A success story of more than half a century: the Old Farmhouse in Lajosmiz

Öreg Tanyaksárda is one of the most famous inns in Inner Hungary and has received the most professional recognition. In its preface, we can read, among other things, the following: “Everything happened like in fairy tales: where it was, where it wasn’t…. In 1973, a few young men met in Lajosmizsé on the Great Hungarian Plain, where the Farm Museum was opened, showing the country and the world the past and the present of Hungary.

The visitor, who was a descendant of the wanderers of old, was only welcomed by a small wooden house with tasty snacks, but the appetite and thirst were so great that soon another homestead grew out of the wilderness and the signboard was already put up.

Tanyacsárda – announced the company with noble simplicity. The guests were welcomed by Ferenc Gömöri, the founder, the father of the idea. (…)

We are a people of horses, the chroniclers of the past wrote, and this tradition is proudly carried on by the stud owner István Terenyi, who is happy to present the Lipica stud and, in addition, the indigenous Hungarian breeds of sheep and gray cattle.

From 1976, the position of head chef was held by János Garaczi, a master chef who was awarded the Silver Cross of Merit of the Hungarian Republic in 1980, from the Aranyhomok Hotel, and who has been working as managing director since 2007.

The Új Tanyaksárda was also built later as an event center, and the old one took on the name Öreg Tanyaksárda at the same time.

Last time, on Sunday at noon, if we hadn’t arrived half an hour after the 11 o’clock opening, we wouldn’t have gotten a seat, even though the place has a very large capacity.

The interior is very cozy and tastefully decorated. In the summer, they operate a flowery, eye-catching terrace in the embrace of the U-shaped building complex. The interior decoration is harmonious, evoking the bourgeois and the peasant world at the same time, without disturbing eclecticism. A beamed ceiling, paintings on the wall, an antique clock, a blue tablecloth on the table, a discreet evergreen composition in a vase, carved chairs inspired by folk art, occasional gypsy music. In one of the rooms, two walls are filled with framed diplomas won over the past decades.

The menu is based on traditional Hungarian dishes, but they also offer some international dishes. The kitchen, staying within the paradigm developed after the Second World War, also shows some creativity.

The daily offer is also noteworthy.

In the late fall of 2024, in addition to the dishes we ordered, they will offer, among other things, venison soup with mushrooms from the forests and fields, duck stew garnished with liver, steamed cabbage and steak potatoes, BBQ sides, fried duck leg, oven-baked pork shank with onion and potatoes, roast duck liver with currants, tartar, cherry-vanilla poppy seed cake and chocolate lava cookies with sour cream, whipped cream and vanilla ice cream.

The service depends on the waiter, there are those who do their work impersonally and a bit rudely, but there are also extremely nice and communicative members of the wide staff of waiters. It is a definite virtue that the servers do not avoid eye contact, as in so many places.

In the last twenty years, I have been here every three years on average. I ate home-made stuffed zucchini, traditional cold foie gras in fat, cold duck breast garnished with salad, well-done deep-fried veal leg, Somló dumpling, mixed fish dish, milk pie, and I could go on and on. Misfires are rare, although it has happened that there were no wild mushrooms in the soup promised to have wild mushrooms. Classic Hungarian dishes are typically presented at a decent, slightly above-average level.

A well-proven guest house spanning decades folded leaf crackerswhich, if you manage to catch it while it’s still warm, can even be called the top of the genre, brings everything to the taste and texture that we can expect from this popular Hungarian appetizer/beer skate. The portions are very serious, you should be a person on your feet who can eat three courses without packing.

My most recent experience is very recent, we finished a two-day wine tour here the other day, and now I’m coming home, in the second half of November. The overall picture was similar to the previous ones, although in addition to the minor errors, this time there was also a larger one, ordered by one of my good friends pumpkin risotto neither in taste nor in texture did it give the expected experience, the rice was not al dente, but downright cooked to ruin. We have no way of knowing whether this portion was spoiled, or whether this is what their risotto looks like, but if the latter version is true, then it would be better to remove this dish from the menu. Even if the decent amount of grilled Camembert served with it was fine.

The overcooking was also a problem in other dishes, but much smaller, the meat cubes in the otherwise good-tasting goulash soup were on the verge of falling apart, the vegetables were also overcooked, just like in the correct broth. The cabbage in the latter was surprising, although it didn’t particularly bother me. The bread ordered with the goulash had a crispy crust and was fresh, belonging to the top segment of simpler quality breads.

A “skin-on skewers” rather, it was “fried skewers with their skin”, in a thin flour coating, fried in oil, but it was delicious anyway.

By the way, it tastes good and has the right texture in bell peppers porcupines were only found in pointers. Two of the company also ordered this, neither of them had enough porcini to be a dish worthy of its name. Of course, even a very small amount of porcini – mean a few grams – is better than if the dish had been stuffed with sardines, as is done in many places.

A pacal pörkelt the juice could have been a bit thicker, the flavor more expressive, more characterful, the temperature higher, but I would still classify it as one of the better ones. Especially for the price/value ratio. A small pot is therefore approx. they gave me half a liter of stew for HUF 4,090 with a side dish.

I would venture that the place is among the best in its genre in terms of price/value ratio in the Carpathian Basin. No service fee is charged.

We’ve had better experiences at the Old Farmhouse, but this time we left neither hungry nor disappointed.

Cover photo: Attila Zsolt Borbély