Cafe Smilga — Restaurant in Darien

I'm not eastern European, nor do I know anyone who is, but I was pretty happy with my experience here. Mostly I gravitate toward Asian or south american cuisines but this was definitely a good time.

Initially the layout of the restaurant is a little intimidating / confusing, in large part that's because they have a low staff count so it wasn't entirely clear whether we could just sit or not until the woman who was our waitress came out and greeted us.

She sat us down and briefly explained the menu and let us figure out what we wanted.

I ordered chicken snitzel (spelling?) and my companion ordered the porkloin. I also wanted to try one of the imported sodas, and ordered a banana crepe for desert.

The chicken snitzel was unlike anything I'd ever had. It came out as a giant....well... Meat-egg. I wasn't sure what to make of it. When I cut it open a huge amount of cheese and butter came out. Seriously very tasty. Super rich. Liked it a lot. Its been a few months so i might be misremembering. But i think my dish came with pickle slivers, beats, and mashed potatoes? Can't say I was a huge fan of the flavor pairings, nor especially impressed with the beats, but basically that's a personal preference issue. Not a knock on the restaurant.

The breaded porkloin was similarly very large and quite tasty, with similar side dishes.

The banana crepe was AWESOME. Definitely made very differently than I've had other places but still super good.

Can't say I was a fan of the malt soda. Again not a knock on the restaurant. Just a personal preference.

Pricewise I was very pleased. We spent less than $30 total for a very nice meal.

As far as decor. They aren't looking to impress you with fancy furniture or anything like that. Its very much a cafe feel. Very casual. A handful of TVs on the ceiling/wall playing what appeared to be an international news station.

Their little shop is nifty. Lots of imported stuff, I didn't go in personally but my companion did and said it was cool.

Planning to return to try more stuff!

My reasoning for not giving a full 5 stars is the initial confusion with seating and a feeling that the menu could be a little more explanatory for people who aren't keyed into the Lithuanian culture. They seem to be focusing on clientele who already identify with what they've got going on, and that's awesome but for a very american-american it makes it hard to understand what is what. I might change my reviews to 5 stars if I get more comfortable with the menu on...

Hello! Dom here, your local Chicago guide, I visited Smilga, shop and bakery here in Darien, and I did not know this place existed until I asked some pickleball friends around. And My experience here was great, the staff was amazing, explained a lot of things on the menu in great detail and went above and beyond. I tried multiple things from here like their chicken cutlet with mashed potatoes and mushroom sauce, the food was amazing, portions are massive!! Very filling! and the sweats are very good, I wanted to try many more things here but I was way too full, they also have a mini grocery store and a lot of the products here are home made and fresh. The Hospitality is just phenomenal. There are a few recommendations that I would definitely encourage, the restaurant/business lacks some online presence, I would recommend a larger social media presence and making some adjustments to the menu, the majority of the clientele looked like European which may understand the full menu however, I would recommend adding lots of photos or a QR code on the table that will show more photos of the dishes and also online as well, the first thing that people look at when they open google reviews is the photos of the food and I think that more people would be open to coming here and trying out this amazing home made high quality food, the other thing is the hours, if the store is able to stay open till 8:00pm on weekdays, not sure if will work or not but best time to serve people after they finish work. BTW the mashed potatoes is some of the best I ever had, I usually eat a lot but was unable to finish the plate, the portions are very generous and very filling. Thank you for hosting, thanks for the service and all the help and thanks to Diva, my server for bringing out some samples of the homemade crafts, very nice and gen ours touch of showing culture and culinary. My final words to everyone, never judge a book by its cover, you can see people that dont look good on the outside but clean on the inside and cars that are not nice on the outside but under the hood is a power, this place may not look the most appealing in pictures but the food and the people is what matters most and here you get the...

This was our first time eating at a Lithuanian restaurant — my boyfriend is Lithuanian, so we were excited to see how it compared to his grandmother’s amazing home cooking!

We ordered the Cold Red Beet Soup and two combo plates:

Zeppelin, Plain Potato Pancakes, Dumplings with Meat

Zeppelin, Plain Potato Pancakes, Dumplings with Meat, Potato Pancake with Meat

Everything was excellent! The soup was refreshing and flavorful, the bread was authentic and hearty, and both combos were delicious and filling. My boyfriend mentioned the meat in his cepelinai (zeppelin) could have used a touch more seasoning, but mine was perfectly balanced — so likely just a small variation.

Service was friendly and efficient. The restaurant has a clean, cozy, and homey feel with a deli/store/café setup where you can browse Lithuanian groceries and desserts afterward (which we did!). The beer was cold and tasty, and our food came out quickly.

It was a bit chilly inside since we were seated near the coolers, but overall, the experience was wonderful. We’ll definitely be back to try...