A New Cafe Is Doing Homey, Budapest-Style Dishes at Norwood’s Hungarian Club

On the third Saturday of every month, as many as 180 people fill the Hungarian Club of South Australia’s Norwood hall for goulash night. There’s a buffet of Hungarian dishes, live music and dancing – a longstanding tradition that continued through the club’s recent two-and-a-half-year redevelopment.

But these days, you don’t have to wait for goulash night to get a taste of it.

When the 60-year-old club reopened in May, it did so with a new addition: Hungaria Cafe, a daytime eatery and Friday-night restaurant headed by Budapest-born chef Attila Tóth.

Tóth’s career has taken him through kitchens around the world, including Spago in Budapest, Nobu Lana’i in Hawaii and The Greenbrier in West Virginia. But in Norwood, he’s returned to the food he grew up with.

“We offer kind of simple but very traditional Hungarian dishes,” he says. “It’s like what we would cook at home.”

Tóth and his wife, Eszti Pichner, who handles front-of-house, were working and travelling around Queensland when a mutual connection with the club’s president led them to Norwood. While the new operation caters to the local Hungarian community, the pair are keen to introduce their food and culture to a wider audience.

“People don’t want to come in because they think it’s only for members,” Pichner says. “You don’t need to be Hungarian, you don’t need to be a member. Everyone is welcome.”

In the kitchen, Tóth is focusing on classic dishes, heavy on paprika, garlic, onion, sour cream and pickled vegetables. “Hungarians like a lot of spice,” he says. “We have a lot of red-coloured dishes because of the paprika – the paprika from Hungary is just different.” (You’ll find paprika pastes stocked on the cafe’s shelves, along with other Hungarian pantry staples, sweets and preserves to take home.)

The menu features chicken paprikash with nokedli dumplings(similar to spätzle) and homemade pickles; loaded langos (Hungarian flatbread) with garlic sour cream, cheese, smoked pork hock and red onion; a breakfast dish of bundás kenyér – savoury egg-battered toast filled with ham and cheese; and, for something sweet, somlói, a sponge dessert layered with chocolate, walnuts and whipped cream.

“I’m from Budapest and I cook Budapest style. If you go into a restaurant in Budapest, you’ll find these dishes on the menu,” Tóth says.

There’s also goulash, aka gulyás, of course – done the traditional way.

“In Hungary, gulyásis a soup, but people here think that it’s a thicker stew,” Pichner says. “We also have stews – beef stew and chicken stew – but the gulyás itself is a beef soup eaten with fresh bread on the side.”

The Friday night à la carte menu features pork-and-rice-stuffed cabbage served with a sauerkraut stew, halászlé (barramundi in a paprika broth with gyufa, or Hungarian matchstick noodles), and breaded pork loin. To drink, there’s Hungarian beer, wine, and spirits including pálinka (fruit brandy) and tokaji (a sweet wine from north-eastern Hungary), plus a selection of Australian beer and wine.

For something sweet, try the popular cinnamon-sugar chimney cake, a coiled pastry that’s cooked over an open fire for a crunchy shell and a soft interior, and palacsinta – Hungarian pancakes rolled with sweet cottage cheese or chocolate and sour cherries. By popular demand, Tóth has also added a warm poppy-seed roll, traditionally a Christmas dish.

For Pichner, opening the club’s doors to a broader audience is about more than sharing their food.

“We want people to feel the Hungarian hospitality,” she says. “We don’t just want people to come in and have dinner and go home. We want to talk with them and just tell them a little bit about Hungary.”

Hungaria Cafe
82 Osmond Terrace, Norwood

0435 650 434

Hours:
Tue to Thu 9am–3pm
Fri 9am–3pm, 5pm–9pm
Sat 9am–3pm

hungarianclub.com.au/hungariacafe
@hungariacafe