The Café District emanates from Bakáts tér (Bakáts Square) --  which is the focal point of district IX -- on the south and sweeps in a large V that includes the myriad galleries, shops, cafés and restaurants of Raday utca along one of its legs and along Krudy Gyula utca on its other one. 

Bakáts tér is the park and churchyard surrounding one of Budapest’s older and more active parish Catholic churches - St. Francis (Szent Ferenc, after whom the IXth -- Ferencvaros -- district is named).  Adjacent to it sits the Ferencvaros townhall and several wonderfully crafted municipal buildings (there’s remarkable woodwork and stained glass in the building directly across the street at the start of Bakáts utca - a building that houses the marriage registry and medical clinic for gynecologic reproductive disorders, a kind of odd but logical yoking...). 

On the far side of the square there is one of the cities’ oldest and most prestigious lying-

in hospitals.  And within the small park itself there is a small but moving memorial to the 1956 martyrs.  The river is two blocks away down Bakáts utca, the Blue metro line is two blocks away at Ferenc körút, the 4/6 tram that runs from southern Buda, along the major Pest ringroad, and back into Buda on the north, is a block away.  The #2 tram runs along the river the length of the city, and the #54 bus starts three blocks away at Boraros ter and is the only way to get to the Ecseri Flea Market by public transit.

But what makes Bakáts tér so distinctive is the Café District, an area ranges from, to the west, and adjacent to Bakáts tér), the established café, gallery, restaurant and pub semi-pedestrianized street - Raday utca and ranges to the newer, edgier, café and design district around Krudy Gyula utca (roughly three blocks away to the east). 

Nearby as well, there are many of Budapest’s major sights: The National Museum is a short stroll; the Museum of Applied Arts is a block away; the Central Market

is less than a 10 minute walk; the Palace of the Arts (National Concert Hall, the Ludwig Museum [contemporary art] and the adjacent National Theatre) is down the river two tram stops (or a 15 minute walk; if you walk it, you can stop at the Unicum Museum, a tribute to Hungary’s unique and historic digestif).

Raday utca affords access to the restaurant that is presently highest rated in the city (in the culinarily most serious  Hungarian-language restaurant guide) -

Costes, as well as to one of the city’s very best patisseries (just diagoinally across from the square): Nandori.  It has the Goethe Institute and its excellent Café Eckermann, as well as the wonderful Café If, home to live and local jazz (often excellent) several nights a week (no

cover, no minimum, and the best raspberry lemonade in town come summer, wonderful hot chocolate - with a shot of liqueur if you like - come winter).  Raday has the Soul Café, a comfortable restaiurant with a fusion-y menu; the Claro Bisztro, a down home Hungarian café/bar/bistro with excellent soups; and the raday Etkezde a clean and excellent lunch-hall where you can get a three course meal for less than $5.

There’s great artisanal ice cream in Nandori, but also very good ice cream further up Raday, at Palma Cuki and at the nameless Cukraszda near the If.  There’s a decent pizza café - the Pink Cadillac, an excellent wine shop, Bortarsasag, and more galleries than you can keep track of with exhibits coming and going.  Just off Raday there’s a documentary film archive and the District IX museum.  Peering into the street’s courtyards you can see extraordinary ranges of architectural detail, in varying states of preservation.

And then there’s Krudy Gyula utca, with retro shops reminiscent of the ‘60s, a natural foods pizza place - The Pizza Guru - as well as a small organic snack place - BioPont - a retro restaurant named Darshan but serving a wide range of non-Indian dishes as well in a vast outdoor courtyard and balcony largely invisible from the street.  There’s the Frank Zappa Café, the Don leone in a basement with excellent food. 

There’s a great tiny gallery and café that’s basically a white cube extending to a platform across the street, wi

th cushions and lounge furniture and drinks... Around the corner at Muzeum utca there’s the Epitesz Pince (Arcvhitects’ Cellar) with very cheap lunches, great Buffalo Wings, and a lovely courtyard outside the entry to the Architects’ association.  Nearby on Horanszky utc there’s Apa Cuka, a wonderful café/restaurant in the courtyard and atrium of a building that houses a range of design-oriented offices and studios.  And there’s the trendy new chic Palazzo Zichy boutique Hotel in a gorgeous old palota (small mansion) restored on the corner of Krudy at Lörinc pap tér.