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 rétes 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 (mákos) and cottage cheese (túrós) fillings are the most Hungarian of the variants. Első Pesti Rétesház stretches dough in front of customers as part of the experience.
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.