Classic Hungarian cuisine is the name of the game here. In other words, it's not the place to go if you are on a diet - hearty portions, lashings of sour cream, and bacon with nearly everything. The vegetable kingdom is mainly represented by red cabbage and sauerkraut.
The chilled wild cherry soup is a Gay Hussar classic. Whether that is enough to make you want to eat a starter that more closely resembles a dessert is debatable, but I was in adventurous mood. It came a pale rose-pink, with whole cherries hidden like jewels underneath the surface. There was a lactic tang from yoghurt or sour cream, I couldn't be sure which, but it was certainly sweet rather than savoury. Not unlike a fruit yoghurt, in fact. It was far from the greatest soup of my life, but perhaps one of the most memorable.
The other half started with fish dumplings, served with dill sauce and rice. They do a larger version of this as a main course, but it didn't sound quite that nice...They were not dumplings in the sense of Polish pierogi or Japanese gyoza, which are dough wrapped around the filling - these were more like quenelles of fish terrine. They were smooth-textured, rich-flavoured, and the dill sauce was a good accompaniment, with some fluffy white rice to soak it up.
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| Goulash with galuska |
Goulash is possibly the most famous Hungarian dish, and there are several variants of it on the Gay Hussar menu. We tried the veal version and the vegetarian version, which is possibly not the most authentic, but none the worse for that. The veal had been cooked slow and lovingly until it was ready to yield under the slightest touch of a fork, and the sauce was fruity and tangy with paprika and tomato.
The other one was as full-flavoured a meat-free dish as I have encountered - big, beefy chunks of mushroom packed with flavour, the sauce delivering a spicy kick. There were sweet peppers and onions too, but it was all about the mushrooms and the sauce that was so good I asked for a spoon to finish it off. Both dishes came with galuska, tiny, springy egg dumplings, not unlike baby gnocchi.
There's plenty more to tempt if you are not a goulash fan, such as roast duck, duck livers with bacon, onion and paprika, wiener schnitzel, pork fillet with potatoes, bacon and garlic... Smoked breast of goose sounds like richness overload to me, though at least it comes with a kind of bean cassoulet and red cabbage to cut through the fattiness a bit.
Desserts were motivated by pure greed. I had heard good things of the chestnut pudding, described as "chestnut puree with dark rum and vodka". I ordered it in the same spirit of adventure that suggested the cherry soup, and did not regret it. It came like a nest of vermicelli, the chestnut puree shaped into tiny squiggles, with a thick swirl of whipped cream both underneath and on top. I could almost feel my arteries hardening, but hey, it was worth it - the rum giving the chestnut the extra soul it needed.
A poppy seed strudel was pure comfort food, the dark, sweet filling delicious without being strongly flavoured. It was served hot, with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream providing a welcome temperature contrast.
Prices are not bad for Soho - £5.75 upwards for starters, most mains around the £14-17 mark, and they also do a Tastecard discount, making it very competitive if you have a card.
The wine list includes strong representation of Hungarian wines, both red and white. We drank the house red (variety unspecified), mainly because it was the only one available in a half-litre carafe. It was enjoyable without leaving any particular imprint on tastebuds or memory. If you are feeling brave, there are Hungarian liqueurs including Unicum, a herbal bitters, and the better-known slivovitz, but my spirit of adventure had been exhausted for one night.
The Gay Hussar
2 Greek Street,
Soho
London
W1D 4NB
gayhussar.co.uk
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