Last Saturday, Andrew and I joined around 200 people at the InterContinental Budapest for the 32nd Canadian Lobster Dinner, the biggest night of the year for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hungary. Whole lobsters came in from Nova Scotia. The room was a proper mix of Hungarians and Canadians, and plenty of us were both. We came home with new friends, good conversations still buzzing and very buttery fingers.

The Chamber has been connecting Canadian and Hungarian business since 1992, and this dinner is its flagship. Canada’s Ambassador to Hungary, Judith Gelbman, and Dr Judit Zolnay, Hungary’s State Secretary for Foreign Economic Affairs, joined Chamber President Nicholas Sárvári and leaders from across the Hungarian and international business community. The InterContinental’s kitchen team had the small job of preparing a whole lobster for nearly every guest, and they pulled it off beautifully.

Two Passports at One Table

I was born in Toronto to two Hungarian parents. My mother left Hungary at the end of the war and my father in the sixties. My husband, Andrew, became a Hungarian citizen in 2013, four years before we packed up Toronto and moved here.

Most events in Budapest quietly ask you to pick a side. You are either the international in the room or the local. This one never asked. Our table was a real mix of people from all over, and nobody needed to explain which half of them had turned up.

It was also our first Lobster Dinner, and it had been a long time coming. We bought tickets a couple of years ago, then I got sick at the last minute and we missed it. So we walked in this year properly excited to finally be there.

Lobster All the Way From Nova Scotia

The headline act was a whole lobster each, flown in from Nova Scotia. For anyone who grew up in Canada, a whole lobster means the East Coast, a stack of napkins and no dignity whatsoever. Doing it in a ballroom on the Danube, in good clothes, is its own sport.

Andrew, it must be said, is not a lobster fan. At a dinner named after lobster, flown in from the other side of the Atlantic, he ordered the beef. To be fair to him, it was also delicious, and he looked entirely at peace while the rest of the table wrestled shellfish. I had the lobster and loved every buttery, undignified minute of it.

The lobster is also why this night draws a crowd you would not find at an ordinary Chamber event. I have heard of people travelling quite a distance for it, and plenty come for what is on the plate as much as for the networking. Real Nova Scotia lobster in Budapest is reason enough.

Renault ran a shuttle for guests, which meant nobody had to think about parking at the InterContinental or the drive home. A small thing, and exactly the kind of small thing that makes a long, generous evening work.

The People Around the Lobster

This is the night of the year when the whole Chamber community is in one room. A highlight for me was catching up with Ambassador Gelbman, who I get along with very well, along with several of the embassy team. Dr Zolnay addressed the room, and the Chamber filled the rest of the evening with exhibitors, a silent auction you could browse all night and a raffle.

Andrew and I were lucky enough to both win raffle prizes, and even happier knowing our donations went to United Way. Andrew took home a bottle of fine whisky. I won a health maintenance exam at Dr. Rose, which, for someone who leads marketing at FirstMed, is a prize with a sense of humour.

Make no mistake, this is one of Budapest’s top networking nights, and everyone knows it. Between courses, people were up and moving between tables, swapping business cards and asking the question of the evening: so, what do you do? I lost count of how many times I answered it, and asked it, and the conversations went well beyond small talk. If you want to meet the people who run things here, Canadian or International, this is the place to be each November.

How to Go Next Year

This was the 32nd edition, so the Lobster Dinner is firmly on the calendar. Tickets and dates come through the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hungary, so the simplest move is to keep an eye on the Chamber’s events page and sign up for its newsletter there.

You do not need to be Canadian. The room is full of internationals and Hungarians of every kind, from business owners and diplomats to people who simply heard there would be real Nova Scotia lobster. If you are new to Budapest and want to meet people who have built real lives and businesses here, this is a very good room to stand in.

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FAQ

Do you need to be Canadian to attend the Canadian Lobster Dinner in Budapest? No. The room is a real mix of Hungarians, Canadians and internationals from all over. The Nova Scotia lobster draws people who would not usually come to a Chamber event, and some travel quite a distance just for it.

When and where is the Canadian Lobster Dinner held? The 2026 dinner took place on Saturday 7 November at the InterContinental Budapest. It is the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hungary’s largest annual event, and the Chamber announces each year’s date and venue.

Where do the lobsters come from? Nova Scotia. Each guest is served a whole lobster, which is the highlight of the night and the reason most Canadians in the room get a little sentimental.

What if you don’t eat lobster? There is a beef option. Andrew chose it this year and recommends it, though he remains outnumbered.

Why We’ll Be Back

My parents each left Hungary for Canada. Decades later our whole family has moved back, figuring Hungary out together. On Saturday, cracking a Nova Scotia lobster in a Budapest ballroom, with a Hungarian winemaker on one side and Canadians who now call Budapest home on the other, it felt like both halves of that story finally sat at the same table. Andrew and I will be there for the 33rd. Save me a bib.

If a room full of interesting people is your kind of night, come to one of ours. Andrew and I host HOW TO HUNGARY events at KLUSTER every month. Our November healthcare session and the Christmas Social are both sold out (there is a waiting list), so 2027 is where the open seats are, starting on Wednesday 20 January with “Finding Your Hungarian Voice”, our panel on the road from first words to citizenship. Insider subscribers hear first when tickets open. See upcoming HOW TO HUNGARY events or join the Insider.

I attended representing FirstMed, where I lead marketing. FirstMed is a member of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hungary and a HOW TO HUNGARY Trusted Expert.