Onyx Restaurant Budapest Review: the ÆTHER Dinner, Prices and Booking

Somewhere around the year 2126, your lamb arrives in a petri dish, and by then the strangers around the table have become your dinner company. That is ÆTHER, the dinner Onyx has served since it reopened in March 2025 above Vörösmarty tér, in the same building as Café Gerbeaud.

Onyx once held two Michelin stars. It closed in 2020, rebuilt itself for five years, and came back as something else: an 11-course journey from the first restaurants of 1765 to an imagined menu in the year 3016, cooked by a team rather than a star chef. It suits curious diners who like a story with their food and do not mind talking to strangers. If you want a quiet table for two, or you are booking because of the stars, this is the wrong room.

The menu costs 69,000 HUF (about $210) per person, plus 15% service, and dinner runs Thursday to Monday only.

📋 Onyx Restaurant at a Glance

What	Details
Where	Vörösmarty tér 7-8, 1051 Budapest (District V), in the Gerbeaud House
Getting there	Metro M1 to Vörösmarty tér, or M1, M2 and M3 to Deák Ferenc tér
Open	Thursday to Monday, dinner only, fixed seating (18:30-22:00 per the MICHELIN Guide)
Closed	Tuesday and Wednesday
Menu	ÆTHER, 11 courses, 69,000 HUF per person
Pairings	36,000 HUF local wines, 79,000 HUF international wines, 26,000 HUF non-alcoholic
Service charge	15%, added to the bill
Deposit	10,000 HUF per person, deducted from the bill
Michelin	Recommended, no star; Green Star Community (October 2025 selection)
Skip if	You want a private, quiet dinner for two

From two stars to a dinner about the future

Onyx opened in 2007 on Vörösmarty tér, run by the company behind Gerbeaud (the restaurant’s legal notice names Gerbeaud Gasztronómia Kft. at the same address). It went on to hold two Michelin stars, and the restaurant still describes itself as the first two-star restaurant in East-Central Europe.

Onyx closed in 2020 for a complete rebuild. The team spent the next five years experimenting and redesigning, and the restaurant reopened on 8 March 2025 with ÆTHER. One change runs deeper than the menu: the kitchen is no longer built around a single head chef. The MICHELIN Guide lists the chef as the “ONYX Creative Community”, a group of around 30 cooks, artists and designers. At the reopening, the restaurant’s creative director told the Hungarian news site Index that the group settles professional questions by democratic vote, and that the biggest lesson of those five years was that the individual matters less than the task and the team behind it.

The stars did not come back with the reopening. The current MICHELIN Guide Hungary page lists Onyx as a recommended restaurant, cuisine “Modern Cuisine”, top price band, with no star. The October 2025 selection does name it one of six Hungarian members of the Green Star Community, Michelin’s recognition for sustainable practices. The restaurant’s own pages still lead with its two-star past, so do not book a big-occasion dinner expecting a starred room today.

Source: opening year from hvg.hu (28 July 2016) and the two stars from hvg.hu (26 March 2018); the 2020 closure, the reopening and the team model from Index (20 April 2025); operator from the onyxrestaurant.hu legal notice; current listing from the MICHELIN Guide and the guide’s Hungary 2025 announcement (9 October 2025), read on 24 October 2026.

What the ÆTHER evening is like

The evening is a journey through time, told in two rooms. You start in the past: steam engines, electric light, the first cars, the Moon landing. Then the story leaves for the future, with Mars as the destination. Light and sound change as you go, and the courses are the chapters.

The MICHELIN Guide describes a largely communal affair that starts at a large square table in front of the kitchen and then moves to an adjacent room, with the team’s own version of cola, a pizza, and lamb with red cabbage served in a petri dish to stand for life on Mars in 2126. At some point you will be given a cape to wear. Arrive on time, because everyone starts together.

Plan on about three hours. Each course arrives with its own music and lighting, and you change seats and rooms more than once, so leave nothing booked for later that evening. With a communal table for sixteen, the team explains every plate and its place in the story and is happy to answer questions, so ask. The tone is warm and playful rather than stiff, which suits first-timers to tasting menus.

The story is not all fun. The first half, set in the past, is familiar and light. The second half, set after the 2020s, turns much darker, with climate collapse and lab-grown meat on the table, before a hopeful ending. Expect to think, and possibly to argue with the people next to you about the future. If you want dinner to switch your brain off, pick another restaurant.

Onyx prices and the ÆTHER menu

ÆTHER is a single set menu of 11 courses, told as twelve dated chapters from 1765 to 3016; the last chapter, New Dawn, has no dish. The menu as published in October 2026:

Year	Chapter	On the plate
1765	Industry 1.0	Vegetable bouillon, baked celeriac, verjus hollandaise
1944	White Gold	Daikon, beetroot, kohlrabi, koji rice cream, tomato-water almond foam
1969	Space Race	Pike perch, smoked fish soup, pil pil, elderberry capers
2026	Globalization	Pizza “alla pala”, house mascarpone, Mangalica lardo, aged cheese
2035	Industry 5.0	Onion granita, IPA, rose, Sarawak pepper
2054	Colonies	Hasselback potato, corn Vichyssoise cream, salted lemon, kombu
2126	Bioreactor	Lamb, labneh, red cabbage, coriander, lamb jus
2184	Phalanstery	Ostrich skewer, pickled garlic, thyme, herb ostrich jus, sourdough
2295	Mirage	Prickly pear, black cumin, black lime
2348	Gaia	Goat’s milk, honey, pistachio, pine nuts, orange water
2860	Blessed Tree	Dates, cocoa, Tokaji Aszú Essencia
3016	New Dawn	No dish listed

And what it costs:

Item	Price per person	With 15% service
ÆTHER dinner menu	69,000 HUF (about $210)	79,350 HUF (about $242)
Menu + local wine pairing	105,000 HUF (about $320)	120,750 HUF (about $368)
Menu + international wine pairing	148,000 HUF (about $451)	170,200 HUF (about $519)
Menu + non-alcoholic pairing	95,000 HUF (about $290)	109,250 HUF (about $333)

The pairings on their own cost 36,000 HUF (local wines), 79,000 HUF (international wines) and 26,000 HUF (non-alcoholic). The booking page adds that the menu price includes water and four additional drinks, so even without a pairing you will not sit dry.

You are paying for the whole production: the story, the room changes and the shared table as much as the plates. Diners who come for that tend to find it fair value for the evening. If you want a classic tasting menu judged plate by plate, book a starred room instead.

Prices are in HUF, which is what you pay on the bill. Converted at 1 USD = 328 HUF, the ECB rate on 23 October 2026. Rates move, so treat the dollar figures as indicative.

Source: menu and prices from onyxrestaurant.hu and the Onyx booking page on DinnerBooking, read on 24 October 2026.

How to book Onyx

Book online through DinnerBooking, the system the restaurant links from its own site. The online form takes up to six guests; for a larger group, call +36 30 508 0622 or write to onyx@onyxrestaurant.hu.

Three rules worth knowing before you click:

• Deposit. A 10,000 HUF deposit per person secures the reservation and is deducted from your final bill.
• Fixed seating. Everyone is served at the same time, so there is one start time per evening. Be on time.
• Dietary needs in advance. The restaurant asks you to tell it about dietary requests before you come. The menu does not list a vegetarian version, so ask when you book.

The restaurant does not publish a dress code. Onyx also sells gift vouchers for the dinner, with or without a pairing, on its voucher page.

Source: booking rules from the Onyx booking page on DinnerBooking and entrance from the restaurant’s DinnerBooking profile, read on 24 October 2026.

New Year’s Eve at Onyx

For 31 December 2026, Onyx sells a separate early dinner from 17:00 to 20:30: 12 servings from the 1700s to the 3000s, at 170,000 HUF per person with international wine pairing or 130,000 HUF with local wine pairing, service and VAT included, plus a ticket handling fee. A second, late-night New Year’s Eve event with champagne is listed on the restaurant’s events page. For the rest of the night, see our guide to New Year’s Eve in Budapest.

Source: ONYX New Year’s Eve Vol. 1 on DinnerBooking, read on 24 October 2026.

Who it suits, and who should skip it

Onyx is the booking for food-curious travelers who enjoy a concept, couples or friends who like meeting other diners, and anyone who has done the classic tasting-menu circuit and wants something that feels new. Couples are not stuck with strangers all night: part of the menu is served at separate tables before everyone gathers at the big one.

Skip it if you want a quiet, private dinner, if you dislike being asked to move between rooms or join in, or if a star is the point of the evening. Rooms with stars are listed in our Michelin restaurants guide.

Getting there

Onyx is at Vörösmarty tér 7-8, in the Gerbeaud House at the top of Váci utca. The restaurant’s booking profile gives the entrance as Harmincad utca, the street along the side of the building. Metro M1 stops at Vörösmarty tér right outside, and Deák Ferenc tér (M1, M2, M3) is a few minutes’ walk.

If you arrive early, the cakes next door are covered in our Gerbeaud review. The same group runs Émile, a daytime brunch and afternoon tea house in a villa on the Buda side: see our Émile review.

Onyx or Budapest’s starred restaurants?

The closest comparison is Rumour, the one-star on Petőfi tér, which also treats dinner as theater: a secret-door entrance and a 21-seat counter around an open kitchen. Rumour keeps the focus on the chefs and the plates. Onyx goes further into storytelling, with a fixed plot, room changes and a communal table that you do not choose.

If you want the most polished classic evening, two-star Stand is the safer choice. If you want a menu built tightly on Hungarian and Carpathian Basin produce, look at Salt or Babel. Prices, booking windows and cancellation rules for all of them are side by side in our guide to Budapest’s Michelin restaurants. Onyx is the pick when the experience matters more than the star count.

The verdict

Onyx gave up its stars to build something stranger, and it shows. Book ÆTHER if you want a dinner you will still be talking about the next morning, arrive on time, and tell the restaurant about any allergies before you come. If you want two stars and a private table, book Stand instead.

More places to eat are on our best restaurants in Budapest page.

Facts checked on 24 October 2026 on onyxrestaurant.hu, the Onyx booking page and the MICHELIN Guide. Menus and prices change, so check them before you book.