Steg Pizzeria, Tihany > Reviews (1)

Only a handful of the pubs and restaurants in the towns and villages on Hungary’s Lake Balaton open year round. We visited for the second time in May 2011 and found that the resorts were only now slowly gearing up for the oncoming season; facades were being painted, outdoor tables scrubbed and polished and shop shutters being thrown open.

Tihany’s 'Steg' Pizzeria is one place that is open almost all year round (March to December); it may be pizzeria by name but it’s actually one of those places that tick all the boxes – coffee shop, pub, pizzeria, steakhouse and snack bar – so it’s hardly surprising that it’s one of the most popular places in the village and it attracts a variety of customers.

'Steg' is situated in the heart of the village and accessed through an archway off the main street. The name means 'pier' or 'bathing jetty' and although the restaurant is very close to the immense Lake Balaton, it's not, as the name might suggest, overlooking the water, making the name somewhat Orwellian.

There’s a lovely courtyard filled with wooden tables and benches and the large indoor restaurant just behind it. Although we sat outside both times we went to Steg we did get to see the interior as you have to go inside and walk through the bar to get to the toilets. The interior is very cosy with lots of wood as it has been designed to have a nautical flavour. The courtyard was decorated with lots of hanging baskets and looked very colourful.

Our first visit was at lunchtime and we decided to share a pizza and a salad, not because it’s expensive (because it is not) but because we didn’t want to eat a great deal. There was plenty of choice of pizzas – about 25 if I recall correctly - so it was easy to find something we both liked. The pizza was more than enough for one person but just right for sharing; the salad, however, was very generous so in all we had a substantial lunch for two. Pizzas were priced roughly between £3.50 and £4.50 and a mixed salad was a very reasonable £2.09 for a sizeable bowl. After we'd ordered, a waitress brought a complimentary basket of lovely garlicky dough balls.

The pizza base was neither thin crust nor deep pan but somewhere in between and it was a little overcooked which made it quite difficult to cut to share because the topping would slide all over the base while we tried to saw it. We’d chosen the Mexican which was topped with sliced green peppers, spicy sausage, kidney beans and sweetcorn; instead of the usual tomato sauce, a chilli infused one had been used. It was tasty and filling without being astonishing but the chilli certainly made it more exciting.

The salad was colourful and included lovely fresh red tomatoes instead of the anaemic Dutch ones people in the UK seemed happy to eat and everything was really fresh and crisp. It was not dressed but oil and vinegar were provided.

As well as pizzas there are soups, larger salads suitable as a main course, chicken or lamb grill plates and a small number of pasta dishes. Main courses are priced around £4.

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One disappointing thing about Steg is that they don’t serve domestic beers which are perfectly fine beers. We found that Czech beers are fast becoming the dominant brand with the suppliers throwing all kinds of advertising gear at the pub owners to get people buying Kozel in particular. At Steg its Gosser, the Austrian brewery, that has its name on the pumps so Himself ordered a half litre of the lager and I had a bottle of their lemon flavoured Radler. Unless you go somewhere really quite swish (there’s a new café-bar down by the car ferry terminal that takes vehicles over to Siofok that thinks it’s a cut above) the price of drinks doesn’t really vary much from place to place and beers, wines and soft drinks tend to be relatively cheap in Hungary in general; Steg is no exception.

Until the season ‘proper’ begins many places open only during the day and not at all after around 6.00pm so Steg is understandably popular as it is one of the few places open until later in the evening. We took ourselves along for a couple of beers one evening after dinner – our second visit - and found the place lively but not raucous although I suspect that in the height of summer when the peninsular is full of holiday makers it’s probably a very busy spot (The main focus of nightlife in Tihany, though, is by the ferry landing where there are several bars and nightclubs)

Steg is a pleasant place for a lunch a dinner or just a drink. The courtyard layout offers table in the sun or in the shade as you like or there is the possibility of sitting indoors. One advantage of eating up on the hill in the village proper rather than down by the lake is that you are less likely to be the victim of mozzies in the evenings.

We found the staff friendly and eager to please and, to our relief, the menu has English and German translations under the Hungarian (in spite of it being my third visit I still find the language almost wholly impenetrable).

Usually we prefer to try lots of different places rather than go back to the same one but we were due to the limited number of places open, quite happy to go there twice.

http://www.stegpizzeriatihany.hu/