The hill in the restaurant happily started buying food for the neighbors.

We celebrated our first outing at the beloved pizzeria in Naples, the Užupis pizzeria, but I already wrote a little review about it a year ago, and I can’t tell you again how good it was because it was really good, and that feeling was added after locking up at home: “oh, look, oil, how good”, “wonderful, bread”, “mineral water, fiction”. I’ll just say so much about that pizzeria that the quarantine didn’t kill them, it just made them stronger, and I still don’t know of any better pizzas in Vilnius.

I chose a restaurant for the review that I have not been in for a long time, I have never written about it in Delfi before, and the bullet knows that maybe everything has changed, because it is an institution in the old town of Vilnius that seems like always has been there. I’m talking about Saint Germain, In Literatų Street, previously called Literatų Crossroads (later the city authorities eradicated that beautiful name, although they didn’t need it or what, leaving only a few crossroads in Vilnius), and in Literatų Crossroads my grandmother had an apartment, but since He moved to a better world in 1974, I remember these visits there very vaguely.

At that time he lived in Kaunas, and for Vilnius residents, the old town and its golden places were without prestige, as they were heated by ovens, the water supply was poor and the electrical installation was from the days when Vilnius was occupied by Poland. It is very much about Literatų Street, which is still adorned with ceramic memorial tables and other fintifluxThey talk about writers (writers), and since I’m a writer too, I feel extremely good there. It is like my street. Similarly, the butchers probably feel it on Mėsinių Street, Odminis are happy to walk on Odmini calle Street, and Germans have fun walking on Vokieči calle Street. It’s a shame there’s still no food critic street, no one does Influencer Square and could still name a square in Vilnius after Publicists.

To the restaurant Saint Germain I was still walking when I lived in England and I returned to my homeland with my pockets full of money, and lit the litas from left to right, because I had to show everyone how I managed my life. In those times Saint GermainNamed after a district of Paris (if you don’t know it) it was characterized by a very good selection of wines (although not cheap) and dishes that were European (only with a slight nod to Paris) and acceptable to Lithuanians because there was lots of sweet accents (maybe remember Provence, and maybe a great summer night in Toulouse, where I ate probably the most delicious duck of my life). Jams, figs, honey: all kinds of smiles and kisses from the south, perhaps the ones that make Sicily and southern Italy so loved by Lithuanians: the Arabs accustomed the locals to atomic sweets. Saint Germain can find such an effect, I convinced now.

Still, in fact, I’ve tried going there several times in the past few years, but still haven’t gotten a seat. It was a shame for them (they say so), but everything was already busy and I have great respect for them for not trying to make an exception in any way and allowing myself to occupy other people’s tables. Although I am the most influential food critic in Lithuania and the Baltic Sea region, I have to be accepted, like everyone else, and I mean it, I like it. Because, I admit, when friends didn’t get seats, I called by my last name, I introduced myself, and yet there were no exceptions for me. That must be the case. That’s right

When we arrived, there was a couple sitting at the next table, who was very reminiscent of the old days, because today you can’t see much: a Lithuanian girl with a foreigner who felt very good about her luck in life ( not like other people). beggars, who did not find a foreigner), and who spoke with the couple in English, saying the words one by one, and with the waiters aloud and with confidence, because now their status is already higher. They will be able to get married (if they are successful), get the last name Smith or Wesson, and then upload Lithuanian vlogs about living abroad. Here is just that observation, I have nothing against it, I wish you happiness.

Now that the restaurants have just opened open-air cafes, Saint Germain is already full at night, but for lunch the places are, perhaps better, because it’s not that cold: government coins Forbidden, they can bring fluffy daughters from home if they wish, although their grandmother will remove the pillows, but will not share them with other blankets. I want one by one kaldra with someone, take her home.

The menu was such that I wanted almost everything, my girlfriend also wanted almost everything, and we saw how not to eat here in an absurd and unhealthy way (it happens to us). Did we overeat? Definitely yes, and I don’t regret it. I burn my energy by exercising and carrying packages and climbing the stairs to the fourth floor without a lift (maybe I mentioned that I now opened a fun business, personally and hygienically shipping my books and magazines through post offices, signed by the author, and so I stay so you don’t ask). And El Salvador told us to eat deliciously, who, if you remember, said: “Blessed are the gourmets and sommeliers because they have the highest bill and support the restaurant, cafeteria and hotel sectors in the difficult economic recessions.”

The menu has changed a bit since the last time I went there, but the identity has remained, and has remained in the best sense.

It all starts with the perfect little things: bread (which is tastier than its simple appearance in the photo), butter and sweetly pickled olives, which I ate with a happy sigh. Here are some of the first bites that you will realize will be very good.

For snacks, I had scallops (20 EUR), a portion of which is seen in the photo: thick, juicy, the flavor is accentuated with roasted ham and even with a creamy white sauce, which I would have licked off the plate, if it wasn’t by the people who sat down and expected pleasant and aristocratic behavior from me. .

My girlfriend ordered a salad with smoked goose (€ 13), and while I’m not historically a salad lover, this salad was hand-made by God, with amazing slices of goose (not wild geese as my leading brand in restaurant reviews) , but still geese), matured slices of cheese and a divine sauce of mustard and honey, that’s all, and again the sweetness of the North and Middle East of Arab Africa. The avocado provides refreshment.

Exemplary, creamy was the veal tartar (€ 14): not porridge, but of perfect consistency, supposedly carelessly done, as in a French town, with cucumbers, without pretense, but we realized that it was the most neglected form. The quality is very remarkable in raw meat – serve poor minced or minced meat, and you will immediately feel it, and there was so much meat here that you could eat it in a salad bowl, or even more, maybe a whole pot of zeppelins.

The rabbit (23 EUR) was ordinary, numbered and measured by the very high dimensions of this restaurant, in the sense that it was not the best rabbit eaten in life, it was very good, soft, it had a lot of flavor, but it was early for him to participate in the rabbit masterpiece contest. It was, according to the waiter, one of the newest dishes in the restaurant. However, that rabbit would not be a disgrace to any of Vilna’s best restaurants, nor Telegraf, Stiklia, or Liutauras Čeprackas Gastronomika.

But the lamb with figs (30 EUR) was Saint Germain triumph If you want to know why this restaurant has grown in strength for so many years and has been booked again and again, you are here for such dishes. From the perfect look, like it was specially designed for Instagram (look at my professional photo, you can put it in a magazine, although it can be shown on television, I’m not proud of it, but I photograph like God), to the harmony of taste, the sweet sweetness of figs a strong but mild taste of lamb: it was the taste of astronauts from space. From this dish I wanted to do good to those around me, my friend wanted the same, and in that whirlwind of joy we asked the waiter to send gift desserts to two honorable ladies at the next table, who only came to drink a coffee after considering if there was only coffee here. drink because there is only one restaurant here. Sometimes we do this because it’s a lot of fun when older people go to restaurants, like in the West. Here is our informal initiative: sending gifts to people at a side table.

We both paid € 141 for a perfect, perfect meal, and left another € 19 in tips because there is no better way to show the party atmosphere and the feeling that everything will be fine and that it is already fine. restaurant St Germain He made us an extraordinary vacation: As we have seen, greedily savoring the plates of other dining rooms, others enjoyed their food in the same way, only perhaps we feel longer than others the day the cursed restrictions will finally begin to crumble. , and the good life will return to us, deserving to live better, travel further and eat more tasty.

St. Germain has five out of five geese and if all goes well it will be one of the restaurants on the list of the year when Christmas comes and I will have to proclaim the blessings of prestige and success to Vilnius, Lithuania and the world. Be blessed, old men. Glory to your lamb with figs.

Saint Germain, Literatų st. 9, Vilnius. Tel. +370 5 262 1210.

Facebook profile: http://www.facebook.com/saintgermainrestoranas

Every day from noon to 11 p.m.