Café Gerbeaud, Budapest: A Slice of 1858 on Vörösmarty Square

Café Gerbeaud is the grand confectionery at Vörösmarty Square 7-8, open every day from 9:00, where a slice of Dobos or Esterházy costs 4,490 HUF at the table and a cappuccino 2,790 HUF, plus a 15% service charge. There is no booking: you walk in, take a free table and order the cake Budapest has been eating here for well over a century.

The story begins with Henrik Kugler, who opened his café-confectionery in 1858 and moved it to what is now Vörösmarty Square in 1870. The Swiss confectioner Émile Gerbeaud joined him in the 1880s, grew the house from ten assistants to sixty, and gave it the name that still glows above the door.

The main salon with its marble tables and chandeliers. Photo: Elekes Andor, CC BY-SA 4.0

Gerbeaud at a Glance

What	Price or detail
Address	1051 Budapest, Vörösmarty Square 7-8
Hours	Mon to Thu and Sun 9:00-20:00, Fri and Sat 9:00-21:00
Reservations	None, tables in order of arrival
Classic cake slice (Dobos, Esterházy, Gerbeaud slice, Sacher)	4,490 HUF (about $13.5)
Hungarian Classics plate	6,990 HUF (about $21.5)
Classic coffees, espresso to flat white	1,990-3,250 HUF (about $6-10)
Hot dark chocolate with whipped cream	4,550 HUF (about $14)
Main courses	7,990-10,500 HUF (about $24.5-32)
Afternoon tea for two, 14:00-18:00	26,900 HUF (about $82)
Same slices on the webshop	2,190-2,790 HUF (about $6.5-8.5)
Service charge	15% on food and drink

Prices are in HUF, which is what you pay at the counter. Converted at 1 USD = 328 HUF, the ECB rate on 7 October 2026. Rates move, so treat the converted figures as indicative.

Source: Gerbeaud menu, hours and seating policy and the Gerbeaud webshop slice prices and pickup terms, checked on 8 October 2026.

What to Order

The Gerbeaud slice (zserbó). The house cake: thin pastry layers, homemade apricot jam and a walnut filling flavored with apricot liqueur, under dark chocolate. The jam’s tartness keeps the walnuts from getting heavy, which is why one slice never feels like too much.

Dobos cake. Sponge layers, cooked chocolate cream and a hard caramel top that cracks under the fork. Gerbeaud also makes an orange Dobos with Grand Marnier, one of the new versions that arrived with the 2025 refresh of the menu and the room. Our Dobos torte guide compares it with the city’s other serious slices.

Esterházy slice. Gluten-free walnut sponge with a cognac-flavored vanilla cream and the white fondant top with its chocolate web. Rich, nutty and the one to share if you are ordering two.

Somlói sponge. Cocoa, walnut and plain sponge with raisins soaked in Tokaji Aszú, chocolate sauce and whipped cream, 5,490 HUF as a plated dessert. If you only try one dessert that is not a slice, make it this one.

The Hungarian Classics plate. A tasting of the Gerbeaud slice, the Esterházy and the Dobos with vanilla ice cream and apricot sauce, 6,990 HUF. For a first visit it answers the “which one?” question in one go.

The coffee is Gerbeaud’s own blend, roasted for the house by One Eleven Concept Roastery, and every coffee on the menu also comes decaffeinated. The chocolate side has history too: since 2017 the confectionery has used Or Noir 1858, a 71.9% dark chocolate made for Gerbeaud with Cacao Barry.

The Gerbeaud building on Vörösmarty Square. Photo: G Da, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Our Lunch for One, Then and Now

In summer 2025 we went alone, on a slightly silly mission. An old Budapest urban legend, popular in the 1980s and 1990s, says that a young man who sits at Gerbeaud by himself and orders a Dobos with still water is sending a discreet signal to the city’s well-heeled ladies. We ordered the Dobos. Nobody signalled back. The cake, on the other hand, was every bit as good as its reputation, and the goulash, with salted lemon and capers, was a properly smoky bowl.

Here is that order, and what the same order costs on today’s menu.

Item	Our bill, summer 2025	Menu price, October 2026
Hungarian Classics plate	5,390 HUF	6,990 HUF
Somlói sponge	4,150 HUF	5,490 HUF
Goulash soup	5,690 HUF	5,990 HUF
Cappuccino	2,090 HUF	2,790 HUF
Hot chocolate	3,350 HUF	4,550 HUF
Subtotal	20,670 HUF	25,810 HUF
15% service charge	3,100 HUF	about 3,870 HUF
Total	23,770 HUF	about 29,680 HUF (about $90.5)

That is a long, generous lunch, and a treat rather than a habit. The good news is that Gerbeaud does not require the full spread to give you the full room.

How to Enjoy Gerbeaud on Any Budget

One cake, one coffee. An espresso and a slice of Dobos come to 6,480 HUF, about 7,450 HUF with the service charge, and you get exactly the same chandeliers as the table with the afternoon tea stand.

A set lunch. The Hungarian Classic Selection is 12,990 HUF for goulash soup, a slice of cake of your choice, a coffee and a 0.35 l bottle of Gerbeaud water.

Take a box home. The Gerbeaud webshop sells the same slices at 2,190 to 2,790 HUF, roughly half the table price: a Dobos or Gerbeaud slice is 2,190 HUF, the Somlói 2,790 HUF. Order before 16:00 and you can pick it up the next day at the café on Vörösmarty Square. Below a 10,000 HUF order it is pickup only; Budapest delivery costs 3,600 HUF up to 39,999 HUF and is free above that. Payment is by card online, or by card or cash when you collect.

Time it right. With no reservations, timing is your booking. Weekday afternoons are the calmest; weekends and the Christmas market weeks on the square fill the room. Pastries such as the croissant and the three-cheese scone are served until 11:30, main courses from 12:00, and afternoon tea from 14:00 to 18:00.

Afternoon tea for a celebration. Two people share a stand of cheese and seeded sticks, mini croissant sandwiches with ham or smoked salmon, a Somlói cup, Dobos, Esterházy and zserbó bites, biscuits and macarons, for 26,900 HUF with a hot drink each, or 33,500 HUF with a glass of Gerbeaud Brut each. It is made to order, so allow at least 20 minutes.

Who Will Love It

First-time visitors. Gerbeaud belongs on the same list as Parliament and the thermal baths: one sit-down visit, one classic cake, and the room does the rest.

Families with something to celebrate. Birthdays, a visiting grandmother, a last afternoon in Budapest. The afternoon tea stand turns it into an occasion.

Cake lovers on a budget. The webshop box and a bench on Vörösmarty Square make a lovely picnic, and you taste exactly what the salon serves.

When you want to explore further, our guide to the best cafés in Budapest covers the coffee houses Hungarians use day to day, from grand salons to neighborhood counters.