The bread, cakes and pastries of Hungary don't get enough press. The French have rather cornered the market, and we all tend to forget about the equally established coffee and cake culture of Austria and Hungary. However, after you've had a strudel slice of poppy-seed and morello cherry Meggyes-Mákos Rétes, or a slice of seven-layered, hard caramel-topped Dobos Torta, you'll probably start remembering it.
Danube, Harringay's Hungarian bakery opened a few years ago now. A brave move, given the number of Greek and Turkish bakeries already on that stretch of Grand Parade, including a formidable rival in the form of Yasar Halim's excellent Turkish bakery. However, it looks like Danube has carved out a niche for itself supplying local shops with bread, so I hope that it survives. There always seem to be Hungarians popping in for bread when I go, so fingers crossed.
In the actual shopfront, they sell a wide selection of Hungarian breads made from various mixes of grains, potato bread (burgonyás kenyér), rolls and baguettes. They also have a good selection of Hungarian cakes and pastries, and sweetened and enriched breads, including chocolate/vanilla plaits.
Fellow Hungarophiles will be delighted that the labels are bilingual, so if you want to try out ordering egy szelet Esterházy tortát, legyen szíves!, you can get the staff to laugh at your awful accent with ease. At least, that's what always happens to me.
Oh, they also sell pretty decent coffee. read more