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I was recently in Klaipeda, rejoicing the next fall, I did something amazing, uncharacteristic of me: I went to a restaurant in Melnrage for the second time, because I did not get it for the first time (no, I did not take it out, do not wait). It didn’t even seem possible to get there on the weekend, not only to get there, but even parking a car is difficult (when it is always easy to park a car in Klaipeda anyway). If the Covid-19 virus did something good for Lithuania, it taught Lithuanians to love the Motherland and spend money in their country. Therefore, we returned to the restaurant “Baltas ruonis” during working hours.
The residents of Klaipeda, it seems to me, generally have some sort of healthier relationship with their beach than the real resorts, like Palanga or Nida. Somehow they avoid the vulgarity of the resorts, for them the beach is just a part of life, not an instrument for the townspeople to milk with all kinds of umbrella rentals, dirty vacation homes and bad restaurants. Or maybe I just like Klaipeda a lot, because the people there are exceptionally charming and the pace of life is somewhat relaxed. After Vilnius, Klaipeda is the best place to eat in Lithuania.
Melnrage is a strange place at all. In the rest of the western world, in a big city, the beachside area would be built with inhumanly expensive houses, because everyone wants to live by the sea, and here the cabins and cars are so simple that here and there you feel in somewhere in Kelmė or Garliava, here. and there are silicate bricks and clumsy construction three, four decades old. While right next to the sand dunes, the waves and the fictional sunsets.
The White Ruins restaurant is housed in a brick building practically on the beach, possibly built as a lifeguard or similar social outpost (there is still a surfboard rental and school that sounds totally Californian), and a simple painted brick in bright red. , it immediately seems boring. In any case, Lithuanians could learn to paint houses in bright colors like Scandinavians, but as peasants in their hearts, brightly colored people are afraid, they do not want to jump, everything must be brown and gray for them, as in paintings of the postwar painters of the 20th century.
Most of the restaurant seats have views of the sea, and the decoration with cheerful flags is fun and well-set. And there is lightness in that. The menu is not carried: a board is built, of which it is recommended to take a photo and then choose at the table from the screen of your phone. Absolutely cool idea – everyone still lives with phones in their hands all the time.
The menu is so modern, from Thai soup to fish and chips. I’m usually skeptical of such chaotic repertoires, but here everything seems to be in place and on topic. A benevolent location by the sea. With such a menu (and by the way, good waiter mood and high working speed, which I couldn’t help but notice) dragging them to whatever Nida, there would be the best, although they also play for them in Melnrage.
The squid rings weren’t bad, they didn’t absorb oil, but for my humble taste either the batter was too much or the crumbs too big, but here it’s a matter of taste – my friend said she liked it. Hearts will not rule.
The tuna tartar (10 EUR) was blank. Okay, I understand that somewhere in Canada on the Pacific coast or in Japan, the tuna is on a different level, and here in Lithuania, but the bitter manga did not help, and the cucumber did not bring out the colors of life either. If the dishes were television shows, this tuna tartar would be like a television debate before the election.
However, the cumin bread turned out to be perfect for me. I understand that this is not a superior gastronomy, but I would ask for those breads again. Sometimes such a side dish is good. And yet, good bread is only in good restaurants.
The farther away the better, things got: Thai soup was full of flavor, thick, cozy, cheerful; I am not the biggest lover of this type of soup (perhaps out of a sense of protest, when at one point people started making this type of soup non-stop everywhere and always, after my trips to Thailand and other similar countries ), but if my girlfriend had allowed me, it would have been full and I just tried it.
The tuna steak was perfect, very firm, and would suit even a fancier restaurant, and the fun accessories: grapefruit, kinkan, pomegranate fitted perfectly and added to such an American sound. In California, I was in the habit of going out early in the morning at our Pasadena home, where I grew a kinkan tree in the garden, to sign up for a handful of kinkans and have a snack.
California was also reminiscent of a light, thin-skinned pizza with excellent mushrooms – I had two eggs, but I ordered another because only more eggs could be better than eggs.
I remembered a late breakfast in Hollywood at the recently opened L’antica Pizzeria Da Michele, a Neapolitan version of a pizzeria (I also wrote about this in DELFI, saying that Italy, exported to America, got even better), and my heart warmed. I rarely feel such an authentic American vibe in my ventricles when I am in Lithuania, and if the White Seal has accomplished this, it is doing something very good in life.
We both paid € 81.50, and of course the tip.
Melnrage can be proud of this restaurant. I want to go back there. Four grumpy and cheerful geese out of five.
Baltas Ruonis, Vėtros str. 8, Melnrage. Tel. +370 673 23306. Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/baltas.ruonis.restoranas/
Daily from noon to 11 pm
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