Balaton Hungarian Restaurant Opens in New Bainbridge Location
Full-service dining returns for the first time in more than a year

Photo by Emanuel Wallace
Veal crepe at Balaton.
Balaton restaurant closed its doors to the public in early 2022 but the owners, at that time, said they were pursuing a new location. Late last year they announced that they had indeed found a new home in Bainbridge (8564 E. Washington St.), specifically Market Square at the corner of Rt. 306 and E. Washington.
At long last, Balaton reopens to the public for dine-service today after more than a year.
This is the fourth location for Balaton since Therezia Olah launched the restaurant as a small takeout spot on Buckeye Road in the early 1960s. A few years later she graduated to a larger full-service restaurant farther up Buckeye Road. That restaurant thrived there from the mid-1960s until 1998, when the family relocated to Shaker Square.

“It has been tough the last couple of years because of Covid, but the location is also tough,” owner Krisztina Ponti told Scene. “A lot of our clients, we wish we could be closer to. It’s not easy to get to Shaker Square, parking has been always a problem and the area changed.”
After closing its dining room in early 2022, Balaton had been operating as a ghost kitchen only. Starting today, the restaurant will return to full-service dining in its new home.
Source:clevelandscene.com