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It seems convenient to collect all our restaurant accounts together.

First, a couple of general observations.

• You are unlikely to go hungry if you eat out in Budapest: portions are large, and the food is often rich and very filling, real stick-you-to-the-chair stuff.
• Once you depart from the obviously cheap and cheerful, restaurant style is very "correct". Servers are uniformed, tables are carefully dressed, food is stylishly plated, glasses are not overfilled and are replenished without delay.
• Servers have a habit, which we initially found disconcerting, of removing plates or glasses as soon as you have done with them, even if your dining companion is not yet finished.
• Restaurants generally offer a choice of smoking and non-smoking areas. How well they are separated from one another varies, as it is governed by the architecture of the building. LS, a non-smoker, generally asked for a smoking area to accommodate her pipe-smoking brother. This might have been a mistake, as non-smoking parties were more numerous, their sections of restaurants seemed more convivial, and I willingly forgo my pipe in a dining area.
• If you are on a tight budget, it is possible to eat very cheaply -- two courses and a drink for 5-6 euro, but that is fuel rather than dining.

Places we liked (prices are for the two of us, are converted to an approximate euro equivalent, include drinks and the customary 10% gratuity):

• Okay Italia, near Nyugati palyaudvar (Western Railway Station). We arrived in Budapest late in the afternoon, and by the time we had established ourselves in the apartment it was evening. We went out and explored the neighbourhood, looking for somewhere to eat, and ended up at this place which, as the name suggests, is Italian style. The menu offered more than just pasta/pizza, and we found good cooking and excellent service. We went "up the menu" and had a bottle of Hungarian sauvignon which disappointed me a little. Portion size meant that dessert was impossible. About 45 euro.
• Premier Restaurant & Terrace, Andrassy ut 101, Metro 1 Bajza. Nice basement room (the terrace looked nice too, but it wasn't the right time of year for it), interesting menu, including some inventive taste combinations. The waiter expressed strong approval of our speculative choice of wine, but I think this is a professional trick (or technique) to make customers feel good about themselves. Or maybe not: the wine was good and went well with the food. Two courses and we were replete. About 55 euro.
• Arany Barany, Harmincad utca, a few steps from Vorosmarty ter. This house specialises in Hungarian cuisine, and the menu is a great read, my favourite description being:

Almos' son, Arpad hungarian princely aldos (Aldos is the general name of the hun-hungarian sacrificial meals, which are made with "long liquid" and refer to the sacrificial meals) It is made of beef and lamb legs and special spices and flavours are used (in hungarian "gyoket", slightly sweet and sour flavours with tarragon and thyme).

And that was just a soup, albeit a very tasty soup that I really enjoyed. The rest of the menu was almost as interesting to read and just as good to eat. Live music (piano and violin). About 50 euro.

• Citadella, at the top of Gellert Hill. If you don't want the challenging walk, take a taxi. Vaulted basement rooms, but spacious; Hungarian/International cuisine of a high standard: good attentive service; live music (zither and violin). Overall, a very good dining experience. About 55 euro. Earlier in the week we been very taken with the view over the city from Gellert Hill. At night, it is spectacular, with the general illumination of streets and buildings augmented by the floodlighting of major buildings and the outlining of the Danube bridges with arrays of bulbs. It is a pity that the restaurant does not have windows on this view, which we found only when we emerged.
• Etna II, in the Golden Park Hotel, near Keleti  palyaudvar (Eastern Railway Station). LS and I had stayed at the Golden Park on our previous visit, and really liked the associated Italian restaurant. So we returned, and enjoyed it all over again. It is less formal than Hungarian-style places, service is relaxed and friendly, and the food is very good. A 10% service charge is added, but you are alerted to that on the menu. About 45 euro, including a very pleasing Pinot Grigio.

And then there is Gundel's. Gundel is "it" for fine dining in Budapest. We decided that it would be a suitable place to bring our newly-refurbished teeth for their official launch. The restaurant is located in City Park, close to the zoo, and it was convenient for us to visit in order to book a table for Saturday night. The receptionist eyed my parka, and said that they had a dress code for gentlemen, that they must wear jackets but that if I didn't have any they would supply one. What were the rules for ladies, I asked, could they wear jeans and a T-shirt? Yes, apparently, they could.

We turned up at the appointed time, me wearing a zippered jacket that didn't pass muster, so I had to surrender it at the cloakroom in exchange for a black lounge jacket that, in combination with my black slacks, made me look like a down-on-my-luck sales rep. I was not required to wear a tie, for which mercy I was grateful.

The dining room is large and handsome, and the menu impressive almost to the point of intimidating. To save our palates for the fine dining we expected, we contented ourselves with mineral water as a pre-prandial, and when they put it in an ice-bucket I knew that this meal was to be taken as serious business. I solved the menu problem by opting for a set meal, a seven-course "Gourmet's Dinner" with selected wines included. I knew that it was something of a cop-out, that it was probably their production-line meal, but the combination of elements seemed appealing to my palate. LS, with a different palate, selected three individual courses, and invited the sommelier to choose glasses of wine to accompany them. We both fared very well -- delicious food with excellent wine in support, good attentive service without fuss, live music (piano and two violins), and a buzz of enjoyment in the full room. We wondered about the pacing of LS's three-course meal against my seven courses. One part of the solution was that she received an amuse-bouche to match my opener. The rest followed easily: the portions I received were suitably small so that I could clear two courses for each one of hers, and the staff were clearly used to such situations and timed things very well.

Our evening cost us about 200 euro, about four times as much as we spent in other restaurants, and we judged it worth the money.

And with that extravagance our week was nicely rounded off.