Healthy and Gluten-Free Brunch in Budapest, With Prices

The lighter plates at Cookie Beacon in Budapest are two bowls, one salad and two egg dishes: the Yogurt & Honey Whipped Granola Bowl (Ft 3,950), the Cookie Berry Bowl (Ft 3,950), the Grilled-Romaine Caesar Crunch (Ft 5,100, marked keto and high protein on the card), the Philly Cheese Steak Protein-Bowl (Ft 5,600, gluten-free and low-carb) and the Shakshuka Burrata (Ft 5,100, vegetarian as served, vegan with a tofu swap). Both of our brunch spots in Budapest serve all five: Hercegprímás u. 15 beside St. Stephen’s Basilica, and Ferenciek tere 1 in Belváros. Mon-Fri 08:00-17:00, Sat-Sun 09:00-17:00, walk-ins only.

Now the honest part. We are a cookie bakery that grew a brunch kitchen. We bake with butter every morning, the burger comes on a homemade pretzel bun, and the French toast is a brioche loaf under red velvet pistachio cream. We read 800 of the two cafés’ positive Google reviews while writing this page, and only about three of them use the word “healthy”. People come for the cookies and the eggs. The lighter plates exist for the one person at the table who wants a real breakfast that is not a bakery breakfast, and that is the reader this page is for.

One rule before the list. Every dietary word below comes from the printed Budapest card, which marks each dish with small icons for gluten-free, low-carb, sugar-free, protein-packed and vegetarian. Where the card is silent we say nothing, because the kitchen is shared and a guess about gluten is not a kindness.

Gluten-free brunch in Budapest: what the card marks

The Budapest card marks three plates gluten-free: the Yogurt & Honey Whipped Granola Bowl (Ft 3,950), the Grilled-Romaine Caesar Crunch (Ft 5,100) and the Philly Cheese Steak Protein-Bowl (Ft 5,600). If you want bread on the side, the gluten-free option is the keto pretzel, on request. On the cookie counter, two of the twelve carry the mark; they are listed further down.

What the mark does not mean is a gluten-free kitchen. The kitchen that makes these plates also bakes the wheat cookies and the brioche French toast, so the icon tells you how a dish is made, not what it might touch. If you have coeliac disease, tell the counter before you order and decide from what they say.

The bowls

The Yogurt & Honey Whipped Granola Bowl (Ft 3,950) is the plainest plate we make and the one most often ordered as breakfast rather than brunch: Greek yogurt whipped with honey, our honey-toasted granola, blueberries and strawberries, a slice of dehydrated orange, bee pollen and mint. The card marks it gluten-free and sugar-free, the second of which refers to added refined sugar, since the honey is right there in the name.

“Incredibly fresh food, friendly service, and pleasant atmosphere. The yogurt honey bowl was so delicious and we also got the chicken waffle stack which was absolutely decadent. Everything was super and we highly recommend.” — Aimee Auer, Google review, Ferenciek tere, July 2026

The Cookie Berry Bowl (Ft 3,950) is the smoothie bowl: red berries blended with oat milk and chia seeds, topped with banana, seasonal fruit, a homemade banana and oat cookie, cinnamon, pollen and mint. The card marks it protein-packed and sugar-free. It does not carry the gluten-free mark, so we do not list it as such, and it is not vegan, because the recipe includes pollen.

Protein without the bread

The Grilled-Romaine Caesar Crunch (Ft 5,100) is a whole head of romaine, grilled, with grilled chicken, chunks of crisp apple, our keto Caesar sauce and almond sticks. The menu prints “keto, high protein” beside it and the card icons add gluten-free and low-carb. It eats like a meal, not a side salad. Vegan guests order it with grilled tofu and a plain dressing, and the kitchen treats that as a normal order even though the card does not print the swap yet.

The Philly Cheese Steak Protein-Bowl (Ft 5,600) is the plate the kitchen itself calls gluten-free and low-carb, in the description: scrambled eggs, sirloin in cheese sauce, a keto pretzel, leafy greens, cherry tomatoes, homemade sour cream, crunchy almonds and chili paprika flakes. The card prints a swap to a salmon protein-bowl. It is one of the most expensive plates on the Budapest menu and the heaviest of the five here, so read “lighter” as “no bread and no potatoes” rather than “small”. The keto pretzel is also what to ask for as gluten-free bread with any other dish.

“The Protein bowl was outstanding - so fresh and full of vegetables with great sauces. The cookies are also divine! We tried pistachio and it was like a cake and a cookie had a baby - delightful!” — Marisa Silva, Google review, Basilica, June 2026

If you want more protein on any plate, ask for an extra beef patty or extra grilled chicken. Extra protein in any signature milk drink is a Ft 200 add-on in Budapest.

Eggs and vegetables

The Shakshuka Burrata (Ft 5,100) is a spiced tomato and pepper sauce with a sunny-side-up egg, feta crumble, parsley, sesame and chili flakes, served with our homemade seed crackers instead of bread. The card marks it protein-packed, spicy and vegetarian, and the menu prints the vegan version beside it: swap the egg and feta for tofu crumble.

The Madrid Smashed Eggs (Ft 4,500) is the other egg plate without a bun under it: crispy potatoes, runny-yolk eggs, leafy greens and chili flakes, with Spanish serrano ham or sautéed shiitake mushrooms to choose from. The card marks it protein-packed and vegetarian; the ham, obviously, is the option that makes it not. The potatoes make it the fuller of the two, so if you are choosing between them on lightness, the shakshuka wins.

The side on the sandwiches and the burger is our homemade potato chips. The kitchen has told us baked vegetable chips are on the way as the lighter option; until they arrive, ask for an extra salad with the dressing on the side instead.

Drinks that are not a milkshake

Most of our drinks menu is built for the cookie counter: the Lotus Flufferbutter Latte, the S’mores Hot Chocolate, four mimosas. The short list on the other side of the card:

Coffee is where the two cafés’ prices part: an espresso is Ft 900 at the Basilica and Ft 790 at Ferenciek tere, and the cortado, cappuccino, flat white, latte and batch brew are cheaper at Ferenciek tere too (a cappuccino is Ft 1,400 at the Basilica, Ft 1,290 at Ferenciek tere). Any latte pours with plant-based milk on request.

And on the cookie counter

We are not going to call a cookie healthy. But one of the twelve is built for people who cannot have sugar or wheat: the Macadamia & Strawberries (Ft 2,300), which the card marks gluten-free, low-carb, sugar-free and protein-packed. The Caramel Fudge (Ft 1,990) is the vegan one, gluten-free and refined-sugar-free, and it bakes differently from the butter cookies beside it, so order it knowing that.

The cookie counter does not print nut allergens. Ask before the cookie goes in the bag.

If you want a place built around it

Being straight about the edges: if everyone at your table wants a health-first menu, Google will send you to Szimply and to Cafe Brunch, which runs a dedicated healthy menu across its branches, and both are good at what they do. We are the room for a mixed table, where one person wants the granola bowl and the other wants the Chicken & Waffles Stack, and nobody has to compromise on the coffee.

The details

Both cafés run the same food card, so every plate above is at Hercegprímás u. 15 and at Ferenciek tere; the full cards are at the Basilica menu and the Ferenciek tere menu. If plant-based is the constraint rather than lightness, our vegan brunch in Budapest guide lists every plate and swap. And if you just want the whole city ranked, start with our best brunch in Budapest guide.