though I was too overwhelmed for dessert this time, I can vouch for the excellent Somló sponge cake.
So, if you’re looking for family hospitality and quality cooking at reasonable prices, why not duck in at the Brass Horseshoe? It offers a high horsepower kick against the early fall.

Rézpatkó Vendéglő
Buda, District III, Szentendrei út 333.
(next to the Csillaghegy HÉV stop)
Open: every day noon – 10pm
Tel: 240-9122

Atmosphere: ****
Quality of food: ****
Service: *****
Value for money: *****