Hold Street Market Hall

Budapest opened five iron-framed market halls in 1897 and this is one of them, smaller and far less visited than the great hall at the Liberty Bridge. Downstairs remains a working market rather than a display: butchers, cheese and dairy counters, pickles sold by the jar from open barrels, a mushroom stall with the licensed inspector Hungarian markets still keep, and greengrocers whose customers mostly live in the surrounding streets. The upper gallery was rebuilt as a food court where a dozen counters cook lunch, from Hungarian standards to Asian and street food, and it fills between noon and two with office workers from the banks and government buildings nearby.

What you actually see

• The iron frame - the 1890s riveted structure and clerestory windows overhead.
• The pickle barrels - peppers, cabbage and cucumbers sold loose by weight.
• The mushroom counter - seasonal forest mushrooms with an inspector on duty.
• The upstairs counters - a working lunch gallery rather than a tourist food court.

When to go

Weekday mornings for the market and roughly half past eleven for lunch, before the counters get their queue. It closes on Sundays and winds down early on Saturday afternoons, and the upstairs is largely dead outside working hours. Autumn is the best season downstairs, when the mushroom, pepper and grape stalls are at their fullest.

Honest expectations

There is nothing to see here in the sightseeing sense; it is a hall where people buy food. Prices upstairs are ordinary Budapest restaurant prices rather than cheap, seating is communal and completely full at half past twelve, and some counters take cash only. If you arrive at three on a Saturday most of it will be shuttered.

Nearby

Szabadsag Square, the Parliament quarter and St Stephen's Basilica are all within ten minutes.