Vilnius Restaurants

Hot on the frozen yogurt trend is Lithuania's YoYo. The only problem is that they seem to serve frozen plain ice, not frozen yogurt. There are quite a few "flavors" (and I use the term loosely) and toppings to choose from. The product coming out of their dispensers is bland and badly-textured. On the plus side the cups are cute and the inside of the restaurant is decorated nicely. 2.5 LT per hundred grams.

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Cili Pub is a popular pub in the heart of Vilnius. As you enter, and inevitably queue, you will be treated to the sight of a chicken coop. Yup, some restaurants have fish tanks, but this one has a glassed chicken coop! There is an upstairs restaurant and pub area, while the downstairs has a limited pub menu, and service on both levels is friendly. The menu accommodates both meat eaters and vegetarians. I started with a bowl of creamy mushroom soup in a rye bread bowl, and followed it with potato-spinach dumplings in a cream sauce. On the side? Kvass, of course. The menus is in both English and Latvian, and features illustrations to help you make your choice.

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Uzupio Kavine was called "legendary" in my guidebook and noted for it's "good" cheap breakfasts. Well, if they can do breakfast right they should be able to handle lunch, right? Wrong. Located at the entry to Uzupio and right alongside the river, this is a dark, damp restaurant with a patio along the river (and lots of mosquitoes and wasps to go along with its prime location). Service is slow and disorganized, and unfortunately most of the vegetarian things on the menu were unavailable. My starter of traditional cold beet soup with boiled potato was fine, and my kvass was good too. What I was forced to order as a main dish, however, was absolutely horrible. Imagine grilled eggplant and zucchini layered atop boiled mixed vegetables and rice, then doused with sweet and sour sauce and topped with mock parmesan. What the heck was that? Gross, for sure. I can't see any reason to recommend eating here- it's bad food from an incomplete menu in an unclean atmosphere. Avoid.

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It's true that Forto Dvaras is located on a busy, touristic street in Old Town Vilnius, and yeah, and lot of its customers are tourists, but that doesn't mean it's a tourist trap. In fact, this restaurant was excellent, dishing up a variety of different traditional Lithuanian foods in a bustling environment. I was particularly impressed by the kind waitress who brought me a little something extra when she found out I was vegetarian. Meat eaters will have lots of options here, and I was able to piece together an interesting meal of salad and "zeppelins", pillow potato dumplings filled with cheese. I washed it down with kvass, which is a drink made from fermented rye bread.

(This restaurant is really popular and gets really busy. As a single diner I had to wait for a table for about ten minutes, and groups waited longer. I noticed many people verbally abusing the staff and demanding to be seated, despite the fact that obviously the restaurant was full. Have some manners, people!)

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We'd passed by this restaurant many times, and had gazed at the plates of diners eating outside, under the patio heaters.

On our last night, we decided to treat ourselves to a meal here. We decided to eat inside as it was a bit chilly that evening.

We were directed to a dining room, passing through another room that was occupied by a private party and a lone accordionist.

The room was quite comfortable, with an understated elegance, but not at all stuffy. A mix of clientele - a family group at the next table, (that disappeared halfway through their meal, leaving their wine, then returning nearly an hour later with an extra female and minus the man (father?) who'd been there earlier), a young couple who appeared to be on a first date (or at least early in their relationship), another young couple and a jolly group of senior citizens who appeared to be on holiday together.

The party next door (a company do?) were going through speeches, with much applauding followed by dancing to the tunes from the accordion.

Our waiter was polite, helpful, efficient and spoke very good English.

After our meal, I got chance for a quick look around the town hall with its impressive staircase.
We exited through the front door of the Town Hall, down the steps and into the square - a lovely end to our meal.

Open Monday-Saturday 11.00-24.00, Sunday 11.00 - 22.00

Favorite Dish: Oysters

I have recently 'discovered' oysters and usually treat myself when I'm in Dublin. I've only ever had small oysters though.

I decided to try 3 large ones. Phil declined a starter and was quite bemused at my excitement over these raw molluscs.
At 15Lt each (£3/$5) these were a good price to me.
They arrived on a platter of crushed ice with a lemon wedge.
These were nicely chilled, and with a real 'Taste of the sea' Phil tried a small morsel, but wasn't impressed. I was impressed that he'd tried oyster voluntarily though!

Zander cutlet filled with butter and greens, described as a gastronomic heritage dish(44Lt/£10/$16)
I wasn't sure what Zander was - the waiter explained that it was pike - perch! I decided to try it. It came with with mashed potatoes and a few carrots with leek. I was warned to be careful when I cut into my fish as it was full of hot butter.

Well Zander wasn't what I was expecting - the texture was quite un-fishlike and it didn't taste of fish - it didn't really taste of anything - Like chicken? A bonus was that there were no bones!

I'm glad I tried it, but I don't think that I'd order it again.

Phil had ordered cod, but was informed apologetically that this was off the menu, so he opted for halibut which came with white sauce and bolete mushrooms on a bed of rice (42 Lt/£10/$16) He enjoyed this.

Goats cheese trio
These small balls of creamy goats cheese were coated in 1) Flaked almonds 2) black poppy seeds and 3) rasins
Served on a dusting of icing sugar with halved strawberry and a berry that I didn't recognise.
Mmmmmm!
Phil devoured a trio of very fruity ice cream with a marmalade accompaniment.

We finished the meal with coffee and Lithuanian herbal liquor (me) and vodka (Phil)

With a 1/2 bottle of wine this came to the grand total of 223Lt! One of those heart stopping moments until converted - £51/$83/65Euros.
Expensive by Lithuanian standards, but very reasonable for us

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I'd been recommended to try this riverside terrace restaurant by VTers who'd visited it. We arrived late afternoon, and decided this was the time and place to try one of Lithuanias delicacies- the - cepelinas or Zeppelin. A type of dumpling made from grated potatoes and stuffed with minced meat, which are boiled and served with sour cream and bacon pieces.
These can also be stuffed with curd (cottage cheese) or mushrooms.
These are called Zeppelins due to their resemblance to the German airships.

We found a seat on the outside terrace overlooking the river, opposite the mermaid sculpture and a gallery of photo's of some of Užupio's residents/characters.
Read about the history of this restaurant building
Well this was a nice place to chill out! We intended to return one night, but never got round to it. I'd forgotten that this place sold Uzupio souvenirs until I returned home -doh! Ah well, I'll just have to return to Vilnius!

Would recommend this place for location alone!
Apparently it's the only restaurant overlooking a river in Vilnius.
As we arrived late in the afternoon it wasn't overcrowded, although there were plenty of customers relaxing over a drink or snack on the terrace, enjoying the sunshine.

Favorite Dish: Well, we managed to finish off our Zeppelins, they were quite tasty, but I'm glad that we ate them fairly early on - they felt like a brick in my stomach for quite a while!

Washed down with a glass of Volfas Engelman beer this was a pleasant snack.
One Zeppelin cost 8.50 LT (£2/$3)-September 2012 Two cost 15.50Lt - Hmmm, one of our neighboring diners attempted two, but failed half way through the second.

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We wanted something fairly light to eat, and pancakes seemed to fit the bill - This place had so many varieties of fillings. We were a bit hesitant as it looked like a bit like a 'Fast Food chain' but decided to give it a go.

We were shown to a table where we had a view of staff making the pancakes. There was a mix of clientele - all ages - family groups/couples/friends

Open - Daily 09:00 to 22:00

Favorite Dish: I chose the Cheese/ham and mushroom pancake.(7.10 Lt/£1.60/$2.65)-September 2012
I was then asked to choose a sauce, so went for the Mustard/horseradish (1.60Lt)
Phil went for the Cheese and ham pancake (6.40Lt) with mayo (1.60Lt)
We washed this down with a Tauras Extra beer - small for me (5Lt) and large for Phil (6Lt)

I enjoyed my pancake - the filling was tasty and it was just enough to eat.
Worth visiting for a quick cheap tasty meal.

I'd hoped to return to try their 'Gingery' pancake - Chocolate pancake with ginger, hot pepper, cinnamon, cloves, Tabasco sauce and Vanilla Ice Cream - I love ginger/chocolate and thought that this would help clear my cold!
Afraid that we didn't find time to return this visit.

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Forto Dvaras is 'a large Lithuanian franchise of folk restaurants' We chose this place (the Pilius branch) for our evening meal as we were getting increasingly hungry, trying to make our minds up what we wanted to eat. We'd found one likely place, after perusing the menu, but heading inside (it had turned a bit nippy) the 'greeter' told us that it was a different menu inside - yes, and much more expensive too, so we ended up here.

Enquiring if there was a table for 2, the waitress off-handedly said 'Only Downstairs' well, she made it sound as if this was quite grim! No it wasn't - it was quite homely in a cave like sort of way.

This was certainly a popular restaurant, with a mix of clientele of all ages, couples, family groups, groups of friends and solo diners.
An extensive menu of dishes including meat, fish and poultry, dumplings/pancakes, salads, soups, appetisers etc also beer snacks and snack plates.

Our waitress was quite efficient and our food was hot and tasty.

Forto Dvaras was the first restaurant in Lithuania to serve certified meals from the Gastronomic Heritage Foundation. A quality mark for meals made in the traditional way and using locally sourced products.

Open Daily 11.00 - 24.00

Favorite Dish: I chose 'The Strongman Roast' - Pork neck roast with fries, cabbage salad, tomatoes and garlic sauce 18.50 Lt (£4/$7)-September 2012

Phil had a chicken dish, which I think was crispy chicken with vegetables, fried potatoes and cheese sauce 16.90 Lt (£4/£6)
We had been tempted to try the cepelinai (Zeppelins), but having eaten one a few days later I'm glad that I didn't - I think I'd have had an uncomfortable night!
This restaurant has 12 varieties of this traditional dish.

Again, we chose beer to drink with our meal