Budapest Great Market Hall Chef‑led Private Tasting Tour

We thoroughly enjoyed our morning Market Hall tour with Andrew! With our Danube riverboat cruise embarkation changed from Budapest to Vienna due to low water levels, we and our travel companions found ourselves with only one full day (instead of our originally-planned two+ days) to enjoy our Budapest pre-cruise stay. We are very glad we kept this tour on our schedule as we made our revised excursion plans! We completely agree with other reviewers' positive comments regarding Andrew's communication and chosen vendors to visit, so will not repeat those here. We can add that we especially enjoyed our open conversation with Andrew reflecting on his growing up in Budapest. The vendors we met whose products we had the pleasure of tasting, along with Hungarian souvenirs we found to purchase, were icing on the cake for us as we began our busy day exploring this wonderful city. Highly recommend this tour!

The whole experience from first meeting to leaving Andrew was excellent. The couple of hours spent wandering through the Market was interesting, informative and tasty. Andrew was able to cut through the tourist traps and provide a genuinely local market experience. Andrew was relaxed and easy to chat with. We were lucky to be the only two on our 9:30 tour. I think early in the morning meant less crowds, as it certainly got busy toward the end. The Market stalls we stopped at were well chosen and the variety of food certainly impressed us. I think this is great tour for foodies. Ticking off the Langos with a local was high on my list and I feel we got a quality Langos. Thanks Andrew.

This tour was THE highlight of our weekend in Budapest! Chef Andrew exceeded all our expectations - he was so interesting and knowledgeable. We had a fabulous morning where Andrew introduced us to all the delights of Hungarian food and told us the stories behind them. We tasted from many stalls - my highlight was the dark chocolate and cottage cheese roll but realise not everyone’s idea of heaven. Plenty of others to choose from. Thank you Andrew and so sorry for the very late review. If you like food we 100% recommend this tour!

A great experience - and great food! Our Chef Guide, Andrew, was very knowledgeable as he took us around the market, providing interesting and delicious interactions with various vendors in the Central Market. We highly recommend this experience while in Budapest!

Andrew as our tour guide. It was a good experience as we learned a lot about the history of Budapest along with the history of food. Overall, solid experience and would highly recommend.

This was a terrific tour and Andrew was the perfect guide. He was engaging, informative and had so many great stories about the market, the food and Hungary's food legacy. He knew wonderful merchants and we stopped to chat with many. Frankly, we'd have missed so many if we hadn't had Andrew's help. I still miss the incredible pickled food from the woman on downstairs level. Wow! Andrew also was a great communicator prior to the tour while we set up meeting details and confirmed our interests. He seemed genuinely interested in making our visit the best it could be. And it was! I'll be recommending Andrew's tour to some friend who are visiting the end of this year.

Andrew was very approachable, easy to converse with and made the whole experience fun and enjoyable. We enjoyed experiencing the different types of Hungarian food, and learning about the process, origin, the quality and history of the food. It was also great learning about the history of the market, and the building, as an outstanding piece of architectural iron structured . We enjoyed spending time within the non food market stores, learning about the different types of stitching styles and how to pick out the hand made linen. Overall it was a very entertaining and insightful time spent with Andrew, who was very accommodating to our requirements. Thank you again Andrew for a great morning, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and would highly recommend doing the tour.

We are so glad we booked this tour and can't stop talking about it with friends and family. Andrew is an excellent guide. Everything he had us try was memorable and interesting. This market would have been overwhelming for us to do on our own and we certainly wouldn't not have gotten the detail and history of the market and Hungarian food without him!

Andrew is a passionate about the quality and integrity of your food tour as he is about food. We had been in Budapest for a few days prior to out tour with him and tried a couple of the traditional foods that are a part of his tour. He accommodated this by quickly pivoting to a modified agenda for the tour. He has a wonderful repertoire of historical knowledge to share that puts the Hungarian food into context so it is more easily understood. This is one of those tours where you can get more out of it by working with him to share what information you would like more or less of. That said, if you are on vacation and just want to relax and enjoy the tour in it’s standard format you will still have a wonderfully rewarding experience.

Andrew was excellent! For a group of Americans the market can be overwhelming and I knew that on our own we would breeze by many items without knowing what they were or trying them. He explained the food and culture and had a great array of items to try. Andrew definitely enjoys his job and ensured that we all had a great experience. Highly recommend!

Private tour. Be curious and ask questions. Don’t eat before. You will walk throughout the market and try different local dishes. Andrew, a young local, is a great conversationalist and has a wealth of knowledge about Budapest.

Andrew was very kind and personable. He gave us great information about the market and the products within. I really enjoyed his perspective on the food because he is a chef! Highly recommend!

What a wonderful food tour! We learned so much about the culture, history and culinary aspects of Budapest all while enjoying delicious local food. Andrew was an incredible, personable and very knowledgeable guide who welcomed all of our questions. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone wanting a deeper dive into the food culture of Budapest.

Andrew was very knowledgeable of the Central Market in particular, and food in general. His personal stories were very interesting and he obviously was focused on ensuring that we enjoyed the experience. The 2 hours passed very quickly! We highly recommend this tour.

We had an amazing private food tour in Budapest with Andew. He is a fantastic tour leader—knowledgeable, flexible, and very easy to talk to. Because the tour is private, he customized the entire experience to our preferences, which makes it perfect for families or close friends who share similar food interests. This tour is ideal for food lovers who enjoy trying new and different dishes. We learned so much about everyday Hungarian life and tasted a wide variety of foods. There were a few items we skipped due to our own mental block, but Andew was always understanding and offered great alternatives. We enjoyed this tour a lot and highly recommend it for first time visitors to Budapest. If you can, book it on your first day—the tips and local knowledge Andew shares will help you for the rest of your trip. If we return to Budapest, we will definitely contact Andew again for his advice on where to eat and what to do.

We had an amazing 2+ hour tour throughout the market place. Our guide was local and very passionate about the city, the sites, and heritage. He shared the amazing history about the building and each of the local food kiosks with duck, pork, chocolate, spices, and handmade clothing, and souvenirs. He was friendly, knowledgeable and fun to be with.

Very enjoyable starting tour for us. Andrew was knowledgeable, engaging and personable. We got to taste multiple sweets, pastries and sausages, and learned a bunch about the local history and culture along the way. Didn’t taste any of the goulash (was expecting that to a central theme in Budapest), but we learned about the composition of them, and knew a bit more when we ordered some later from restaurants. Definitely recommend this one.

Guide was most knowledgeable both about the foods and history! Andrew was very personable. He answered any questions we had! An awesome experience!!!

Guide was amazing and knowledgeable definitely worth the money a must try if in Budapest!!!!!!!!!!!!

My husband and I enjoye dteh tour. It ended up being a private tour because the other folks who had signed up didn't show up. We got to see all the markets of the level and got some good history of the marketplace. I wasn't a fan of all of the foods, but my husband enjoyed them. I would just recommend small nibbles first of the things you are unsure of.

Andrew was an excellent guide who showed us all the best food in the Great Market Hall—the lángos and strudel were definite favourites. He also shared the history of the market and of Hungary in an informative and entertaining way, with great humour throughout. As a bonus, he even brought along some of his homemade pálinka to try, which was a perfect way to start a cold morning. We absolutely recommend Andrew’s tour. He also gave us some excellent recommendations on things to do in Budapest, and we’ll definitely be back to do more tours with him next time we visit

We took a wonderful tour of the food markets in Budapest. He was quite knowledgeable about the market itself, the items sold, and, more importantly, the various types of foods. We tasted local meat, pickles, langosh, strudel, and candies. It was a quick two hours and we highly recommend it.

Andrew was very friendly and informative. Learned much about Hungarian food, history and culture. It was a fun experience!

A super experience! Andrew was an excellent guide, very friendly and fun. We enjoyed sampling the various foods, and learning about the history of the market. Since it was a private tour we were able to ask lots of questions, and take our time.

This was exactly what we wanted. The tour of the Market Hall was great. The two hours just flew by. Andrew's easy presentation of information was great and easy to follow. It was clear he had done this tour before and was very knowledgeable of the workings of the market, where to get samples, and what samples to try. His background in cooking added to the tour. Andrew very quickly adapted to our interests, our tastes, and what we were shopping for. We would definitely do this this tour again and would strongly recommend it to anyone who had an interest in the market and its history. Well done.

A nice way to start our stay in Budapest. Andrew was very informative, and we tasted lots of yummy local goods. My family of 4 enjoyed the tour.

Despite having visited it before, this was a very informative overview of the market and Hungarian cuisine. Helpful information and a relaxed pace, yet comprehensive. There was a lot of tasting so don’t eat breakfast before you go.

Was a fun couple of hours with Andrew. Got to taste some of the traditional Hungarian foods and get to see where the locals do a lot of their shopping. He's a funny, sharp guy. One suggestion might be to stop by one of the cheese stands and sample some tastings there. But definitely a fun way to spend a couple of hours.

My son Benjamin researched this food tour in advance and we both loved it! Andrew was so friendly and knowledgeable. He spoke about food, the marketplace, and history as we visited booths and enjoyed a variety of food. So much fun! We wish we lived in the same country as Andrew so we could see him regularly.

My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed our private market tour with Andrew. We tasted Hungarian cuisine and learned about the history of the market while walking around the entire place. Don’t miss this experience, it’s worth it!

Thanks Andrew for a tasty, history tour of the market hall. Very interesting, lots of chat. Highly recommend. It's good to get a more authentic tour of an unfamiliar place with someone who knows it so well.

A little history, a little culture and food. A perfect combination. Tour guide Brian did a great job and it was memorable experience.

Andrew did a great job of introducing us to local cuisine, balanced with information about the history of the market.

Andrew was a delight and a wealth of knowledge. We enjoyed the small group approach! It was great to get a taste of Hungary!

I can't say enough good things about this tour! Andrew was a great guide, extremely interesting and really tailored his tour to our interests. I was initially a bit worried as my partner is not the most adventurous eater, but Andrew managed to balance his preferences with my own foodie palate and we both thoroughly enjoyed the food. There was a great variety of food and so much of it! We both left stuffed and with extra food that we enjoyed the next day. I wont spoil the tour by listing all the things we ate, but needless to say they were all delicious. It's much more than just a food tour though, Andrew is extremely knowledgeable about the history and culture of Budapest and so our tour was also culturally stimulating! We also had some great chats about his alcohol distilling and cooking career. Andrew definitely goes above and beyond for the tour, he even kindly gave us a bunch of tips for other foodie places around the city and even gave me a written tour of Lehel market so that I had a guide when I went to explore that - we followed his advice on the salami to get from there and it may have been some of the best I've ever had. Needless to say, I heartedly recommend this tour to anyone who loves food (and those who are learning to love it) and who want to learn more about the gastronomic history of Budapest.

Andrew’s food tour was fun, educational, and tasty. He’s also a very funny guy. If you want to learn about the history of Hungarian food and try many samples, I highly recommend this tour!

We had a great time with Andrew as he taught us about Hungarian history while we enjoyed a variety of Hungarian samples. It was very informative as well as delicious. We feel like we know much more about the Hungarian culture and food. We recommend him to anyone looking for an immersive and knowledgeable food experience! Thanks Andrew!

We had a great time exploring the market with Andrew. He was very knowledgeable and spent time explaining the markets history. All the food we tried was great!

We had a great experience with Andrew on the market tour. He is very knowledgeable and friendly, and has a wonderful sense of humor. We sampled a lot of different foods, savory and sweet. Really enjoyed the commentary, recommendations and culture. When you go on the tour, make sure you're hungry, as you will get to taste some incredible things

We had an excellent food sampling tour at the Great Market with Andrew! Our group of 3 couples were on a Viking river cruise, and we decided to do a small private tour of the market instead of the Viking tour, and glad we did, as the market is crowded, and we were able to move from place to place in a small group. Andrew gave us good directions and we met him outside the market. He guided us through the market and shared lots of interesting information about the market, and the city. We had samplings off many different types of food, including his home made palinka. A very fun time.

Andrew's tour was the highlight of our two week trip to Budapest and Vienna. Andrew is incredibly knowledgeable and personable. He has a deep insight into Budapest (being a local) AND his English is excellent. His training as a chef comes through with all aspects of the market tour.

We had Andrew walking us through the market. It was an excellent tour. Andrew spoke perfect English and showed us where locals shop, what is sold on the market, we tasted everything sweet and savory, had a great time. Andrew gave us great tips on where and how to shop for souvenirs. Thank you Andrew for a wonderful experience

The market tour with Andrew is not to be missed! His culinary background and knowledge made for a fun and adventurous eating experience with unique treats we would not have tried on our own. It was the perfect combination of culture, food and history that made the market a true highlight of our trip. He also made sure we got quality products like paprika, foie gras and embroidery for our family and friends. Thank you Andrew for making our time in Budapest so memorable!

The best way to savour a uniquely Hungarian gastronomy. Our guide did not just speak fluent English having spent 8 years working in American kitchens, but was also loquacious in sharing so much, not just about Hungarian traditional food, but also the culture too. He was a great, entertaining person to enjoy spending the morning with.

If you love food, if you love markets, this is the tour for you. Andrew was a brilliant guide. I could write an essay about the awesome aspect of the tour, but I willl just say this… I left there feeling like I got a genuine local’s experience of the market, very very full and like I had made a friend. Andrew, if you ever make it to Australia, come for a barbecue! DO NOT EAT BEFORE THIS TOUR

Our tour with Andrew of Budapest's Central Market Hall exceeded our expectations. Andrew is the perfect tour guide: so passionate about his culture, its history and its food. You felt like you were with a dear friend strolling through their neighborhood market. He had quite the sense of humor particularly when we sampled food that might not have been to our taste. He shared the history of the market and how it has evolved over the many years. Book a tour with Andrew to really gain an insight into the food, culture and history of Hungary, Budapest and this amazing market. Great way to cap off our visit to Budapest.

Borcha from JayWay was our tour guide. She was great fun. We enjoyed everywhere we went. We had an excellent lunch at Ghetto Gulash, then coffee at My little Melbourne restaurant.

Andrew was very warm person. The tour was like waking with good frend. I’ll got more information than expected. That was not just about food, it was about history of Hungary and the city of Budapest. Walking in the market we met different people and tastede specific food.

Andrew is a great tour guide who took us to the local market and provided us with in-depth knowledge of the local food history. We enjoyed the tour very much.