Eating in Vilnius, Lithuania
Despite the Euro rocketing, Lithuania was still an inexpensive place to be and we managed to eat at 3 of the top 10 restaurants according to reviews on Trip Advisor.
Kitchen we went to on the second night. This place was large, buzzing and inexpensive with an extensive menu. I made the mistake of ordering sausages but Tim loved them so we did some swaps. (This was our actual anniversary but as I (literally) had a pain in my neck and was exhausted from lack of sleep having got in 8 hours late the night before, I wanted to delay our special meal). About €19 for 2 mains, a beer and water.
Sitting in the middle in the Trip Advisor top 10 is Bistro 18 which on the night we went was full of internationals. Although perhaps everywhere is and I just noticed on this night. Service and food is all good. I had sea bass with mains are around €10-12, unless you choose steak.
Dublis is where Tim wanted to go for our anniversary and we finally made it on our last evening. We managed to get in without a booking although it was packed. I would say the service was acceptable and the food lovely - the vegetable mix I had with my sea bass (it was 'fish of the day, everywhere it seems) is the most inventive I have tasted. Much pricier than the others, this is the equivalent of UK fine dining at around €57 for 2 mains, 1 dessert, 1 beer.
One nowhere near this list was less than a year old and still currently sitting on 4 stars, Blue Lotus is a delight. I'd highly recommended this, perhaps more than the others as the service, food and price all superb. We chose this Thai/Indian mix as we always tend to have a good thai meal abroad and yet we both went with Indian food. It feels very modern to have a salmon dish in an Indian eatery (less than €10) and I will always pick that option rather than my usual vegetarian when available. Mid week and the restaurant was busy so we had the option to sit upstairs. For a while, we were alone until a large group went into the room next door. At no point did we feel forgotten and we left with a warm glow.
A final must see place is Holy Donut. It's popular with students, who will sit and enjoy theirs with some laptop time. As we popped in at a time when we needed real food, we decided to go back to grab a couple of the balls of sugar on our last day. I'm a fan of the extravagant doughnut but who knew this place would have the best bagels I've ever tasted?
