14Horses — Restaurant in Vilnius

Generally good, though a few things didn’t come together, stopping 14Horses from being great.

Brioche bread - stunning. Melt in your mouth with unusual dark notes that really didn’t need the side of egg yolk butter.

Trout donut (starter) - outstanding, and my favourite dish. The brown butter foam sauce with trout caviar was particularly yum, tasting somewhat like a lobster bisque.

Beef tartare (starter) with pickled plums was ok, but doesn’t score any points against the classic tartare.

Beef from nose to tail (main) was very good. I particularly liked the roasted root vegetables in tomato sauce (it’s way more interesting than it sounds and I’m going to try to recreate at home). What would have made good become great? I would have liked an explanation of the components of beef used, and would have liked a more distinctive texture (like a crunch) come through somewhere.

Dessert of rose syrup dipped baba came with more than that, which I’m not sure is a good thing - it didn’t come together as one, so I think less is more here. Sugar crisp on top was delicate like a crème brulee crust.

Service was just about acceptable for this price point, and not attentive enough really.

The atmosphere in the restaurant was really not to my liking. It felt like a weird cross between chain hotel restaurant, wine shop and museum. A strange vibe. Oh, and also, when you have solo diners, please please please do not face them into an empty corner/wall - people watching and being able to catch the eye of servers is one of the few ways to amuse ourselves and not feel lonely while...

Spent our first dinner in Vilnius at 14Horses, a Michelin Guide restaurant! Made sure to get the reservation in early.

💶 €60 per person (choice of 2 starters, 1 main, 1 dessert OR 3 starters, 1 main) ⭐️ Keep in mind they added an auto-tip of 10% on the bill

We ordered 1 of every appetizer and we both got the “Beef from Nose to Tail” for the main.

The bread (more like flaky butter pastry) and butter at the start was superb.

The appetizers were outstanding but the 3 that stood out most to us was the donut with honey fungus & sturgeon caviar, the sourdough with shish kebab, and the soufflé pancake with smoked eel. The donut was the most surprising, it was heavy with a flavourful filling and the caviar really complemented it. The presentation was nice and not too obnoxious.

The service was overall very pleasant but sort of inconsistent. We got our bread and appetizers pretty quickly but there was at least half an hour before our appetizer and main, which was kind of weird.

The main also didn’t seem as interesting as the appetizers. It came with a pastry with beef cheek, tongue, sweetbread, and a cut of meat. There was also a small side salad and white asparagus. Everything tasted good but it wasn’t amazing.

Maybe wouldn’t come back unless they decide to do maybe a 6-dish tasting menu with equal focus across all dishes vs the main that didn’t seem like anything too special when it came to flavour and presentation.

Appreciated the little meringue palette cleanser and marshmallows at the end.

*Closed...

Was decidedly underwhelming. Starters were ok - amuse bouche a plain potato croquette stuffed with beef liver and heart was average, nothing spectacular, the zander was very salty. The soup was very nice but then it's difficult to ruin a boletus creamed soup :) the cheese was a nice touch, I guess this would be the only dish that I actually enjoyed. The main dish was unbalanced - the beef tender but almost no taste accompanied by a badly cooked potato (1/3 was very hard the rest ok) with strong and nice tasting different kinds of onions. This whole combination completely killed the meat. The dessert was weird - as if made of two completely separate parts that did not go well together. The bottom part of the cake (as they named it) was nice and exciting - malt sponge cake with nuts topped with boletus ice-cream. On top of that a hard biscuit that would not be crumbled with a spoon with quince cream - completely at odds with the bottom part and couldn't be eaten at the same time due to the biscuit being way too hard. The service was very slow - our table was the last to receive any dish and they actually brought the starter before the amuse bouche and bread. I guess we were just unlucky in receiving a waitress that was still training. All in all a disappointment as I was looking forward to this visit for a while now. The chef still needs to learn. I do like the concept of zero mile food however and might give it a second...