Unfortunately, fish from Lake Balaton haven’t been available in restaurants for a few years now, but an even bigger problem is that – just like before the fishing prohibition that's in effect now – frozen hake is once again the king of fish available for an affordable price. This is why it’s a pleasant surprise to stumble upon restaurants like Fish House in Sóstó, where they serve meals made strictly from freshwater and sea animals, from simple carp to shrimp trail with velouté sauce and Enokitake.
Hungary isn’t a fish-eating nation: fish courses are kind of exotic meals here, and that doesn’t only stand for Beluga caviar. A decent trout or zander can only be found in white tablecloth restaurants with wine lists and other posh props, and is accompanied prices that are really not suitable for the thickness (or more like the slimness) of the average Hungarian’s wallet. This isn’t necessarily caused by a lack of good fish or the eating habits of this culture. Fish House is a great example that one can eat swordfish between two rounds of sunbathing, without having a black American Express card in their beach bag.
Coolness instead of snobbery
Even the appearance of Fish House suggests that it won’t be like that: there’s no wine smelling here, but there’s the sign of a big beer producing company, so the place is easily mistaken for a simple Balaton-buffet – however, we can spot the octopus arms at the bar once we get closer. We thought we would prefer eating Hungarian fish so we chose the trout with grilled vegetables, and the fried carp slice with mayonnaise potato salad.
Our lunch cost less than 6,000 forints including two glasses of homemade lemonade, and given the quality of the meals, this wasn’t bad at all: the carp was crunchy but not oily, and we didn’t discover any faults in the trout either – however, we weren’t so sure about the side dishes.
It felt really nice to sit on the shaded terrace, and based on what we saw, we weren’t the only ones who thought so: it was around lunchtime, and the place filled up with people eating unhurriedly, talking over their tuna steaks like they would at a buffet on the beach.
It’s not about the hake anymore
The manager, Tamás Szalai can barely keep up, he runs from table to table, so our conversation was mostly just half-sentences: “The place is popular, you can see that, and it’s not because of the hake. We have it, of course, but we use a special marinade, different from the one others use. But eight out of ten people come here for something else; they’d rather eat black shells with tomato sauce. There’s demand. Many people say it’s as good as the one they had during their holiday on the seashore.” By the way, the seafood allegedly comes freshly from Italy.
What’s next?
So there’s a reason many people, locals and tourists alike, are into this fresh take on fish, and now that they’ve been around for two years, the management is thinking about expanding their season. They would like to turn Fish House into a strong, constant contestant among the fish-focused spots.
