Mosselen Restaurant

Atmosphere: Coming through the door is like traveling to Belgium. It’s just like a restaurant there – a grand hall with massive wooden and copper trimmings, artifacts from Belgian flea markets, old ads and evocative green lamps.
And yet this is not totally exotic to Hungarians – it’s basically a classical turn-of-the-century European style.

In Belgium, the walls and ceiling usually end up brown with smoke. Here, they have advanced the rustic feel by staining the ceilings and walls slightly with brown paint.

Mosselen has a good location – a quiet, residential street, but relatively close to the business area of central Pest. It’s also close to where I live, so I come here often, usually for dinner or Saturday lunch.

Whom to take: The clientele changes with the time of day. Lunchtime is mostly business. At dinnertime, Mosselen is a classic pub with a relaxed elegance, filled with the liberated voices of those who worked hard during the day.

What we ate: I like the creative names of the dishes. They stimulate parts of the brain not usually used during the business day.

I started with the fish soup, which contained mussels, puréed fish and vegetables. It was served in a nice black pot, perhaps imported from Belgium. It was spicy and very rich in flavor, with a lot of substance – it seems like half the ocean was cooked in it.

My companion enjoyed a rich venison and mushroom broth.
I then had the duck salad, which offered a very good balance. The salad itself was light and fresh, an interesting combination of fruits, lettuce and vegetables. On the other hand, the duck was very substantial, dense and spicy. It almost resembled beef.

My companion enjoyed his chicken strips with fresh fruits, including strawberry, red grapes, kiwi, orange and finely sliced pear.

We finished with the essential Segafredo espresso.

Wine list: Forget wine – the beer selection here is fantastic. A wide array of Belgian beers is available on draft and in bottles, the latter including Leffe Radieuse, Duvel, Hoegaarden Forbidden Fruit, and Chimay and Belle-Vue brews.

If you’re having a fun evening here with a group, try ordering the memorable zsiráf (giraffe). This is a tall, 2.5-liter tube of beer with its own tap. The waiter places it on the table for diners to help themselves.

Service and value: Service here is consistently fast, friendly and attentive. The waiters understand Belgian beer names with a Budapest accent just fine.
Our meal for two, not including dessert, came to just under Ft 7,000 (€28).


FROM THE MENU Ft

STARTERS & SOUPS
“Ménage r trois” – seasoned meatballs in a spicy sauce 1,090
Spicy seafish cream soup with vegetables, chili and black mussels 890
Venison stew with mushrooms, seasoned with laurel 750
Mixed salad with grilled duck breast strips in a peppery sherry dressing 1,690

MAIN COURSES
“Tin Tin’s wild tales” – chicken breast strips grilled with fruit in a coconut and orange sauce, with wild rice and potato croquettes 1,690
“A big, fat Greek pig” – pork medallions stuffed with seasoned feta with ham, steamed rice and potatoes 2,190
“We lost our way in the Ardennes” – steak grilled in Parmesan cheese with green peppers, bacon, goose liver and potatoes 3,490

DESSERTS & DRINKS
“The sweetest sin” – rice cream with raspberry jelly 690
“How I want to be rich” – marzipan cake with warm sour cherry sauce 690
Draft Leffe Blond or Dark (pohár/korsó/zsiráf) 400/470/3,560

The Reviewer
Zoltán Bruckner wants to encourage people to be enterprising and perform at their best.
As managing director of Primus Capital Partners, a venture capital fund he started in 2003, he seeks out local companies with annual revenue of up to €1 million that need a capital injection – and some advice on how to grow.
“I like to get in the same mental environment with the managers, so we can discuss critical decisions freely,” he says, summing up the active partnership he tries to nurture. “I can introduce them to additional management tools, but I like to be a catalyst, not a dictator.”
The 34-year-old also tries to bring new insights to local students. He manages the selection process for the Kellner Foundation, which annually sponsors seven students from Budapest’s ELTE university to study for a year at U.S. colleges.
“The idea is to give ELTE students a chance to experience the thrill and challenges of U.S. liberal arts education,” he explains.
Bruckner himself was the first Hungarian to benefit from the Kellner Scholarship, back in 1991, and says he learned a lot from the ten years he subsequently spent in the U.S. and the Netherlands, studying economics and business at graduate level and gaining his first professional experiences.
Now living in Budapest with his American wife and their four-month-old daughter, Bruckner explains that he came back “to find challenges in an environment where things are less ready-made, and there is more room for innovation.”


Dist. 13, Pannónia u. 14
Tel: 452-0535
Open daily,
noon–midnight
www.mosselen.hu



David Hill

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