Csak a jó sör!

Visited with my wife and friend on a weekday. Not a huge place, but an amazing selection of local-ish and import beer. Only a couple taps. Server was not even vaguely interested in talking to me, and was also not particularly interested in serving me. But, I'd guess she was busy or just annoyed by American tourists. I would absolutely go back, just because of the selection, and I think I'd be there a lot if I lived near it.

I visited Csak a Jó Sör when I was in Budapest a couple weeks back to pick up some Hungarian beers and just check out the place. It's a smallish beer store, but every available wall surface that is not a window has beer shelves on it, so they pack a lot of beers into the space. I would guess they had at least five hundred different beers, with stuff from Hungary, of course, but also plenty of things from Belgium, the UK, the US, and others countries. The breadth of the variety was excellent, but I do have one complaint: they only have a couple small refrigerators, and everything else is out on unrefrigerated shelves, aging at room temperature. It was a hot week in Budapest, and so the store was not particularly cool; I picked up a couple heavier non-hop-forward beers from the shelves, and a couple IPAs from the smaller selection in the fridge. There were plenty of IPAs out cooking on the shelves, however, so be advised of that.

There are a couple of tables there and the staff will open a bottle for you to sit and drink. I didn't talk with the staff much (my Hungarian is not great), but when I checked out I discovered that their English is great, so I needn't have worried. Overall, I like Csak a Jó Sör, and while it's not my favorite bottle shop in Budapest, I think it's still worth dropping in and checking out if you're in town.

 

Csak a Jó Sörök - Only the Best Beer. Definitely the place with the largest variety for retail in Hungary with quite a few gems from the West Coast indeed.
Offer craft beer from tap and a decent number of bottled ones from the fridge.
Though the store is quite small (about the size of two rooms) there are a few tables with chairs to drink, but in the evenings you would see a crowd drinking standing around, sometimes even in front of the building.
Good location, decent variety and not that horrible prices - definitely a go to for buying imported craft beer in Budapest / Hungary. Runs an online shop too.

 

Best place in Budapest (Hungary), wide range of beers from all over the world. Place is small but friendly, this is the most popular meeting point for beer geeks. 6 beers are on tap, the owner has his own beers and most of the times one of the 6 on tap is his.

 

 

 

I must rate this venue twice:
As a bar, it's cramped and the setting is unaccommodating.
As a store, it's got one of the best selections you'll find in Budapest.

They only have six beers on tap, though I was excited to find Weihenstephaner's Vitus at a reasonable price. Maybe a third of their bottles are cold; most are on shelves. And the tiny floorspace makes it difficult to browse or chill out without getting in someone else's way.

Still, it's my go-to store for retail bottles during my stay here.

 

 

This place is a tad outside of the center of the city on the Pest side of the river, and easy to miss given that it looks far more like a storefront than a bar. It is worth finding, though, as it certainly lives up to it's name: "Only Good Beer." It is essentially a craft brew shop, featuring interesting offerings primarily from Europe and the U.S. The place also serves as a tasting room, with six taps of rotating delights. The night I was there (late March), they had Flying Dog and Rogue on tap, plus an IPA from Scotland, a "Hungarian beer from Slovakia," and a nice smoked porter brewed by the owner. The other two taps had German offerings. No food (that I could tell). The place was closed on a Sunday evening, but full of people on a Tuesday. It is small, consisting of two rooms primarily dedicated to shelves full of beer. The very small bar had two barstools, while there was one table for four. Everyone else had to stand.

After finding little more than macro swill (Dreher) in Budapest for several days, this place was a breath of fresh air. It is a must for anyone visiting the city.

 

 

 

Possibly the only international craft beer store in Budapest. Small but good bottle selection of US and European craft beer varieties, beyond the usual European selection at the grocer. Rotating taps as well. Staff speaks English and is knowledgable of selections.