A new chapter in a two-hundred-year story: Cova Budapest wins Promising Restaurant of the Year award
The category focuses on newly opened places that are already worth following. In the case of Cova, this was accompanied by an unusual starting point: it was not simply a new restaurant that arrived in Budapest, but a Milanese institution whose history dates back to 1817.
The original Cova opened near the Teatro alla Scala, later moving to Via Montenapoleone, and over the decades became a well-known fixture of Milan's social scene. The Budapest establishment had to simultaneously maintain its worldly character and find how to operate naturally in another city, in another historic building.
Perhaps that is why it is interesting that Cova Budapest was not created as an exact copy of the Milanese unit: at several locations of the brand, the café and pastry line is primarily dominant, but here the concept has been supplemented with a full-fledged restaurant. In the morning, guests of Matild Palace are welcomed, later the space continues to operate as a café and pastry shop, and at lunchtime, during aperitivo and in the evening, the restaurant character increasingly comes to the fore.
Read our interview with Tonio Gerco:
A few weeks ago, we spoke with Tonio Greco, the chef of Cova Budapest, who also highlighted this as one of the most important features of the place. There are not several independent catering units operating in a single space, but the same Cova that changes with the time of day. They try to keep the same thinking behind breakfast, pastries, lunch, aperitivo and dinner: the Milanese identity, the craftsmanship, the attention to ingredients and the kind of restrained elegance that has already become one of the main characteristics of the place. The menu continues the same parallel: it features classics such as saffron risotto, vitello tonnato or Milanese veal shank, but we can also find Sicilian caponata and homemade casarecce with slow-cooked beef ragu.
And while Cova came from Milan, Budapest is more than just a new location for it. The two cities share a strong coffeehouse tradition, which the brand’s leaders also spoke about in our previous interview. And the chosen building only reinforces this, as the Belvárosi Kávéház once operated on the site of the Matild Palace. So with the arrival of Cova, an old Budapest function has actually returned to its walls, albeit in a completely different form.
The history of Cova Budapest is only a few months old, which is why the adjective “promising” in the name of the recognition is apt for it. It does not say what this place will be like in years to come, but indicates that the first chapter is already noteworthy in itself. And the next part of the story will reveal to us what unique Budapest character will grow out of the more than two hundred years of Italian heritage over time.
The Opening of the Year Award was sponsored by TorTer in 2026.
