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Restaurant Kovács: where the Danube comes to the table

If you come to Mohács for the food, you will quickly realize that it is difficult to separate the local cuisine from the Danube. The river here is much more than a landscape that passes by the city. It is part of its history, everyday life and identity, and for centuries it has also determined what will be on the plates. That is why the Kovács restaurant is an interesting place to start getting acquainted with the gastronomy of Mohács. It does not try to make something spectacular and “new” out of traditional cuisine, but precisely because it does not run away from it. Here they cook what the people of this region know, love and remember from their own family kitchens.

And when someone in a restaurant tells you that their menu is what their mother and grandmother used to cook, you have actually been given a pretty good clue to understanding the whole story. The Kovács restaurant is a family restaurant, run by brother and sister, József and Éva Kovács, and its story did not start with the idea of ​​​​creating another place for tourists. The family has been making a living in the hospitality industry for decades. The father previously had a restaurant by the Danube, near the ferry, while the new generation opened their own restaurant in 2013 and continued the story. In the meantime, a lot has changed, including the habits of guests, the prices of food, the way people travel and search for restaurants, and even the gastronomy itself. But the basic idea has remained the same: to cook honestly and use fresh ingredients.

And the word “fresh” is precisely the important word when talking about their cuisine. They buy vegetables and other ingredients regularly, and go to the market twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The goal is not to create a huge menu with dozens of dishes that will be on paper all year round. It is much more important to have what is good and available at that moment. This is also reflected in the excellent homemade soup that immediately takes us back to our grandmother's kitchen. Fish is a special story. Mohacs is historically connected to the Danube and fishing, so it is not difficult to understand why fish dishes are an important part of the local gastronomy. At Kovács Restaurant, they have their own suppliers and contacts with fishermen and fish farms, and the fish is prepared fresh. This means that some dishes simply have to wait.

Here we come to one of the best examples of local cuisine – fish pörkölt with pasta and cheese. If you are used to everything appearing on the table in a restaurant in ten minutes, here you will have to slow down a bit. The wait for this dish is about 30 minutes. The reason is simple: the fish is prepared fresh, the pasta that goes with it has been supplied from a craft workshop for decades. This is not a flaw, but part of the concept. Fish pörkölt is not a dish that needs to beat the stopwatch. It is a dish for conversation, wine or beer and the kind of lunch after which you realize that you spent more time in the restaurant than you planned – in our case, as much as eight hours! For a good perkelt, they use a combination of fish, and the ideal ratio is approximately 70 percent carp and 30 percent other fish. The carp gives that recognizable structure and flavor, while the other fish adds nuances.

Then comes the pasta with cheese. At first glance, it may sound simple, almost modest. But it is precisely such dishes that often best show the character of a particular cuisine. There is no hiding behind decorations, five-ingredient sauces and complicated techniques. If the fish, peppers, pasta and cheese are good, there is no need to overly disguise them. This is precisely the philosophy of the restaurant. The kitchen of Restaurant Kovács is not designed as a laboratory. Its point of reference is the home table.

In Mohács, fish used to be part of everyday life. Fridays were especially associated with fish dishes. People would go to friends, get together and eat fish soup, fish or perkelt. Today, this custom is weakening. The reason, as is often the case when we talk about changing eating habits, is very practical – price. Fish has become expensive, while pork is much more affordable. And so what people cook at home is slowly changing. But restaurants like Kovács still preserve part of that gastronomic memory.

That is why you will find various fish specialties on the menu. There is fish soup, fish perkelt, grilled or fried fish, and catfish also plays an important role. There is no need to explain why such an offer makes sense in a city that has lived along the Danube for centuries. It is also interesting that not every ingredient here is forcibly transformed into a “local product”. If something is not authentic to this region, it will not be presented as such. It may be a small thing, but in a time when almost every restaurant wants to have at least a few words like “local”, “traditional”, “artisan” or “sustainable” on the menu, such simplicity is refreshing.

When it comes to Hungarian cuisine, there is another thing worth clarifying – paprika. Outside of Hungary, there is often a belief that Hungarian food must be spicy. But paprika and spiciness are not the same thing. Hot paprika can be an addition, but it is not necessarily an integral part of every dish. If you like spicy, you will add it. If you don’t, you will not. In this cuisine, paprika primarily gives character, color and aroma. Spicyness is a matter of personal preference and taste. In Baranya and this part of Hungary, paprika still holds a special place, but here too it is not a competition about who can eat the hottest plate.

And after the fish, of course, comes the question of dessert. Here, Restaurant Kovács remains true to simplicity. Pancakes are one of the safe choices. They can be filled with chocolate, Nutella, marmalade, jam, cheese or raisins.

There is also chestnut puree, which they are particularly proud of during the fall. Perhaps such an ending best suits the whole story. After a serious fish meal, you don't need a dessert that will try to outdo everything you've eaten. Something sweet, familiar and well-made is enough. Because Restaurant Kovács is not a place that tries to turn every plate into an event. Its event is actually the entire lunch. You sit, talk, wait for the fish, eat, maybe order something else, and in the end you realize that you stayed in the restaurant much longer than you planned. And that is precisely what is becoming a kind of luxury today.

Restaurant Kovács is open all year round, and there is also a guesthouse next door. There is no idea that the restaurant only exists for a few summer months. Mohács is not just a tourist attraction, and their cuisine is not made exclusively for passers-by who want to “try something Hungarian”. It is also intended for local people. And this is perhaps the most important test of any restaurant that speaks of tradition. A tourist can come once. A local guest comes again. If they come back, it means that the food has survived beyond the story that is sold to visitors. That is why Restaurant Kovács is worth considering not only as a restaurant but also as a small gastronomic document of Mohács. Its dishes leave traces of a city that lived with the Danube, fishermen, family kitchens, fish pens, peppers and recipes that were not learned from books but at the kitchen table. And perhaps this is the best reason not to come here in a hurry.

Come hungry. Order something from the Danube. If you have to wait, wait. Let the fish be prepared properly, arrive fresh, the pasta be made and lunch take its time. Because in Mohács, food is not just about what's on your plate. It's also about the river, the city, and the people who decided that some things just shouldn't change. And when the fish perkelt with pasta and cheese finally arrives in front of you, you might understand why.Kovács Panzió és Étterem

H-7700 Mohács, Vörösmarty u. 20.

Telefon: +3630/413-4069 +3620/359-1159

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