Eating out in Vilnius

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Eateries are a plenty in Vilnius.
My favourite was a little tea house that i think was part of a chain of tea houses, but the atmosphere and the food were fantastic. And the prices were reasonable as well. I think it was called "Skonis ir kvapas" on Traku Street. We ate there twice because the place felt genuine, and though the menu was also written in English, as are a lot of menus in Vilnius, it didn't feel like it was catering to the tourist. Indeed, i think on both occasions we were the only foreigners there. The entrees were light; the choice wasn't big, but then again, the food was fresh. They had European cuisine; entre autre, they had russian cabbage pie, dumplings, and pasta as well as a variety of fish. Simon had tuna salad, and i chose the veal salad, which i was told was what most lithuanians loved to eat. We followed this with chicken curry (ok) and Pike with mustard sauce...quite light and delicious.
It was great to get away from muzak: they played a random mix of belly dance, salsa and lithuanian folk music.

On the night when Google was taking a bunch of the programmers out to the pub, it turned out that we went there for dinner just by coincidence. They had an upstairs, an outdoors and a downstairs. They also had 2 sorts of menus: a nobleman's and a peasant's. We chose the peasant's. Not because it was relatively cheaper (most things are inexpensive in Vilnius) but because it had more variety, more earthiness to the descriptions of the meals. And this is where I tried out the Pear cider... or was it it peach? Lithuanian cider, either way. This place was called]b] Cili Kaimas , and also turns out to be some sort of franchised pub-like eatery. This one was in the Old Town. I think it's worth going there.

The next night, we encouraged Dinu and Christian (and family) to meet us at a restaurant I had read about called Blusyne (The Flea), apparently so named after the owner's dog....It was a small place, hidden away on Saviciaus st, 5 (You find the top of the street and keep walking. the shingle is very small) In the review it said the menu was as small as the place, and i assumed, wrongly, that the prices would be small as well.

The place was full of character: bar at the front, eating space at the back, with strange shell like lamps on wall. The host was young, and I feel that night, a bit over committed. Anyway, Budweiser (Czech, of course) and only two sorts of wine: Australian or local...AH, it was nice to have some taste of the familiar Jacob's Creek Cab Sav, which i introduced to the two programmers. I had mussels (yes, doesn't quite go with red wine) and they were delicious. Most of our meals were tasty, but took over an hour to arrive. Had it been just Simon and I, we wouldn't cared, we would have eaten more, but little did we know we had a diabetic in our midst. That made the lateness of the meal all the more annoying.

Anyway, if you have time and the inclination, you should go to the Flea.

The next night, by this stage we are both getting tired of eating out, but not saying so to each other, we find a little out of the way pub called Transylvania on Totoriu St. Under the watchful gaze of Count Dracula, we had a typical lithuanian pub meal. Dark, red, wooden, pictures from vampire movies, more pear cider and budweiser.
On the whole, there is a great choice of small, intimate and definitely local restaurants from which the tourist can chose. On Vilniaus and Vokieciu Streets alone there are many: Greiti Pietus had this great menu board; it sold game and meat, and was definitely NOT for the vegetarians.

Good eating!

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Photos

Entrance to Tea House
Only by falling out of the taxi did we see the entrance to the teahouse

Inside the Tea house
Very atmospheric

At the Flea (Blusyne)
With our friends from europython

George St equivalent
Super touristy street. Every city has one; in Sydney it's called George st; in VIlnius it's called Pilies