Farewell to Lehel Íze: the market’s iconic restaurant has closed

The Lehel Íze eatery was a safe haven for market shoppers and workers in the area: vegetables, stews, fried meat, dumplings and goulash soup – everything you need for a classic Hungarian lunch. The eatery was especially popular with pensioners, vendors, students and low-income customers, as you could eat well here even for a few thousand forints.

“We couldn’t afford the electricity bill”

The owner shared the reasons for the decision in a Facebook post. As he wrote, recently the monthly electricity bill had risen from 400 thousand forints to 2 million, which the daily turnover could no longer bear. However, there was no realistic possibility of raising prices, since the majority of the clientele simply could not pay more for the same food.

Rents have also been steadily increasing, and it is not only Lehel Íze that has closed down: several other market catering establishments have also closed down in recent months. Lehel Market, once one of Budapest’s most vibrant commercial centers, is becoming less and less attractive to small entrepreneurs due to rising costs.

An era has ended

The closure of Lehel Íze goes beyond the fate of a simple eatery – the continuous disappearance of small-town, cheap, home-cooked catering establishments is a social phenomenon. Inflation, rising utility bills, wage costs and price-sensitive consumption have combined to create an environment in which fewer and fewer places can stay afloat.

However, the memory of Lehel Íze lives on in many people: as a memory of the filling lunches, the fast, friendly service, and the old flavors – as the last witness of an era on the gastronomic map of the capital.