Where to do a grocery shopping in Budapest?

Hey guys, so is rather a really short post in which I'm going to describe where you should do your grocery shopping and which places offer better deals and a high quality products.

Grocery shopping is the most essential type of shopping there is and so if you move to a new place that is the first thing you need to get sorted out. I generally like to cook my own meals, okay I wouldn’t say like to but I do it anyways since it is much healthier and a cost effective and so finding the right ingredients was the most important thing to me to be honest. The first few days here in Budapest I barely cooked and continuously ate take outs which wasn’t so delightful.

Anyhow I soon started to discover all the good places for the grocery shopping and I literally went to several grocery shops weekly to find the right products and ingredients.

1) Prima

Prima is one of the most famous chain grocery stores in all of Budapest; I'm not so sure about Hungary. Prima has many outlets across the town and so I’d suggest just googling the one nearest to you. First of all, I definitely would suggest prima because all of their prices are reasonable and you can absolutely find everything in there. The fruits and vegetables as opposed to some of the other grocery stores are so much fresher and quite cheaper. I would recommend going to the Prima in Corvin plaza, it is rather the largest one and they usually have some ongoing deals as well which is a win -win situation honestly.

(Prima store in corvin plaza)

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I always buy chicken from here, it is cut freshly and you can buy breasts or wings and every other part separately. Anyways I'm sure you all know things like that and repeating unnecessary details is just boring. Make sure to take a look at the buffet section of the Prima, especially if you go before noon; they have so many different hot meals and they all taste pretty good. My brother is obsessed with the chicken wings and he constantly wants to buy some whenever we go grocery shopping.

Prima also has a really good bakery, the baked goods are so fresh and tasty so be sure to give them a try as well. Lastly don’t forget about the salad bar of the store, the salads are kind of weird and I don’t like some of them (I haven’t tried all yet) but there are different varieties and you guys might like them differently.

2) Spar

Spar is another grocery chain that has branches in all over Budapest. I would definitely not suggest SPAR for buying your weekly grocery. It is more expensive than the other places and it doesn’t really offer anything special. I have compared almost all the prices with the prices of other chain stores and I know for a fact that the prices that SPAR offers are slightly higher than other places. Anyhow this does not mean that you can’t buy certain things from SPAR. There is actually a SPAR right next to my house and I pretty much visit it on the daily basis but not to buy the essentials. I usually buy my breakfast bread from SPAR. They have these buns which cost only 16 forints and they are so fresh that they could melt inside of your mouth. We also buy drinks from SPAR, like beer or in my case Ice tea (because I'm obsessed with ice tea). Oh oh and I almost forgot, there are also really good buffets in each SPAR and they offer a wide range of Hungarian cuisines and fast foods at a moderately reasonable price; perfect for those cold winter days that you don’t feel like cooking.

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3) Penny Market

Penny market doesn’t have as many branches as Prima or Spar here in Budapest but it is pretty good nonetheless. I don’t go here for my weekly grocery shopping but I've been to the stores a couple of times and their prices are reasonable. This is the only store that I’d suggest taking their discounts catalogue because they actually have pretty good offers. There is one Penny Market near harminckettesek tere tram station but apart from that I'm not too sure of the other locations. My advice is to check whether this is closer to you or Prima and then choose to go to one of them because both are pretty good.

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4) Lidl

I still don’t know whether I should pronounce this store Lidl or Lidel. This is definitely not a store to buy your weekly grocery since they don’t have much fruits and vegetables and they don’t really have a meat and poultry section. They don’t sell fresh meat or chicken but rather frozen ones and I don’t recommend getting those since you can have the fresh thing. The fruits and vegetables are also more expensive than Prima and much less diverse. But I still go to Lidl on a weekly basis. You ask why? Well because they have the sort of products that nowhere else has.

I usually buy cakes, cookies, biscuits and chocolates from Lidl. They have so many different packaged cookies and biscuits and it's literally my sort of heaven on earth. I would say that Lidl is probably the best for buying nonperishable goods. I usually buy oil, flour, sugar, salt and spices from here too. Not to forget the cheese selection that always has some sort of promotion and I manage to buy really good cheese mixes for pasta or lasagna from there. I also wouldn’t recommend the bakery, it doesn’t have that many options and the baked goods don’t taste half as good as other places. Definitely do pay a visit to Lidl, you will pretty much find any household product that you need in there. The store that I usually go to is the one which is located in Corvin Setany. It's spacious and the staff are extremely friendly.

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One last thing, they also have really good frozen food selections and the quality really matches the prices. I usually buy frozen pizzas there and we always add ingredients to it and make it an even more delicious pizza. They sell frozen desserts and good ice creams as well. Generally speaking if you don’t want to buy all these sweet tooth products, don’t go to Lidl or go at your own risk; don’t come back and blame me.

Okay I hope you guys find this short piece useful; afterall grocery shopping is the most important shopping of it all. i know I'm not as active as I promised to be but my exams are approaching and I need to focus on my studies but I promise to write more whenever I have some spare time

Cheers!

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