Kisfaludy House

Kisfaludy House stands on the side of Badacsony below the Rózsakő rock, at Kisfaludy Sándor utca 28, one of the highest hospitality venues on the hill. It is hard to get up to, but from the terrace the whole of Lake Balaton lies in front of you. It has hosted guests for over a hundred years and lives in the memories of generations: people proposed here, married under the chestnut tree, and children walked up from the station for a plate of túrós csusza (pasta with cottage cheese).

Sándor Kisfaludy’s press house

The 18th-century late Baroque building was once the press house of the poet and army officer Sándor Kisfaludy. He met Róza Szegedy at a grape harvest, wrote love poems to her under the pen name Himfy, and married her in 1800. Róza brought the press house, the neighbouring building and the estate into the marriage, and Badacsony became the couple’s favourite retreat. The neighbouring Szegedy Róza House is now a literary and wine museum.

A century of hospitality

The house has welcomed guests for decades; in 1935, for example, about a hundred members of the Austrian Touring Club held a wine tasting here. The listed, 582-square-metre building is owned by the municipality of Badacsonytomaj, was fully renovated in 2014, and became one of Badacsony’s most visited spots.

Eleven years on the hillside

After the renovation Péter Török and his team ran the restaurant for eleven years. The kitchen relied on wines from nearby winemakers and goat cheese, vegetables and fruit from local small producers. „Behind the plants, wines and flavours there were always people,” they wrote when saying goodbye. In June 2025 they closed when the lease ended, which made national news.

The people behind the house

Those eleven years had faces. According to the farewell post, Edit, Gábor and Zsolt worked in the kitchen, Peza and Attila served on the terrace, and many others were part of the team. As Péter Török put it, the house did not give itself easily: you had to climb the hill in the heat and sun for the panorama to open up as you reached the terrace. Many guests came back year after year, and for more than one family this terrace marks an important day.

A skybar for one summer

In July 2025 the house reopened for the season as Kisfaludy-Ház Skybar & Étterem: Badacsony wines, premium gins, lemonade, coffee and hearty meat dishes, with a refreshed, friendlier look and the same view. This was only a temporary arrangement.

What comes next?

In December 2025 the municipality put the house out to tender for operation until the end of 2029, with the decision scheduled for January 2026. According to a tourism listing the venue is currently closed and reopens on 15 March 2027, seasonally until the end of October. We do not yet know the new operator or their offer, and will update this page once they are public.

If you go now

The surroundings are worth a walk even while it is closed: next door the Szegedy Róza House, higher up the Kisfaludy lookout tower, the Rózsakő and the hill, and the lake below.

Who it is for

Anyone curious about Badacsony’s history and one of the finest views of Lake Balaton. After reopening, couples, groups of friends and families who want to reward the climb with a long lunch.