ruin bar tour
The ruin bars are bars/clubs/cultural centre’s located
in
old buildings, waiting for the ball and chain. Some
are huge, often with three
levels and more then ten
different rooms and courtyards, some are located on
the
roofs of old buildings, others are nothing more then
some tables and chairs in
a hidden garden or courtyard.
Most ruin bars have free entrance, are open till
after three and sometimes there's live music. Some ruin bars are nice to
visit in daytime too, but it really gets started in the late evening. This walk won’t bring you to all ruin bars but you can check out the
majority of them in a 5 km walk.
>Start at Nyugati ter and walk to one of the oldest but also
oldest
ruin bars of Budapest:
Potkulcs [FG,42],
Csengeri utca 65. Courtyard terrace, cheap daily menu,
small but nice place.
>Cross the Grand Boulevard and head for Zichy Jeno street the
next stop:
Most [KL-37], Zichy
Jeno utca. Nice bar with cheap meals, a small roof
terrace and a small concert
hall.
>From Most, walk to through the Hajos utca and turn left
towards Instant
at Nagymezo street:
Instant [KL-40],
Nagymezo utca . Very big ruin bar with concerts in the
cellar, two courtyards
and about 16 different rooms on two floors. Instant
attracts a lot of ‘pub
crawlers’ and starts to get lively in the late evening.
>From here we head for Hegedu street just behind the terraces
of Liszt
square.
Tuzraktar [LM-44],
Hegedu utca 3. Underground feeling, small courtyard and is a meeting-point for
skaters.
>We turn right at Kiraly utca, pass Siraly (concerthall in
basement) and turn right at the big door at Kiralystreet 46:
Kuplung [MN-44],
Kiraly utca 46. Underground feeling, a nice place for the late hours in a former
garage, open till late.
>At Kazincsy utca we enter the Jewish quarter, in this street
you can find three ruin bars. The first two are
Ellato Kert and Koleves
Kert [Q-44], at Dob street turn to the
right. At number 18 you find:
Mumus [QR-42], Dob
utca 18. One of the nicest ruin bars with a friendly courtyard a bar downstairs
and some rooms and a dancefloor at the first floor.
>Return to Kazinczy street and turn right for Szimpla Kert.
Szimpla Kert [R-45],
Kazinczy utca 14. By far the most popular ruin bar of Budapest with two floors,
a labyrinth of bars, a huge courtyard, local fastfood, and sometimes
live-music.
>From here walk on to Rakoczi street, cross the street and
turn left towards Blaha Lujza square. At the square you find a ugly building
(former Kaiser supermarket). At the backside of the building you find:
Jelen [RS-50] Stahly
utca 15. No terrace but a nice bar, good and cheap meals and a small
contertroom (often jazz).
>Finally turn the corner and take the elevator near the kebab
store or the stairs 20 meters further on and head for the roof of the building.
Here you find: