Fermento Budapest, Not That Good

I figure the worst thing that can happen to a restaurant, at least from my side, if it gets an extremely high valued recommendation and it doesn’t live up to it. This is just what we experience at Fermento Budapest, which turned out to be a great disappointment for us.

Our Fermento Budapest Recommendation

This restaurant was highly recommended to us by two friends independently. One of them even said that they made one of the best Italian pizzas in the city. So we were eager to try it and had very big expectations.

I have to tell you, even if we had just simply walked in this place, without anyone previously talking about it, we had been disappointed. Pizza was simply not good, but more on that later. But this way, having been recommended as an excellent pizza, waiting for a superb experience, we walked out with the feeling that we never again wanted to come back.

Mediocre Pizza

We ordered two very different pizzas at Fermento Budapest. One of them was original Neapolitan Bufala D.O.P, and the other one a gluten-free vegan pizza.

Just a quick thought here. It is extremely positive that they offer gluten-free pizza and you can also order a vegan version. That’s definitely a pro. We also know that you can’t expect the same experience with a gluten-free pizza that you would with a normal, original Italian pizza.

Still, both pizzas were a huge disappointment for us, especially, as I said, after our initial expectations.

The pizzas were not hot at all, warm at best. It felt like they did not have their oven at the right temperature,

The gluten-free crust was extremely thick, beyond enjoyable in our opinion. It was more like you were eating some kind of experimental yeastless flatbread, which was cold in the middle.

The regular pizza dough was too chewy, not crispy at all and extremely dense. It was difficult to chew and to swallow, seemed like it wasn’t proofed enough. Also didn’t have that distinct look and taste of woodfire oven pizzas, even if we saw making it in a woodfire oven.

If I want to be sarcastic, I would say that the place did not live up to its name, Fermento, not having the pizza dough fermented for long enough.

Mediocre Service

The place was almost empty when we arrived, so we had the opportunity to choose between eating outside or inside. The inside looked very cosy, with the woodfire oven, so we stayed indoors.

The problem is, they seemed to lack any kind of ventilation. The smoky odor was so harsh, that it became uncomfortable. I know that baking pizza in a woodfire oven is definitely a pro for a restaurant, but when the smoke starts to almost make you cry, I don’t think it’s handled in the right way.

I personally did not feel comfortable with the waiter as well. Yes, this is a very subjective matter, and he seemed kind and talkative. But there were 2 moments when I just didn’t feel comfortable as a guest. And honestly, if there is one thing that I hate the most in a restaurant, it is not feeling comfortable as a guest.

First, when he was criticizing other guests. Just by the experience I know that this is not a good sign and definitely not a sign of someone genuinely caring for their customers. The same person could easily criticize me to others next time.

Second, when he was kind of laughing at us when we ordered water as a drink. We asked him a lot about their pizza, especially the gluten-free flour they use. Then we ordered a large bottle of still water, and he just smiled at us. “Really?” he asked. “I thought that you were such an expert that you would order at least some lemon soda or something.” I don’t know, again, this can be just me, but I don’t like to be treated like this in a restaurant. If I want to order water, I order water, and that doesn’t make me less of an expert. Not that I need to be an expert in order to eat in a restaurant, anyways.

Other than these, the service was too slow, taking into consideration that the restaurant was almost empty. We waited more than 15 minutes for our order.

We got our pizzas separately, the second one only a couple of minutes later. Again, for me this is no better than mediocre service. And to top all that, they even switched our order with another guest, serving my pizza first to someone else.

Where Is it Located?

Fermento is located on the Buda side of the city, kind of opposite the Parliament building, in the middle of Csalogány street.

You can find it right in the middle between subway stops Batthyány tér and Széll Kálmán tér, a 5-10 minute walk from either one.

The restaurant doesn’t have an English website, but you can check out their Hungarian website with Google translate.