Our Grilled-Romaine Caesar Crunch is a Caesar salad built on a grilled head of romaine, topped with grilled chicken, crisp apple chunks, our own keto Caesar sauce and almond sticks, for 5,100 Ft at both Cookie Beacon brunch spots in Budapest.

It is the only salad on our menu for brunch in Budapest. Both spots serve it all day, and neither takes bookings.

Why is there a Caesar salad on a brunch menu?

It took a while. Here is the story, from the people who put it on the card:

Salads are a requirement for brunch? Probably, not. But after many years of doubts, we decided to give a try to our Grilled romaine head topped with grilled chicken strips. We prepare our Caesar sauce ourselves to make sure it’s keto and conservants free. Green apple chunks add crunch and freshness to the creamy salad. Toasted almond sticks are just our favorite touch to it.

The story makes five points.

The doubt. Is a salad a requirement for brunch? “Probably, not”, the story says. It took many years of doubts before one went on the card, and it is the only salad on our Budapest menu.

The romaine head. This is not a bowl of chopped leaves. The card says a grilled head of romaine, not leaves. In our photos the head is halved lengthwise and laid on the plate like a boat, with the sauce and the toppings on top.

The chicken. Grilled chicken strips, in the story’s words. The Hungarian half of the card is more specific: grillezett csirkemell, grilled chicken breast. In our photos the chicken sits under the sauce, so what you see first is the topping.

The sauce. The owners prepare the Caesar sauce themselves, for two reasons they name: so that it is keto, and so that it is “conservants free”, which is to say free of preservatives. The card calls it keto caesar sauce.

The crunch. Green apple chunks add crunch and freshness to a creamy salad, and toasted almond sticks are the owners’ favorite touch.

What is in the Grilled-Romaine Caesar Crunch?

This is what our Budapest menu lists, here with the Hungarian names:

  • Grilled head of romaine (grillezett római saláta). Romaine is the long, crisp lettuce a Caesar salad is made with, and in Hungarian it is simply Roman lettuce.
  • Grilled chicken (grillezett csirkemell, grilled chicken breast on the Hungarian half).
  • Crisp apple chunks (ropogós almakockák). Green apple, the story says. In our photos they are the white and pale green cubes on top.
  • Keto Caesar sauce (keto caesar szósz). Made in-house.
  • Almond sticks (mandulacsíkok). Toasted, the story says. In our photos they are the thin golden slivers scattered over the sauce.

The card closes the line with two words in brackets: keto, high protein (keto, magas fehérjetartalmú).

Our photos show a few things the Budapest card does not list: pomegranate seeds, chopped green herbs, and dried orange slices with a charred citrus half on the rim of the plate. Our Bucharest card does list pomegranate and dehydrated oranges for the same salad. The Budapest card’s list is the one we can vouch for here.

Why grill a head of romaine?

Romaine is one of the few lettuces that can take a grill. Its ribs are thick and its leaves are packed tightly, so a head that goes over high heat for a short time chars at the edges and picks up a smoky taste while the middle stays crisp. A softer lettuce would simply wilt.

The Caesar salad most restaurants serve today is torn or chopped leaves tossed in dressing. Ours, in our photos, is a halved head left intact, with the sauce and the toppings on top.

How is ours different from a classic Caesar salad?

  • The lettuce is grilled and whole. The classic version uses raw romaine leaves, tossed.
  • There are no croutons. Most Caesar salads get their crunch from cubes of toasted bread. Our card lists none. What it lists instead is crisp apple chunks and almond sticks, and our menu tags the plate gluten-free at both Budapest spots.
  • There is apple. Fruit is not part of the classic salad. The story gives the apple two jobs: crunch and freshness in a creamy salad.
  • The sauce is keto and made in-house. The owners prepare it themselves so that it is keto and free of preservatives.
  • The chicken is part of the dish. In many restaurants a Caesar salad is a plate of dressed leaves and the chicken is a paid extra. On our card the grilled chicken is in the 5,100 Ft.

One thing the Budapest card does not tell you is what goes into the sauce. Our Bucharest card prints a fuller ingredient list for the same salad, and it includes anchovy fillets and Worcestershire sauce. If you avoid fish, ask our team before you order.

Is it keto, low-carb or gluten-free?

The card prints keto and high protein beside the dish. Our menu gives it four tags at both Budapest spots: gluten-free, low-carb, protein-packed and spicy.

That makes it one of only two Hearty Brunch plates tagged both gluten-free and protein-packed. The other is the Philly Cheese Steak Protein-Bowl, and of the two, the Caesar is the one that also carries the low-carb tag. The Philly bowl’s description says lowcarb too, but it has no low-carb tag.

Two honest notes. The spicy tag is on the card, but the Budapest card does not print which ingredient brings the heat, so ask if you would rather have none. And everything is made in a shared kitchen, so if you avoid gluten strictly, please confirm with our team when you order.

Can you order it without chicken?

Yes, ask when you order. Our team makes a vegan version with grilled tofu in place of the chicken and a plain dressing in place of the Caesar sauce. The printed Budapest card does not carry the swap yet, so say you want it vegan when you order.

Where does Caesar salad come from?

Not from Rome, and not from Julius Caesar. The usual account credits Caesar Cardini, an Italian-born restaurateur who ran a restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico. The story most often told is that he put the salad together in 1924 from what was left in the kitchen, and that it was prepared at the table.

The details are disputed. His brother Alex and a cook who worked for him have both been credited with the recipe too, and accounts differ on whether the first version had anchovies at all.

What stayed constant is the outline: romaine, a creamy dressing, and something crunchy. Ours keeps the romaine and the creamy dressing, grills the head, and has apple and almonds where the croutons would be.

Where does it sit among our dishes?

Three plates on our Budapest menu are its closest relatives:

  • Philly Cheese Steak Protein-Bowl, 5,600 Ft. The other gluten-free, protein-packed plate in Hearty Brunch: scrambled eggs and sirloin in cheese sauce with a keto pretzel. It has almonds too: the card lists crunchy almonds there and almond sticks here.
  • Chicken & Waffles Stack, 4,950 Ft. The other chicken plate, and the opposite idea: panko crispy chicken on waffles, with homemade potato chips on the side.
  • Shakshuka Burrata, 5,100 Ft. The same price, and the plate to look at if you do not eat meat: our menu tags it vegetarian.

What should you know before ordering it in Budapest?

It sits in Hearty Brunch, the first section of our Budapest menu. The name stays in English on both halves of the card, so look for Grilled-Romaine Caesar Crunch. If you ask for a Caesar salad, or a cézár saláta, this is the plate you will get.

The price is the same at Basilica on Hercegprímás utca, near St. Stephen’s Basilica, and at Ferenciek tere, at the Váci utca end of the square. Both open 08:00 to 17:00 on weekdays and 09:00 to 17:00 at weekends, and both are walk-in only. The walk between them takes about fifteen minutes.