Paper-thin pastry stretched until it covers a tablecloth, filled with apple-cinnamon, sour cherry, poppy seed or sweetened cottage cheese, then rolled and baked.
The retes arrived through Vienna in the 18th century but was perfected by Hungarian cooks who treated dough-stretching as the room's central performance. The poppy seed (makos) and cottage cheese (turos) fillings are the most Hungarian of the variants.
3 editor picks for Rétes (Hungarian strudel) in Budapest, ranked by editorial score. All Budapest signature dishes · Rétes (Hungarian strudel) across every city.
Daubner Cukrászda ★ 4.6
varkerulet · Szépvölgyi út 50, 1025 Budapest
Daubner on Szepvolgyi ut in Buda's Rozsadomb hills runs a hundred-year cake counter where locals queue for birthday and name-day pastries in Budapest.
Első Pesti Rétesház ★ 4.2
lipotvaros · Október 6 utca 22, 1051 Budapest
Elso Pesti Reteshaz on Oktober 6 utca is Budapest's first dedicated strudel house, in a 1812 building with bakers stretching dough across the open table.
Rétesbár ★ 4.0
lipotvaros · Sütő utca 2, 1052 Budapest
Retesbar on Suto utca near Deak ter is a takeaway strudel counter in downtown Budapest with apple, cherry, poppy seed and cottage-cheese fillings made each morning.