Fűszerkert Restaurant in Tihany has gone through a thorough overhaul, but a few things have stayed the same: the exceptional view of Lake Balaton and the herb garden. Despite the magical setting, don’t be afraid to ditch your knife and fork, and dig in with your hands when your plate of tasty lamb ribs arrive.
Fűszerkert Restaurant serves first-rate cuisine, but the fact of the matter is that the food is probably not the only thing drawing a fair number of patrons here week after week. Located in a secluded part of the Tihany Peninsula, the Echo Residence resort feels a lot like an elegant vacation spot by the Adriatic Sea, and the refined atmosphere is only enhanced by the hotel’s restaurant with its spacious terrace and captivating panorama: from here you can feast your eyes on the Tihany strait and the south shore with the impressive Kőröshegy Viaduct.
Operating successfully for the past four years, the eatery has recently been overhauled for the new season. We caught up with new chef Viktor Reiner to ask him about the fresh changes at Fűszerkert. He took over the kitchen less than a month ago, and he was given free rein from the start. He says ingredients are the main thing to consider, so he did his homework to find out where he could get his hands on the best produce, and that knowledge is the foundation of Fűszerkert’s new menu. “Despite the fact that many claim the opposite, local ingredients are difficult to work with, as they often pose a problem in terms of quality and quantity,” he says, adding that a lot of the products he uses come from Budapest, Vienna, France, and Italy. The goat’s cheese, however, is sourced from the village of Etyek. Staying true to its name, Fűszerkert has its own herb garden: “we come out in the morning, pick the herbs, put them in water, and we use them in our cooking throughout the day.”
The restaurant didn’t use to have a creative chef. Filling a position at Balaton is a challenge in itself if the person you're looking for needs to have considerable experience in gastronomy. It’s not easy “to find someone who can cook a piece of meat the proper way, and has respect for the ingredients,” the current chef says. Fűszerkert managed to put together a young, capable staff, and Reiner has trained them so well he can sometimes take a break or allow himself the luxury of giving an interview. The customers couldn’t be more satisfied: they adore the wonderful panorama as well as the presentation and the brand new flavors. The team’s biggest feat is that they were able to convince even those who loved the dishes on the old menu how good the new selection is.
From pea risotto to homemade krémes
We were more than happy to put the revised menu to the test. We began with two appetizers, warm scallops with pea risotto (2,490 forints) and goat’s cheese Liptauer with roasted peppers and rucola (1,990 forints), and continued with two main dishes, lamb ribs au jus with vegetables (4,250 forints) and pike-perch cooked in its skin with pak choi and garlic confit (4,250 forints). For dessert, we munched on curd cheese dumplings with apricot and vanilla sour cream (1,450 forints) and the homemade krémes cake of Grandma Karolina with lots of fresh fruit (1,450 forints).
If we had to pick one thing that we were particularly fond of, we’d choose the pea risotto served in a tiny pot to go with our first appetizer; it was one of the most excellent and simplest side dishes we’d ever tasted. The rucola salad with roasted peppers was also divine. The assortment of side dishes was dominated by fresh, summery vegetables in every course of our meal, and the main dishes were no exception. We couldn’t find fault with the lamb ribs (don’t be shy, just grab them, and worry about cleaning yourself up later) or the pike-perch, and we would go back any day for the homemade krémes of Karolina.
“I’m proud of every dish, and I love mutton as an ingredient,” Reiner continued. He wanted to offer light bistro cuisine, but he knew that he needed to harmonize his vision with the taste and expectations of patrons coming from the big city, looking for new impressions and the flavors of the countryside. The chef loves the goat's cheese Liptauer a lot, not to mention the guineafowl soup and the farmyard chicken, which is definitely the real deal. Seeing as fishing on the lake is prohibited, the pike-perch is not caught from Balaton, but comes from the Czech Republic. In addition to the fixed menu, the restaurant will prepare weekly options with 30-40 portions available; if you don’t want to miss out, make sure to check back on a regular basis.
The life of a chef
The chef used to work at various catering establishments in Budapest, such as the former Café Alibi on Egyetem Square. Later he moved to Italy for six years: he spent a few months at a Michelin starred restaurant in Florence, then moved on to Milan, and finally got a job in Bolzano where he took several courses and participated in training sessions held by the managers. He learned how “to be humble when it comes to ingredients” and how to cook with joy. “Fine dining is not at all conducive to the latter”; that’s why it’s going out of style in western cuisine, Reiner says.
When he came home from Italy, he was recruited by Budapest Bistro, and eventually ended up at Balaton; he was contacted by the owners of Fűszerkert, who were in the process of reinventing their menu. He took one look at the pretty, green terrace and the panorama, and he was sold.
