The Villa Strandbisztró in Balatonlelle, created by a family returning to Balaton after years in Vienna, offers great bites at affordable prices and in a homely atmosphere.
From guesthouses to wineries and confectioneries, there are plenty of villas around Lake Balaton. However, Villa Strandbisztró is not one of them: the name refers not to the building, but to cutlery, villa being the Hungarian for fork. The area was a sort of a villa district back in the day, which is how the locals still refer to it. The staff’s core is the Novotni family: the father is in the kitchen making the meals, while the mother and daughter are behind the counter, serving guests.
Their story started at Lake Balaton and returned there after several twists and turns. Parents Anna and László are both from the area but they met in Vienna, where they fell in love and started a family. With their parents still living back here, they decided to leave Vienna behind and open a pleasant beach buffet at Balaton, one that goes beyond the traditional hake and hamburgers that used to dominate lakeshore dining options.
Still, a beach buffet is a seasonal thing, so they haven't left Vienna entirely, especially since one of their children is at school there, and another at nursery. Their oldest daughter, Fanni, is already helping out with the family business. László has gained a lot of experience in gastronomy as he was the head chef at Maxing Stüberl in Vienna’s Schönbrunn. The family almost had their own restaurant in the Austrian capital but life intervened and they opened a place in Balatonlelle instead.
Starting out with traditional dishes, the place slowly took shape: the buffet is decorated in baby blue-and-white colours, with the names of the courses written on small boards that hang on a dividing wall – there’re even a boat that has been resurrected as shelving. According to Anna, at first people thought that this was a cocktail bar – which is partly true, they do have cocktails, but they decided to display the photographs of the dishes just to be sure.
They have many plans for the future, such as introducing more grilled food next year. Right now, their biggest hit is the pulled pork at 1,790 forints. Here they cook the meat for 13 hours before adding the barbecue seasoning, some gravy and a bun which, along with the meat, is sourced from Budapest. The sandwich is accompanied by coleslaw and V-cut potatoes. It looks like this:
