Apvalaus Stalo Klubas restaurant and hotel — Restaurant in Trakai

We had the most wonderful 3 days here for a birthday treat in June 22. First impressions were a little worrying, because we arrived after 18:00 and reception oddly closes then. Luckily we’d been sent an email with details of how to get the key for our room. We’d booked parking beforehand, which is really advisable (10€ for 3 days, bonus!) Our sat nav took us to what we didn’t expect to be our hotel - you don’t see pictures of the hotel on Booking.com only rooms - an old traditional Lithuanian looking building strangely it doesn’t say Apvalaus Stalo Klubas on it, but around the back is a beautiful modern restaurant and complex which does. The hotel manageress was extremely helpful, organised what we wanted for breakfast in the morning, that’s at 10am and booked the night before. Our room was the family deluxe room with the only little balcony. We had a picnic on the first night overlooking the wonderful castle with its spectacular views! Our room was lovely and big. There’s a little fridge which is very handy and a sort of washing up area (sink) there’s crockery, cutlery and a kettle in the room. The bath has a shower on the taps and be warned, it’s very powerful, the water pressure is immense. You can’t hook it up anywhere, so it’s just a hand held. It’s very quick to fill the bath. I will say that the room was clean, but it is in need of updating, it’s tired and the furnishings and furniture in it’s day was probably very beautiful, but now a little battered and worn. The floor boards creak a lot and the carpet needs replacing. With all that aside, we loved the room and were very comfortable for three days. Breakfast the next morning at 10:00 was all ready for us. It’s was absolutely wonderful. I had a breakfast bowl of fruits and yogurt with seeds and granola crumbles with melted peanut butter, truly gorgeous and wonderfully presented. My husband had eggs Benedict with rocket and avocado with courgette bacon rolls on the side, lovely coffee and all topped off with the wonderful castle view. We explored the castle, went on a boat ride (very cheap 5€ each and lasted 30 mins) We walked around Trakai taking in the beautiful buildings and surroundings. We’d booked into the restaurant the second evening, as it was my birthday we’d asked for a window seat with a spectacular view of the castle. The restaurant is of very high standard fine dining and our lovely waitress was so knowledgeable about the whole menu and could advise us on every dish. I was advised not to eat the gorgeous rye bread when it came out after I said I was a vegetarian. It turns out that they use crickets for protein in the bread, so they brought out another gorgeous bread for me. It was truly an amazing experience eating in this restaurant. The food was spectacular and the ambiance of the restaurant beautiful with views like nothing else. We had three courses and each course was such a surprise when it came out the taste was out of this world. The pièce de résistance had to be the pudding. We have never had such amazing puddings in our lives. One was a complete beach scene on a plate with pebbles and little stones that you’d have never believed were chocolate. I had what looked like a lemon on my plate filled with pear lemon cream and displayed unbelievably beautiful and they’d even put a lit candle on it for my birthday. It was so sweet of the staff. It’s no surprise to find out that their latest menu was created by a Michelin Starred Chef with their own team. We were very lucky to have a few hot air balloons landing behind the castle to add to the evening’s entertainment as well as swallows and their ballet theatre. I can see why there’s swallow wallpaper in the restaurant. On retiring to our balcony with a glass of champagne at dusk the castle became alive with a spectacular fireworks display. I will never forget this birthday, made more special by the kind staff and people in Trakai and I thoroughly recommend you to try it...

We booked 2 nights for our Trakai visit, between Kaunas and Vilnius, during our trip through the Baltic states. It’s not super easy to find the hotel’s parking (very small) using Google Maps; search for the billboards that you see on our photos and look for ASK, not the full hotel’s name. You should book your parking spot in advance as there are very limited spaces. We were nicely greeted when we arrived, by a lady we never saw again, and the gentleman we saw the other days was also nice. We wanted a room with a castle view and a balcony, and we got it. But be prepared to lug your suitcases up some narrow stairs. Also, the room was very spacious, but needs some maintenance (the bathroom is very dark and there’s no support for the shower head; many of the heating units didn’t work; the bed is on the small size and feels old). One of the biggest issues is that one window didn’t have a blind out, so the sun’s light came right in strongly through that window… But our main issue was with the restaurant(s). You have to understand that ASK owns the hotel, a gourmet restaurant, a pizzeria and a bar/terrace something. But it seems that each space works independently. Three things: we had made a dinner reservation for our arrival day, confirmed by the hotel to be at 18h30. Then, they called us to ask to come at 17h30. Ok, we were on our way, but we made it in time, even if it is kind of early to have dinner at 17h30 in our opinion. The meal was fine, the service was great, the bill at more than 200 euros was terrible… Then, for breakfast, you’re reminded several times that it is not included in your price. Yes, we knew it. Then, they tell you to go to the reception area and wait for breakfast. On the first day, this felt very weird, as there wasn’t anyone there and the gentleman that came looked at us as if we were asking for something bizarre. Breakfast was good, not a lot of choice, but the granola was excellent. Then, we had dinner the second day at their pizzeria, BONA something. That on Google Maps shows that it is open until 19:00 on the day we went there. But when we arrived around 17:40, the staff was very rude and told us they were closing at 18:00. We found that strange and we only asked if we could still eat there or not. They accepted us, but literally threw us the menus and the wine bottle (just said “here” and left it on the table, without opening it or asking us to try the wine!…), and the pizzas felt rushed. We ate in a hurry because we felt unwelcome, even though there was still a group eating there. The staff seems to be composed of bored and unprofessional teens. It was terrible. And we even left a tip (total 70 euros, 2 persons!), but not even a thank you. We then confirmed on their website (in “Contacts”, so the information is not readily visible; they don’t have a schedule on their door neither), that indeed they closed that day at 18:00. But how could we know? We could have had that information from the hotel or when we arrived at the pizzeria they could have proposed us take-away in a more cordial and respectful way. On our departure day, the same gentleman comes bothering us during breakfast to ask if we could leave our room earlier than the check-out time because other guests had arrived!…

We can’t understand how a place that depends on tourism can have this attitude. Trakai is beautiful, but we can’t recommend staying here. You’re better served coming in a full-day excursion or by yourselves from Vilnius or Kaunas, and skip this whole attitude.

Oh, and the WiFi never worked in our room! Never!… 👎

Not...

The service of this hotel was reminiscent of that of hotels in Russia during Soviet times. During my stay, I often wondered if Lithuania was still part of the USSR.||||Before we arrived at the hotel, we asked them to book a taxi for us from Trakai railway station. They did so and asked us to confirm that we had received the relevant information. That was very professionally done (this and the view of the castle from our hotel room were the only good things about this hotel).||||Unfortunately, it was downhill all the way from there. When we arrived at the hotel, the reception was empty. It took us some time to find a waitress from the Bona Restaurant to give us our room key card. We then had dinner. During all this time, nobody talked to us about breakfast on the next day. We did not check our messages that evening either because we thought that important information would be given to us in person.||||On the next morning, we found that the hotel and the restaurant were empty at 09:00 and breakfast was not to be found. At 11:00, one of the receptionist returned and said that she had sent us a message via the booking website to tell us that breakfast would start at 11:00 (this was true; the same message also told us that we would have to check in by ourselves). Her explanation was that, since she had sent the email, she was absolved of all responsibility.||||I told her that we could not be expected to check our messages regularly, and that she should have told us in person the previous evening; if they asked us to confirm the taxi booking, they should also ask us to confirm check-in and breakfast details. Besides, starting breakfast at 11:00 is ultra-late by any European standards and is in our view unacceptable. The attitude of this staff member reminded me of the attitude of hotel staff in Moscow in the 1980s.||||Other special features of this hotel included: dinner was only available before 18:00, the spa was always closed and hot water was not available at 07:00. It appeared that the hotel was half closed; most of the facilities were not available or they were available at times convenient to the staff, not to the guests.||||We visited Trakai in February, which was low season. I can understand if they did not want to offer the full service but we should have been informed before we booked. As it was, we felt cheated.||||In conclusion, a very irresponsible hotel staff with absolutely no idea of customer service. Those two days made us feel that Lithuania had not gained independence and was still part...