Džiaugsmas (*) Vilnius, Lithuania. Visit date 27/6/26
Džiaugsmas (meaning 'joy') is one of three 1* restaurants in Lithuania's capital, Michelin having published their first guide for the country in 2024. The food is oriented towards an a la carte selection, itself a novelty nowadays. Starters range in price from €8 - €17, main courses range from €24 to 5€3, and desserts are priced between €8 and €12. There is also a tasting menu priced at €120, which consists of various a la carte courses. All ingredients are sourced within Lithuania.
Wine: the wine list is not provided on the restaurant's website, so I did not have time to do a full Andy Hayler style appraisal. As I was dining alone, I stuck mainly to wines by the glass and the restaurant mark ups here seemed fair. A bottle of Kim Crawford NZ Sauvy B retails for £25 in the UK, and is sold here for 50. Likewise, Charles Frey Reisling retails for £22 and is sold here for €55.
Picture 1: Exterior, Vilnius old town.
Picture 2: Sourdough bread, with salted butter and pork fat. The bread was solid; both spreads were tasty and the animal head moulds were a clever bit of work from the kitchen.
Picture 3: cheese crisp (l) with cod's roe and cured herring. Pleasant enough, but not particularly well balanced and lacking in punchy flavours. The summer roll (r), however, was as stunning to eat as it was to look at- shiso, radish, trout, pickled carrots, all incredibly fresh tasting. Served alongside a very tasty smoked oyster mayo.
Picture 4: potato latke, beef tartare, shiitake, pickled pumpkin, cheese cream. Another beautifully put together dish, very tasty but lacking overall balance.
Picture 5: potato pancake, beef tongue, tuna sauce, onion. Big improvement over the previous course, rich and full of flavour. Onions provided some welcome sweetness, and the beef was clearly of good provenance.
Picture 6: White and green asparagus, served with yeast sauce, vegetable demi glace. Midsummer has already passed, so potentially the last outing of the year for this vegetable. great quality asparagus, perfectly cooked, very tender with no woody texture. Sauce was delicious. A simple but very enjoyable course.
Picture 7: flatfish, leek & butter sauce, beans, asparagus, spring onions. I was unfamiliar with this fish and pleasantly surprised by how full of flavour and firm it was. The vegetables in this dish were merely passable, but the butter sauce was very nice indeed.
Picture 8: lamb rump steak came served with a dolma style grape leaf, broth sauce, and roasted vegetables. The meat was perfectly cooked, but unfortunately was not particularly flavoursome. The vegetables had taken one some great flavours from the roasting process and helped round things off.
Picture 9: Cheese ice cream, elderflower mousse, strawberry granita. More than the sum of its parts- each element by itself did not carry much flavour, but worked really well in combination. This was followed by the petits fours; a caraway cheese style choux pastry, a chocolate, and a cherry sweet. All of which were nice, I would single out the cheese for the ingenuity and good integration of traditional ingredients.
Bill: The total cost for the evening was €148, consisting of €120 for the tasting menu, two glasses of wine (€10 apiece), a coffee (€4) and a bottle of water (€4, tap water is not provided). The restaurant failed to bill me for a glass of pet nat and it did not occur to me to correct them. There is no autograt, however QR details are provided if you wish to leave a tip.
Service: Fairly hands off compared to experiences I've had in other countries, although not unusual in this part of the world. There was often a large wait between courses which were then served two at a time; better pacing would have improved the overall experience. The wait staff were all pleasant enough and the somm seemed knowledgable.
Overall thoughts: A pleasant enough meal with some highs and lows. QPR is fair compared to other European one stars, and the restaurant is worth a visit if you happen to be in this part of the world. A good introduction to one of the lesser known cuisines.