Andre’s Cafe & European Bakery
“My favorite food is Chicken Paprikash so when I went to visit my friend in NYC I started looking for some Hungarian Restaurants.”
“It's the only place I know of where you can get real goulash and chicken paprikas!”
“I have been to Hungary many times and Andres has the best Hungarian food I've had outside of Budapest, and Austria.”
Andre’s Cafe & European Bakery
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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The Yorkville section of NYC has lost it's Hungarian identity. Andre's is really the only place left from a neighborhood chock full yummy places. Andre's has a wonderful pastry selection, but I have never tried any of their lunch food. Their dobos torte and rigo janci taste like what you would find in Hungary and Austria. Today their slices of dobos, rigo janci, etc were each $6. I also bout 1 pound of cookies which cost $19. WORTH EVERY PENNY!!!
I came by and bought a few slices of strudels from Andre's for a little gathering. I came right when they just opened, so I was worried my choices are limited. But u ended up leaving with cherry, cherry cheese and apple strudels.
Remember to ask how to prepare before serving of your are not enjoying it right away. I didnt serve mine until 2 hours later, and omg they are amazing! I love the cheese ones best and it was a hit! I also had an opportunity to take a look at their lunch/dinner menu, cant wait to come back for some goulash!
A very unassuming little restaurant on 2nd Ave, which I must have passed by innumerable times before I ever noticed it and deciphered that it said "Hungarian cuisine" in some little nook on the sign. The mellifluous sound of Hungarian folk music was what caught my attention as I was walking by one afternoon. The ladies who work here look stern, but are really very sweet, which you realize when you interact with them.
I have tried their lunch special a couple of times, and have enjoyed it each time. It consists of a cup of soup (or salad, which I never opted for), an entree and a dessert for about $14. Since their minimum amount for credit card acceptance is $20, I also picked up an assortment of both sweet and savory strudels to take home for later.
The chicken paprikash and the veal goulash are both delicious and the nokedli is a perfect starch pairing for both of these entrees. The potato paprikash strudel is a perfect afternoon snack, fantastically flaky and flavorful. For dessert, the cherry cheese strudel, the apricot tart, the blueberry crepe… who am I kidding? ALL of their desserts are abso-fookin-lutely delicious!
My only worry is that I live dangerously close to this place, which means evil foreboding for my waistline!
After having a wonderful lunch I was drawn to Andre's from the delicious looking pastries at it's window. It appeared to be a hidden gem so I went in to give it a try. As my friend and I enter there is a person behind the counter with her back turned wiping the table. She doesn't greet us or acknowledge our presence. Even when were clearly talking about what we'd like to order. Finally she turns around and takes our order. I ordered the chocolate and raspberry roulade. I had hoped the food would have made up for the service but unfortunately it wasn't worth $8. The bread was dry and the cream was thick. Maybe the food menu is what their better known for, considering this place has solid 4 stars but you should skip the dessert.
I came here specifically to try out some Hungarian food. This turned out to be a very authentic and inexpensive place. These were the following things we tried here:
-Chicken Paprikash – This was very good, flavorful stewed chicken. The meat was basically falling off the bone. Like its name suggests, it is stewed in paprika. The one here also had a strong tomato flavor as well. It comes with a side of nokedli. Nokedli are known as Hungarian dumplings, but they taste and look more like macaroni. They tasted very bland and did not add much to the entree for me. At least the chicken was delicious.
-Savory Crepe – One of the specialties here are the Hungarian crepes. They come either in savory flavors (hot and filled with meat and vegetables) or dessert crepes (cold with fruits). We tried a savory crepe filled with mozzarella and tomatoes. It was tasted very similar to French crepes I've had before and was definitely very savory, but I would still recommend trying one here.
-Apple Strudel – For dessert, we decided to go basic and tried one of the apple strudels. We joked that it was a far cry from the Entemann's strudels we are used to. They actually warm their strudels up. It was very soft, flaky, and moist. I highly suggest trying one.
I had never had Hungarian food before but I knew what to expect as Eastern European food have similar concepts. I came here for the lunch special that is available from M-Thurs when I worked from home. Elderly crowd at this time of day but they all seemed like very sweet people to be around and one even offered me a seat at the larger table.
I had the goulash soup and chicken paprikash and apple cheese strudel(the waitress didn't hear me correctly when I said I wanted blueberry cheese). I have to say the chicken was amazing, which is why I couldnt give this place less than 3 stars. The strudel I had was also AMAZING. I think I have to come back here just to try their other pastries that they sell at the stand.
However, I couldn't get over how there was only 1 woman manning around 10 tables AND working at the counter. What should have only taken half the time….I was trying to wave the waitress down as she was running around serving 10 tables. It is a bit ridiculous in my opinion. I don't know if I would have the time to waste to sit down and eat which is quite a pity….
Potato Paprikash was mediocre, tasted more like oil than potatoes. Like the ambiance, feels like you are sitting in a bakery in the 1900's.
Hungarian food is something largely missing from the NYC culinary scene. I lived for some time in Hungary and always looking for a place that serves solid Hungarian and it just doesn't exist. I stumbled onto Andre's last year. Finally had the chance to go over the fall.
My friend ended up ordering the hortbagyi – a crepe with chicken paprikash. She was a bit hesitant but actually really ended up liking it. I went for the old standby – goulash. Andre's serves a veal goulash so it was an interesting take and I really liked it. We also ordered the cold sour cherry soup, which is more like a dessert than anything. It's not on the menu so you have to ask for it. It's pretty sweet, so you may want to get it as a dessert. All in all, the food was solid and service was ok but not that great so 4 stars for that time.
I ended up going back this week and it was a shitshow, to put it nicely. I split the goulash with my sis and it wasn't nearly as good as before. The nodliky was very overcooked. I ordered the Dobosh torte but they were out so I ordered the layer cake. Just then we remembered that a dessert came with the meal. The waitress didn't bother to say anything about that. We had a choice of three different things and went with the mocha apricot cake. HORRIBLE. The cake part was so completely stale and disgusting. Not even pigeons would eat it.
And service was horrendous. We got a glass of water. There was never a refill. I ordered the cherry soup. Never got it. I mentioned the dessert thing above. We couldn't finish the meal and asked for takeaway, which she forgot to give to us. Mind you, the restaurant wasn't even a third full and it's not a big place to begin with. Service was meh the first time but not this bad. If you're aching for old Communist bloc service, then this fits the bill.
Even though I love Hungarian desserts and this is the only place in the city to find some of these things, I just can't justify dropping $7-8 on something that's been sitting around for almost a week and is completely stale.
I guess if you're the only Hungarian restaurant in the whole city, you can get away with serving old and overcooked food and providing no service. 3 stars because it's literally the only Hungarian restaurant and the only place to find some of these dishes. I wouldn't bother making the trek to the UES for this place but if you're there and craving Hungarian, then fine.