El Mercado — Restaurant in Vilnius

Weak appetizers (on average). Great main course meals. Nice service. 4 menus online and all of them are outdated.

APETIZERS Tacos(8/10) were great. The tacos themselves were crunchy and in terms of flavor/texture offered something new with somewhat dry meat and creamy marinated bell pepper made a great flavor/texture baseline for other things.

Squids(6/10) nicely cooked (good, but not the best I've tried), but they lacked any standout flavor. They were lightly seasoned and served with a few drops of Alioli sauce and lettuce that washes down what the little flavor it has.

Fried Shrimps(5/10) were served in oil/broth and crispy. I enjoyed the flavors a lot, however the texture of shrimps was mushy and flaky, which resembled a pate. This texture is not a great sign for a shrimp as it can indicate age or improper cooking/freezing (likely the latter in this case).

MAIN COURSE Seafood paella(9/10) was definitely worth coming for. The rice was cooked well, full of seafood broth flavor and slightly crispy. The seafood on top had very light on seasoning, but flavor in rice supplemented gentle natural flavors of seafood nicely. My only complaint for this dish were the shrimps, which had exact same mushy pate texture as the appetizer.

Pork(10/10) was served a rolled up with with peas and a some sauce. I didn't make a mental note of what the sauce was, but it looked great and tasted great. Keep in mind my 10/10 rating applies is based on other pork. I liked paella more.

Beef Steak(8/10) was served with truffle flavored fries that were covered in cheese. The steak was great across the board. They even had a sauce that aims to add flavor without overriding meat's own flavor. I would prefer the sauce to be a little ticker, as it's difficult to keep on meat and therefore its flavor is easily missed. To me this would elevate the steak to 10/10.

The fries that beef was served with were a bit lacking. Potatoes themselves didn't have much of a natural flavor (which could have saved these fries). Truffle flavor was very inconsistent and the cheese flavor was on the mild side. By the way, other places (like Meat SteakHouse) serve these exact same fries. It's not a bad idea, just lacking in execution.

DESERTS We also shared a serving of Churros. I've eaten Churros made by street vendors in Spain and those always have some baseline flavor in the dough/grease which I enjoyed. The ones by El Mercado had a neutral flavor and were served with a dip. I won't give these a rating because I feel like I'd be rating based on another version of the dessert.

SERVICE We overall enjoyed the service. The waiter may have taken comments on appetizers ("Well, they weren't bad", with tone implying they weren't great) too close to heart, which...

I want to provide a review on a Spanish restaurant named El Mercado. Entrance to the restaurant is located on one of the main streets of the old city of Vilnius, on Didzioji gatve. Besides, it is worth mentioning that it was sharing the inner yard with our hotel, which we were staying at. Our family was quite attracted to visit the place in question, because of the cosy and festive atmosphere, which was created through hanging a lot of coloured flags on the ropes under the sky and using sea-themed materials in decoration and furnishing, for instance, they used white and blue colour, dry reed and fresh fruits and vegetables in wooden boxes. In addition, there was incendiary Spanish music playing every evening quite loud. So, we gave it two tries, but the food was not as delicious as it was promising. Price tag was about 100 euro for 2 desserts, a small sea plate with seafood, and a small portion of pasta without any alcoholic beverages. It was quite expensive and not nutritious at all. However, the service was quite nice. Food was delivered by waiters under umbrellas from the main hall to the summer patio, in spite of the hard rain. I do not recommend this place, if you are starving to death and have scarce financial resources. But it is a good place to sip your glass of wine and listen to relaxing music while chatting with your partner or friend in the...

Our group of 8 people were looking for a place to have nice dinner and enjoy our evening together. It all started great: attentive service when booking a table, lovely service the waiters were giving, and food tasting great and bringing back good memories of times in Spain... Unfortunately, it all turned into the worst experience as a client ever! When having our deserts and coffee the shift manager approached our table asking to pay our bill and free the table, as she has a large group of people she wants to sit at our table. We refused, as we were in the middle of our deserts. She continued to nag us in a rude voice telling us that "It's my place - my rules!", "I know you all give 1 star, but you get only 2.5 hrs for dinner here", "OK, I move you to a smaller table and you may stay", etc. The funniest thing was that there were free tables that the staff could put together for another group! You may get Spanish meals, but not the hospitality...