Hungarian Wine Challenge – Labirintus Étterem Szentendre
Like lots of people, I love a challenge! In September 2024, I set myself the challenge, while visiting Hungary, of travelling to multiple wine regions, tastings, festivals and other wine events in order to find some of the best wines in the country. The challenge started on 1 September and finished towards the end of the month.
Along the journey there were a number of places I visited. Among them was the Labirintus Étterem in Szentendre.
About the Restaurant
About 20km or a 40 minute train ride away from Budapest is the beautiful town Szentendre. The town is a small artisan town with cobbled streets and craft shops, a pretty centre and sits on the banks of the Danube. It is well worth a day trip, especially in nice weather. Getting there is relatively straightforward. You can take a boat there during the summer months – click here to book (affiliate link. You can also take a bus tour – click here to book (affiliate link). Alternatively you can take the H5 trainline from Margit híd, budai hídfő HÉV station, which you can easily access from the 4/6 tram.
A word of warning. If you do travel to Szentendre, you will need to either buy a seperate ticket for the journey or a top up if you are using a Budapest pass (daily, 72 hour, 15 day, etc…). However, the route is covered on the Hungary Pass (including, I believe, the County24 and Hungary 24 passes). Buying the top up ticket is a little daunting, so let me simplfying it.
The ticket is based on the distance you need to travel. Szentendre is 15km from Budapest, so you need a 15km extention ticket. If you’re returning, you actually need 2 and I usually buy both from Budapest. They will cost you around 310HUF, about 65 pence in GBP. You can buy them on the Budapest GO app. You can almost guarantee that once you leave the city boundary, that inspectors will board and check your ticket. Don’t forget to validate it on the train by pucturing it in the machine as you board.
The train station in Szentendre is about a 10 minute walk from the centre of the city. Its an easy walk, although the bus station is next door to the train station and might get you a little closer. One of the nice things about Labarintus is that to get there you essentially need to walk past many of the main attractions in Szentendre. The marzipan museum, the main square, the street with umbrella’s suspended in the air and more…
Labarintus is actually both a restaurant, as well as a Hungarian wine museum. You have multiple options here. You can obviously book yourself in for a meal. You can also book tastings in the wine museum which is a nice experience. Alternatively, you can just sit at the bar and order wines off the menu. I’ve not eaten here, but the food looked good quality. The tasting was great, and the wine menu at the bar is also quite a good representation of wines from the 22 wine regions in Hungary.
The museum itself is probably going to take you no more than 30 minutes to look around. It essentially has a number of plaques with information about each of the 22 wine regions in Hungary. This is a a good introduction to Hungary as a wine producing country. Once you’ve finished there, I’d really suggest trying to grab a seat in the covered courtyard outside, and trying some wines.
The courtyard is set up in traditional Hungarian style – red checked table cloths abound! The staff are very knowledgable, and even gave me a short impromtu Hungarian pronounciation lesson to help me correctly say the names of some of the regions. They know their wines and are happy to talk about them, as well as to help you build a bespoke tasting. You can order smaller size glasses (100ml) to make it possible to taste a lot of the wine.
The wines seemed to be pretty reasonably priced. I tasted 6 or 7 and the price didn’t seem unreasonable, even in Hungarian standards. They also have some sweet wines on menu, so if you are keen to try the Tokaj wines, you can do that here.
I found the atmosphere here very pleasant and it was quite a quiet venue, especially sat in the courtyard. Equally, its right off the main street, so when you are finished you don’t have a long walk back to the action. The staff have the right balance of being attentive, but not intrusive. The indoor area has a nice mural on the wall, but I generally prefer the courtyard.
Overall, this is a great place to visit if you take the day trip to Szentendre. As a bonus tip, you can catch the bus from the station to the Skanzen Village Museum (https://skanzen.hu/en) which is a nice half-day visit, and then back to Szentendre to enjoy a glass of wine or two and a wander around the town, before heading back to Budapest.
So if you want to visit the beautiful town of Szentendre and the Labarintus restaurant, its definitely worth a trip. If you want to visit another cellar while you’re there, why not try the Rustica cellar which you can book here. If you do plan a visit, let them know I recommended them. And in the meantime, keep enjoying this beautiful planet we live on, one glass at a time.