The rural village of Mályinka in Hungary’s Bükk Mountains is one of the few places where real silence still exists. You can hike for hours in the National Park without seeing another person, although there are plenty of deer. Visit in summer to enjoy the fresh mountain air, or in winter, when thick snow blankets the forest. As autumn arrives, the trees put on a brilliant show and mushrooms sprout underfoot, ready to be harvested. At this time of year, only the roar of stags punctuates the stillness.
It’s in this serene wilderness that Ádám Pohner and his partner Luca A. Kun decided to launch Iszkor, their cosy neighbourhood restaurant, back in 2021. After discovering that a former pub in Ádám’s home village was on the market, the couple didn’t hesitate. They purchased the waterside property as a long-term investment and made the move from Budapest, planning to renovate slowly and without pressure.
Rolling up their sleeves, the pair poured concrete, tiled the floors and scrubbed the space clean themselves (alongside a few volunteers) ahead of the grand opening. Once the renovations were complete, Ádám donned his chef’s jacket and Luca shouldered all duties outside the kitchen.
“From the very beginning, Iszkor has grown alongside us,” Ádám saYS. “We believe people can feel this – that this is a genuinely heartfelt, deeply authentic project.”
Just a few months after buying the property, Iszkor won MICHELIN’s Opening of the Year Award, as well as being awarded a Bib Gourmand for its great value cooking.
Local Producers
Community has been at the heart of Iszkor’s offering since day one, with Ádám and Luca determined to utilise local produce. In the beginning, they were constantly on the lookout for nearby producers, spending evenings scrolling, clicking through websites, reading blog posts and painstakingly messaging potential suppliers. While the vast majority of their partnerships are local, most started online, often through Instagram.“It was a lot of trial and error, and there were plenty of dead ends – but slowly, something started to take shape,” Luca explains.
Fast forward a few years and almost all of Iszkor’s meat, dairy and fruit is locally sourced. While vegetables are more difficult to get hold of due to the Bükk Mountains’ short growing seasons, Iszkor still acquires local tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, salad greens, potatoes, beets and courgettes. Produce that must come from further afield, like asparagus, is grown organically.
“It’s very important for us to visit the farms regularly, to see their challenges firsthand – and sometimes even to lend a hand,” Luca explains, noting that she assisted in this year’s chicken slaughter.
While initially Ádám and Luca actively sought out local producers, Iszkor’s growing reputation means that farmers are now reaching out to them. “What’s beautiful is that these aren’t just business connections – many of them have turned into friendships,” Ádám says. “We know where their kids go to school, they drop in for a coffee when they’re nearby, and they’re proud to see their ingredients on the plate.”
The restaurant’s co-owners are now at the heart of a network of producers, from which new collaborations frequently emerge. For instance, after meeting at Iszkor’s autumn Farmers’ Market, the cattle farmers who supply Ádám and Luca with beef teamed up with the restaurant’s winemaker to produce a red wine sausage. “These are the kinds of stories that make us feel like we’re building something bigger than just a restaurant – a kind of local ecosystem, stitched together through real relationships,” Ádám says.
And, indeed, with both producers and staff interwoven into the fabric of the restaurant, Ádám and Luca realised “Iszkor isn’t just ours anymore”.
The Authentic Iszkor Experience: Honest and Unforced
Entering Iszkor, you’ll almost always be greeted by Luca or Ádám, who prioritise greeting guests, chatting and checking in throughout the meal, even when back-of-house work is piling up. “Honest and unforced” is what they’re striving for.Dine al fresco in the restaurant’s riverside pavilion, where fairy lights are strung from wooden beams, or sit in the intimate interior, which features bold midnight blue walls that are offset beautifully by natural wood panelling.
Spend a few hours at Iszkor, and it quickly becomes clear that Ádám and Luca have succeeded in retaining the soul of the pub that previously occupied the space. The interiors are cosy and rural, with a modern twist. But look closer and you’ll spot tiles cracked by billiard balls, and uneven plasterwork (the couple plastered the restaurant themselves, learning from YouTube tutorials). “We could have polished everything, but instead, we chose to keep the imperfections – they’re part of Iszkor’s DNA,” Luca says. “In a world full of sleek, investor-backed concept restaurants, we’ve chosen to keep the soul – even if it means your chair might wobble slightly on our uneven floor.”
Iszkor’s team were selected for the same honest values, with most employees living nearby. They know the producers and regulars, and they’ll happily regale customers with stories of life in Mályinka. “Hospitality is a different kind of life,” Ádám says. “None of our office-working friends get what we get from this job – the connections, the intensity. It’s stressful, yes, but it builds relationships in a completely different way.
“And guests feel that. They feel that the atmosphere is different. That everything about the place is deeply authentic.”
A Seasonal, Sustainable Kitchen
Seasonality and sustainability are at the heart of Iszkor’s kitchen – and Ádám is prepared to put in the extra effort and take a flexible approach in order to preserve “what we believe in”.The restaurant works with small-scale growers, and where the opportunity presents, Ádám will take crop surpluses off their hands. Iszkor also partners with a sheep farm adjacent to the couple’s home, whose flock is made up of the Hungarian Racka breed, known for its spiraled horns and crimped wool. “We literally wake up to their bleating in summer – it’s a beautiful full-circle moment when one of the younger animals eventually ends up in our kitchen,” Ádám says.
And as winter grips, the restaurant sources lamb from a regenerative farm in the nearby town of Tardona run by friends of Ádám and Luca. The kitchen also makes a point of utilising the entire animal, from nose to tail. Even the wool from the lambs is used as mulch in the restaurant’s vegetable garden.
“There’s a real difference in taste and nutrition when an egg comes from a truly free-roaming chicken, or when vegetables are grown without chemicals, even if it's riskier and less scalable,” Ádám explains. “Yes, these ingredients cost more, but in return, we get bolder flavours, higher nutritional value – and we help small, local farms survive.”
Menu: ‘Raw Food Cuisine’
Iszkor’s menu is billed as ‘Raw Food Cuisine’, and by its nature it changes constantly – sometimes even daily – shaped by the seasons and which fresh ingredients the restaurant’s partner producers have delivered that week.Appetisers could include wild boar croquette with saffron aioli, and lamb liver paté with peach mustard and a courgette salad. A soup course follows, with dishes such as cold butternut squash cream soup with Mónosbéli fresh cheese and tarragon, which the main ingredient replaced by cousa or summer squash in the warmer months. As for mains, expect plates like deep-fried schnitzel with mashed potatoes and fresh salad, and stuffed peppers with Mangalitsa pork, tomato sauce and boiled new potatoes.
From the current menu, Ádám recommends Iszkor’s version of hortobágyi palacsinta – a savoury Hungarian crêpe. Traditionally an oft-dismissed leftover dish, the kitchen at Iszkor has reimagined it using high-quality ingredients. The chef uses Hungarian ‘Magyar Tarka’ veal raised by friends in Izsófalva (who incidentally also carried out the restaurant’s water and gas renovation), paprika from Fajsz and a Jersey sour cream.
Top off your dining experience with a sumptuous dessert, such as a brownie with white chocolate mousse, raspberry and currant sorbet, or the team's interpretation of the traditional Hungarian dish rákóczi túrós, which comprises homemade apricot ice cream surrounded by sweet egg white foam, set a shortcake-style base and served with apricot jam and cottage cheese mousse. Over on the drinks list, you can sample the best from Hungary’s wine regions, including furmint wines from Tokaj and Bükk.
Ádám’s CV lists stints at other Bib Gourmand restaurants including Kistücsök in Balatonszemes, known for its classic Hungarian dishes, and Platán Bisztró in Tata, which applies bistro refinement to national favourites. He has also competed in the prestigious Bocuse d’Or world chef championships in Lyon.
These experiences have produced a chef who emphasises both thoughtful fine dining and uncompromising repetition, which is how Iszkor approaches every service.
Community Events
Iszkor boasts a packed calendar of events. Its biggest is the Christmas Market, already firmly established as a local tradition. The festivities bring together producers, families and visitors from nearby towns, as they sip steaming mulled wine, shop for gifts and ingredients, and soak up Mályinka’s festive spirit. Spring and autumn versions of the market may be on the cards too.The restaurant also hosts pop-ups, including cocktail nights with friends, guest chefs like MICHELIN-Starred István Akács from Pajta, and casual pizza evenings with natural winemakers from the Bükk.
Patience
Behind the restaurant, next to the stream, Ádám and Luca have dug a small garden. While currently more symbolic than practical, producing herbs and a handful of seasonal vegetables, the couple have been quietly planning to establish a kitchen garden, which will supply a significant portion of their produce. According to Luca, “The veg will be grown organically, in harmony with the land, and most likely in collaboration with someone from our existing network of producers.”But this is not the couple’s only foray into supplying their own ingredients. They already have their own flock of five hens for personal use, and due to Luca’s passion for farming (she dreams of buying a tractor), they’re expecting it to grow. The restaurateurs have also purchased a 2.5-hectare plot nearby, complete with fruit trees and vegetables.
“Just like everything else we’ve built, we trust this will come together in its own time, with the right people involved and the same patience that’s carried us this far,” Luca says. “We still have many plans, but we’ve learned that one of the key lessons of this project is patience. So we wait – and enjoy every step of the journey.”
Where to Stay
“It’s hard to put into words what this region offers – you really have to feel it,” Luca says. But, according to the restaurateur, many guests enquire about real estate after their visit. And she also credits residing in the Bükk mountains with helping herself and Ádám to “slow down, reconnect and learn to live with nature, instead of in opposition to it”.If you’d like to explore the beautiful Bükk National Park further, consider staying at the Avalon Resort & Spa. A one-hour drive from Iszkor, this MICHELIN-recommended hotel delivers luxury (not to mention a wide range of soothing treatments) in breathtaking natural surroundings. Perfect after a long hike or a day on the slopes. Alternatively, stay at the 1552 Boutique Hotel to pair your Iszkor experience with a trip to the baroque, medieval city of Eger. This small hotel, housed in an 18th-century building, features 15 stylish rooms and suites. It’s just a 45-minute drive from Iszkor. Once you’ve finished exploring Eger’s picturesque palaces, castles and 17th-century Turkish baths, tours of the surrounding wine country are readily available.
And, as Luca points out: “If, in the middle of all this, you can eat something honest and soulful in a tiny mountain village – well, that’s just the cherry on top.”
Bükk Mountains Image: © iStock
All Other Images: © Iszkor
Hero Image: A selection of dishes being shared at Iszkor in Mályinka, Hungary – a rurally located and community-focused restaurant that holds a MICHELIN Bib Gourmand for its great quality, great value cooking.
