By TONI LYDECKER

FUELED BY TOURISM AND RISING PROSPERITY, THE URBAN RESTAURANT SCENE IN EASTERN EUROPE HAS BEEN TRANSFORMED IN RECENT YEARS. Travelers to choice destinations such as Budapest, Warsaw and Prague are enjoying classic Eastern European dishes rendered with a lighter hand and local ingredients. In addition to reinventing the classics, chefs are showing visitors how to blend traditional flavors with a modern, global menu.

More travelers may return seeking a taste of Eastern Europe at home, making it timely to discover the evolving cuisines of the region and consider adding their flavors to your menu.

The Buzz in Budapest
According to Carolyn Bánfalvi, author of Food Wine Budapest, "Restaurants that do innovative takes on Hungarian cuisine look to the past rather than experimenting with new things. So many traditions, dishes and ingredients were lost during Communism."

Bánfalvi remembers when Budapest menus were virtually all skewed to huge slabs of meat, with starches but no fresh vegetables. Now, a decade later, that's all been modernized. Leading restaurants rely on local organic produce and heritage-breed meats. For example, at popular eatery Dio, breaded Mangalica pork cutlets are plated with Asian-style home fries and tomato-cilantro salad. Meanwhile, rustic Hungarian specialties, including smoked venison sausage and a spicy bean salad, have been downsized to more healthful, portion-controlled tapas dimensions.

Even menus touting tagliatelle or mussels Provençal are likely to include specialties such as gulyás ("goulash," to tourists), seasoned with quintessential Hungarian ingredient, paprika. "It's important where [paprika] comes from and how it's dried," notes Alina Bosze, chef at Chicago-based The Epicurean Hungarian restaurant. It is each cook's call whether to use hot or sweet paprika, or blend the two.

Hungary is known for sweet wines from Tokaj, but Bánfalvi recommends introducing customers to more elusive whites from the Somló region or red Kadarka. Also noteworthy, the quality of pálinka, a traditional fruit brandy, has risen in recent years.

Eating Well in Warsaw
Warsaw restaurants draw on the bounty of the countryside—there are more farms there than anywhere in Europe, mostly small ones, and artisanal traditions remain strong.

Owing to history and geography, Polish cuisine is influenced by Russian cooking. Smoked herring, borsch, meats with fruit sauces and pierogies are menu mainstays. However, "some chefs are envisioning these recipes using lighter, less rib-sticking ingredients. Pierogies might be stuffed with seaweed instead of pork, or something equally unexpected," explains Kerry Kubilius, who covers Eastern European travel for about.com.

Warsaw restaurant Qchnia invites customers to navigate a tasting menu described by owner Marta Gessler as "modern, light, healthy food, both Polish and inspired by tastes of the world." For example, a dainty portion of spinach lasagna with sheep's milk cheese might be followed by blood sausage, pickled cucumber and beets served with horseradish and mustard.

Prague Goes Global
Prague is another example of a city that is reflecting local tastes in an international menu. Take a recently opened branch of Gordon Ramsey's Maze, which offers dishes such as glazed pork belly with tempura of black pudding, apple and spiced lentils.

Radisson's La Rotonde Restaurant showcases modern revivals of dishes dating back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when culinary influences circulated freely. Quenelle of pike with freshwater crayfish sounds French, but is authentically Czech, as Chef Jiri Stift discovered upon consulting a 19th-century cookbook. "If you think about ingredients that belong to Czech cuisine, at the top are freshwater fish, game and mushrooms," says Stift, who recently left Radisson to open his own restaurant.

For roast duck with parsley dumplings and red cabbage, La Rotonde's kitchen buys organic ingredients from local producers and gives the dish a sleek presentation. Locally brewed dark beer shows up in a sauce for bacon-wrapped pork loin; potato noky (nó-kee) served on the side are the Czech answer to gnocchi.

Meanwhile, Savoy Café presents a choice between international fare and dishes like a classic svickova: roast beef in cream sauce, garnished with cranberries and lemon.

As in other Eastern European destinations, Prague's restaurant scene and cuisine are reaching a new level of recognition. Karen Feldmen, author of Prague Artel Style, points out, "Ten years ago there were only a handful of good restaurants, but now there are many, including the Allegro Restaurant at Four Seasons, which just won Prague its first Michelin star."

Toni Lydecker is a freelance writer whose articles have appeared in the Washington Post, Wine Enthusiast, Health, Fine Cooking and Plate magazine.