Hill: When I order potatoes for dessert, the restaurant knows it has won the lottery for life.

Finally, the best Caucasian Lithuanian restaurant, the best Lithuanian exotic cuisine restaurant and the best Armenian restaurant in the world (I say this responsibly because I have tried Armenian food a lot and I know that even in Armenia it is not of such quality) is also in Klaipeda , where chef Armen Manukian, now famous for many shows and articles, and his restaurant was once discovered, I will boast, “Wild Geese” (article can be found here). Pepper Gray makes it to the top ten of my best restaurants every year, and I don’t know what needs to happen to get it out of there.

And now we are back in Klaipeda, and we wanted to go (several times) to the restaurant “White Plates”, which is always closed for some reason: it is holidays, it is a technical obstacle. I don’t think I’ll try again: the first secret of restaurant success: it has to work. Across Turgaus Street from those closed plates is the Felsner Family Restaurant, beautifully called in English and occupying a place where there used to be other restaurants, and now it’s a restaurant with a fairly conservative menu, even, I would say, neat and a very good wine list, about which I cannot say much about the current laws.

Turns out the owners spent a lot of time abroad and it shows. Being abroad purifies good people, at least in the restaurant business for sure (you can see this by looking at me: who would I be without sixteen years of living in England and a few years in America, just a pedestrian of life, And now I’m flying and shining like a beacon)

Do you know why I say that? Absolutely all the dishes we ordered did not have exactly anything unnecessary. Every detail was where it belonged, no more, no less. Everything served a common taste, and if someone didn’t serve, that item was not included. This is what differentiates poor Lithuanian cooks from kitchen owners who have worked abroad: the Lithuanian tradition of shredding decorations and ingredients onto a plate, as if we are proud to have everything in the kitchen. The Western tradition (and the West is further up the pyramid of civilization than we are, and we should follow suit) is to put what is needed and everything that is needed, and nothing more than what is necessary. It is a great art: not keeping what you need and not releasing what is not necessary but possible because we have it in the fridge.

The beef tartare with the caviar and yellow sauce on the side was as if it matched God’s fingerboard. The two flavors, which sound in the perfect range, are different from each other and complement each other. We almost cried. And next to that tartar (served for a ridiculous price of 8 euros) were the french fries, which, cut with those moons, were, let me know, other restaurants with good fries, the best fries in the world.

The tuna saashi (I would call it more tuna tataka because the rim color showed minimal heat treatment), 9 EUR, was perfect, sparkled with freshness, beautiful even in photos. Consistency, cut, composition: everything was like an exhibition, any exhibition there, we swallowed it, we ruined it, dizzy and we told ourselves that there were still coriander and sweet mangoes, and there Japan and the West merged, it was the most inspired dish by Los Angeles that can be found in the world east of the Mohawk Desert and St. Gabriel Mountains in California.

We ordered, being Lithuanian, three types of baked bread (here we are not greedy, here the dish is like that), and let me be struck by a thunderclap, if it was not ideally served the best baked bread in the world.

In the aristocratic restaurant, the commoner plate shone like a freshly cleared diamond of earth, wrapping the reflections of a rainbow in the sooty hands of a bricklayer: simple baked bread that this restaurant has elevated to fine dining, crisp on the outside and soft on the bottom. inside, and we ate it until we ate it. that bread is blessed. If Christ, who multiplied the bread and fish for men two thousand years ago, had received this dish, perhaps he even shook hands, saying: no, I will not multiply this, I will keep all this bread for myself, and the olives they can be for me and for you. You better order from Barbora products, please be patient while I go to have fun with this baked bread.

The bone-in lamb loin (25 euros) was pink, exemplary, fragrant, I wanted it to never end because it creaked softly under the knife and fork, and I wanted to cry why only two pieces, but I heard a chorus of angels behind me: “nice and it will be like that, you will not eat.

In the case of halibut (17 euros), this was an example of how sea fish should be fried. Halibut is often thought to have little flavor (so do those with little brains), halibut often pours all kinds of sauces and padlivkas, zalivkas and patterns, and here it was in its purity, with barely golden brown edges like the goddess Venus. , emerging from the foam of the sea, from that open sink, if you know that image. If I could have a wish, I wish those carrots in the garnish were crispy, not soft, because the smoothness felt like homemade, simplistic that way, but here’s a little detail.

My girlfriend’s dessert was fried rhubarb yogurt, the top of which was toasted like creme brulee, but barely. And I surprised everyone, I was surprised, I was surprised: I say, and I want the potatoes that were in the tartar, I want them for dessert. People are flabbergasted: how, french fries for dessert? Yes.

Only one other restaurant in Lithuania deserves such an honor from me: “Stikliai” in Vilnius has mashed potatoes made according to the recipe and method of the most famous chef of the 20th century, Joël Robuchon, and I order that porridge for dessert. So do some of the high-profile visitors to L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon in Paris.

And at this Klaipeda restaurant, I ordered dessert fries and ate them, and I felt blessed, and a choir of angels played for me and my friend, praising this dining experience and our correct choice, as well as many other correct choices in our lives.

We both paid € 91.60, a really small amount for such a gastronomic festival, and another € 10 in tip. I won’t even say that I would have voluntarily paid three times as much.

Five out of five geese, and I predict a great and glorious future for this restaurant. Come and have french fries for dessert.

Felsner family restaurant, Turgaus str. 11, Klaipeda. Tel. +370 658 20121. Website: www.felsnerrestaurant.lt Facebook profile: https://www.facebook.com/felsnerrestaurant/

Tuesday from 10:00 to 21:00, Wednesday and Thursday from 10:00 to 22:00, Friday from 10:00 to midnight, Saturday from noon to midnight, Sundays from noon to 6:00 p.m.