Located in a
mixed-use residential and commercial building on Main Street in Hellertown, before
you reach what was once the Hellertown movie theatre and the former high school
(which is now an assisted living facility), this small restaurant has a
diner-like atmosphere. The no-frills décor includes Formica booths and tables, decorative
plates on the walls, faux plants hanging from the ceiling and on the wall that
divides the two sections of the dining room, and a flat-screen TV in one corner
(which is usually turned off). A few tables can be arranged to handle larger
groups. The family that owns and operates the restaurant emigrated from Hungary
in 1987, with the sons serving as hosts and waiters, and the parents cooking in
the kitchen.
The
restaurant offers authentic Hungarian/Eastern European cuisine, which is a
rarity in many cities, and certainly in the Lehigh Valley. Paprika’s makes the best
chicken paprikas that we have ever tasted, and we are compelled to order it
each time that we dine there! You can choose either white meat (boneless) or
dark meat (still on the bone), which is served atop home-made noodles called nokedli
(similar to a German spätzle or a small dumpling) and then doused with a velvety
paprika sour cream sauce. For dessert, their cottage cheese palacsinta (crepes)
are tremendously good! Even though Paprika’s offer other flavors of crepes (apricot,
strawberry, lekvar [plum/prune], raspberry, walnut, chocolate), we never order
anything but the cottage cheese because it is so delicious (and because nostalgically,
it reminds us of what our grandmother once made). If we could ever manage NOT
to order the chicken paprika as an entree, we might choose the cabbage noodles,
cottage cheese noodles, goulash, or stuffed cabbage rolls (halupkis) instead.
Although we have never visited for lunch (only for dinner), the lunch menu features
smaller portions of their most popular dinner entrees, along with a variety
sandwiches (the sandwiches are not available at dinnertime). Dinner entrees are
served with your choice of homemade chicken noodle soup or a small green salad;
rolls and butter accompany the soup and salad. The restaurant is BYOB because
it does not hold a liquor license. Service is business-like and perfunctory.
Try the delicious
Hungarian comfort food at Paprika’s!
