Sakai Ramen — Restaurant in Vilnius

Incredible, this was my best restaurant experience and food experience I've had. The service, from entering the restaurant to being setted and served, was absolutely exceptional and swift as can be. The food was served no longer than 10 minutes after ordering but probably closer to 5 minutes even with the restaurant being completely full.

The ramen broth was intense and had a profound flavor profile. The chashu was cut thicker than in most ramen restaurants but ever so tender. The extras like the narutomakis fit smoothly in the ramen and the presentation was also not lacking anything.

Special attention should be paid to the spice mix extra which contains ground Habanero, Togarashi and Pepper. This is spicy and fit wonderfully to the flavour profile of the Miso Tonkatsu.

Lastly, the restaurant had a calming atmosphere with an aesthetically pleasing interior which looked like it underwent thorough planning. A good example of this would be the lightly seperated entrance area where the hostess is ready to escort you...

If you are coming to Vilnius and want something a little different from the already great local cuisine, then this is the place.

Vilnius has some fantastic pasta restaurants, but if you want freshly made noodles that are made on site, Sakai is for you.

Situated not far from the Gate of Dawn, this restaurant has two floors. An open kitchen and tables, then a cosy basement with lovely ancient stone walls.

The service and cleanliness, of course, were top-notch as one would expect.

Better still was the food. Starting with some flavoured crisps, we had the edamame, which were specially coated. Superb.

Onto the main event, both the mear and vegetarian/vegan options were first class.

The meat was perfectly cooked. The noodles were excellent. The eggs well-done.

Broth is always important, and here, the vegan option was very good, so this is great.

There was an excellent selection of Japanse beers, too.

The chefs here are absolutely doing a first class job. Thank...

Tried this newly opened place a couple of weeks ago. To say shortly - it's a great ramen. There are only 3 (or I can say 2) choices of ramen - pork and vegetarian. Pork has two options- garlic or no garlic. We ordered two pork Ramens with garlic and without. Didn't realize it was exactly the same ramen, and garlic was actually the only difference. Only after receiving food did I notice there was a list of items you can add to your ramen to make it custom, which is awesome. Would be nice to get that recommendation from the waiter beforehand. Both snacks are served from bags that you can get in a lot of stores in Vilnius. There are not many choices of drinks and half of them were not available the day we went. All in all, I feel this place has a lot of potential, but there is still space to grow and do better. Will be trying it again after some time....