Džiaugsmas — Restaurant in Vilnius

A hipster restaurant. With restaurant being rated as #1 I had high expectations. It has great service and presentation, but most of their dishes lack nuance in flavors.

It could be because this restaurant changes menu based on availability of fresh ingredients (according to staff could be anywhere between 3 days and 3 months).

For starters I have to mention the atmosphere. The whole place is dark, there's barely any lighting, but there's this spotlight over the table. It LOOKs like it's supposed to be a calm intimate atmosphere.

During our ~2 hour stay 2 of the tables being occupied by obnoxiously loud crowd. Imagine a full blown market noise in a 10x10m sized room and grating forced laughter overshadowing all of it. This lasted for the entire stay and the staff did not step in, so I assume it's normal for this place. This alone is enough for me not to take this restaurant seriously.

I ordered their tasting dinner which included 4 appetizers, 3 main dishes and 2 desserts. Overall, I was not impressed. The most memorable thing of the entire dinner was one of the appetizers as it blended crunchy, chewy and creamy textures and multiple flavors in 1 bite sized snack. It was the one thing I would rate 10/10.

The other 3 were less interesting, and I would rate them between 6/10 and 8/10. They were cooked and presented nicely, but flavor combinations were either bland or mixed in a way, where some ingredients consistently loose all presence due to others.

Main courses were again all over the place. Every dish had SOMETHING interesting, but I felt like only one of them was good enough to compete with the leaders within the category the dish falls into. It was a vegetable dish, with gentle white sauce, a few dashes of spicy red sauce and some garnish (nuts, pickled herbs, etc). This is something I have not seen anywhere else and was genuinely surprised by. Fish and beef dishes were on the boring side. Despite being cooked well they lacked any defining features to distinguish them from a sea of other restaurants.

The 2 desserts were tasty, but again not #1 restaurant level of tasty. For instance buckwheat icescream has an interesting flavor, but it's almost identical to roasted corn/nuts flavored icescream, which isn't uncommon. Presentation is better, and flavor is okay, but it's something YOU can do at home in about 5 minutes if you have the ingredients. It might even turn out better.

Coffee (black, no sugar) was what I would consider good for home coffee. There's just a little bit of sourness and a very thing layer of foam. It's amazing if you make this at home. Average for a restaurant (based on my experience). It's pretty bad if you put it next to #1...

We visited Dziaugsmas in Vilnius in early November 2024 for a special occasion, but unfortunately, the experience fell far short of expectations for a Michelin-starred restaurant. This review is presenting our view on the place in comparison other Michelin star restaurants we visited. This one definitely stands out! FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS!!!

Service and Ambience:

From the moment we walked in, the experience was underwhelming. There was no one to greet us, and the entrance was confusing, we stood there, then we went upstairs, nd back down.. and still did not manageto get anyone's attention. The staff, dressed in a rather scruffy manner, did not match the level of professionalism we expected. The table we were seated at was unclean, not really set up, as we were missing napkin! Throughout the meal, noone came to wipe the table between the dishes, and as the tables are black without a cloth, all crumbs and marks are clearly visible on the black surface. Really impacts the overall experience. The staff did not seem to be bothered about any of it!

Food Quality:

While the starters were enjoyable, the main dishes like the eel and turbot lacked flavor. The petit fours were bland and uninspiring, not what we expected for a restaurant of this caliber. We also notices a difference in presentation of the meals we received to the ones added here by other reviewers, Looks like ours (or the ones on the day we were there!) did not get the same attention to details- pictures attached

Service Issues:

Service was inattentive and at times, downright rude- quite incredibly rude by telling me off, while i couldn’t find restrooms. Finding the restroom was a challenge due to a lack of signs and while I was trying to find staff to ask, i ended up in the kitchen(still noone checked if im ok!?). And when i asked where to go, the waitress was super condensing instead of helpful- quite shocking. At the end, just to top off this terrible experience, we were even left to collect our own jackets at the end of the evening, with no acknowledgment from the staff as we left.

For a bill of nearly 500 euros (and over 50 euros service charge), we expected far more in terms of service, ambiance, and overall experience. Having dined at a few Michelin-starred restaurants in various places in the world (and other restaurants that do not have a star, but much better service), this was one of the most disappointing experiences. We would not recommend Dziaugsmas to others based...

Concerning food: very good and creative. Nice to see the Lithuanian influence on the menu. Especialy the eel and beef tartare where amazing.

Drinks: Decent pairing. Other tables got to taste the wine, we didn't. Weird and unprofessional. Also: if you choose the pairing menu, this is similiar to half glasses in our opinion. At least if I compare it to restaurants with Michelin recommendations I visited before (where we would normaly prefer the half glasses option) Not noted on the menu as such, though.

Service: Not good. To be honest: bad. Some examples: never been asked if we liked our food, no checks, only collecting the plates when finished. Literally: not once was there any interrest to see if we had a nice time. Just serving the food, explaining what's on your plate and thats that. No more service is provided at Džiaugsmas.

When I went to the toilet, they served me my wine. No explanation whatsoever. Had to ask for it. No big problemn of course to ask it yourself, but isn't it normal to wait till the costumer is back? I don't know, but it is just another example of things I found to be unprofessional and not Michelinstar worthy.

After finishing diner, we had to wait a very long time. We had to ask for the bill through one of the colleagues of our waiter. With which we really could not get any contact. We are speaking about 30 minuten plus I guess. Actually we would have liked a coffee or thee, but it seemed like when your done eating, the staff finished their job? Or did our waiter just had no time? We decided to call it a day and ask for the bill. When presented with the bill nothing more was done then quoting the amount of money, entering it in the payment machine and giving the device to us. Not a word was spoken. Weird. No goodbye? Have a nice evening? The waiter was gone in a second after the machine approved. We collected our coats and went our way.

We are both teachers and don't go to Michelin star restaurants that often, given our finances. So this was an evening we really looked forward to. At the end of the day it was rather disappointing, mostly because of the service which made us never feel like a...