Excellent Balkan grill in Budapest
PolaPola is a recently-opened Balkan grill serving Croatian, Bosnian, and Serbian specialties in the heart of Budapest's District 7. As Hungary's hipster capital, District VII has a lot of cool new restaurants worth trying, but many have latched on the international street food trend and serve things like bahn mi or burgers, which is great if you're a Budapest local but not ideal if you're a tourist looking to try something new. We were looking for a break from Hungarian food but still wanted to try something interesting, and PolaPola ended up being the perfect choice.
When you enter, the first thing you'll notice is the huge charcoal grill covered with sausages, meat skewers, and lepjina, a kind of Balkan pita bread that they heat up on the grill until it's warm and smoky. The menu is entirely in Hungarian so you're best bet is to just ask for the waiter's recommendation (it worked out well for us!). We ended up getting two plates with grilled meat, fresh pita bread, a simple salad of feta, tomato, and onion, and a bowl of this incredible roasted red pepper sauce. From there, it was simple: put it all inside your fluffy lepjina and enjoy!
