Hungarian fast-food chain Simon’s Burger has entered the Romanian market with its first restaurant in Cluj-Napoca, opening a 200 sqm flagship that will serve as the testing ground for a planned national network of 25 locations over the next five years.
The restaurant, located at 29 Eroilor Boulevard, was developed with an investment of €500,000 and is operated by a Romanian franchise holder controlled by StartUp HUB co-founders Grüman Róbert and Oltean Csongor.
Oltean Csongor, CEO of Simon’s Burger CJ SRL, said the flagship will function simultaneously as a restaurant and operational laboratory, with the performance of the Cluj unit determining the pace of the next openings.
The Romanian strategy will focus primarily on major cities and commercial centres, with expansion based on the performance data generated by the first unit. The Cluj restaurant has also created around 20 jobs at launch.
From €25,000 first restaurant to €20 million in revenue
Simon’s Burger was founded in Budapest in 2022 by brothers Tóth Simon and Tóth Máté, initially around a smash-burger concept inspired by Simon’s experience in the United States.
The first restaurant required an investment of around €25,000. Three years later, the group generated approximately €20 million in revenue in 2025 and had grown to more than 30 restaurants across Hungary, Slovakia and Austria.
The wider group operates three concepts, Simon’s, Smashy and Travis’ Tenders , and has also entered the US market through Smashy Burger in New York. Simon’s Burger is the third-largest burger chain in Hungary behind McDonald’s and Burger King.
