Do you like drinking?
Who doesn’t right?
Save for those freaks for whom their imaginary friend in the sky tells what to do. For the rest of us, normal people, a pint of beer, a glass of wine or whisky every now and then is a great way to relax.
Then the only thing we need is a good place to go…..
How about a “romkocsma”?
Or “ruinbar” for those who haven’t mastered Hungarian yet as these bars are prevalent in Budapest, Hungary.
Let me show you what I mean:
A dimly lit courtyard strung with fairy lights, mismatched chairs and a graffiti-covered wall — the classic romkocsma look
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From Rubble to Revelry
Walk down Kazinczy Street in Budapest’s Seventh District and you’ll pass crumbling façades that look abandoned. Push open the door, though, and you’ll find hundreds of people drinking beneath a canopy of fairy lights.
This is the **romkocsma** — literally “ruin pub” — and it began in 2002, when a group of friends opened Szimpla Kert in a derelict building in the old Jewish Quarter. After decades of neglect following World War II and the Communist era, the neighborhood was full of condemned apartment blocks awaiting demolition. Rather than renovate, the founders simply moved in, filled the space with furniture rescued from flea markets and skips, and started pouring drinks.
The Aesthetic of Beautiful Chaos
There is no single design philosophy in a ruin bar, which is precisely the point. You might sit in the hollowed-out shell of a Trabant car, under a bathtub bolted to the ceiling, or beside a wall of ancient rotary telephones. Peeling plaster is left exposed.
Graffiti and local artists’ murals cover every surface. Vines climb through open courtyards where roofs collapsed long ago. The result feels less like a bar and more like a squat that accidentally became an art installation — warm, chaotic, and impossible to replicate.
Who Goes There
Ruin bars now draw an estimated crowd of millions annually. Foreign visitors — especially the stag-party circuit from Britain and Ireland — arrive for cheap Dreher beer and pálinka shots. But locals haven’t entirely surrendered the territory: Szimpla hosts a Sunday farmers’ market, film screenings, and jazz brunches that pull in Budapest residents who wouldn’t be caught there on a Saturday night.
The tension isn’t imaginary. Residents have complained about noise, and the district has debated curfews for years.
Where to Start
Szimpla Kert remains the icon. Instant-Fogas is the largest, sprawling across multiple buildings. Mazel Tov offers a polished, Middle Eastern-inflected take.
As for safety, don’t worry this is Hungary, no immigrant gangs to steal your valuables or worse rob you or stab you, as is the norm in Paris, London or Berlin these days.
In Budapest you are still safe.
So go early, go curious, and don’t expect matching chairs.
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