RESTAURANT’S YEAR BRIEFLY. Restaurant Palanga is located in the five-star Palanga SPA Life Balance Hotel, which was selected as the best Eastern European SPA hotel in the World Spa and Wellness Awards 2018 competition and received the award of the most innovative European Spa center. So, with such ratings, the quality expectations have been raised not only for the hotel itself, but also for the restaurant.
The other news of the year – Raimundas Dambrauskas became the only chef of the restaurant, even though last year he still worked together with another chef, well-known from the Top 30 list, Ernesta Viršilas. He, by the way, has been a colleague of Raimundas since the times of Monte Pacis in Kaunas, but E. Viršilas, having accepted Bizarre's offer, left to work in Vilnius this past winter.
RESTAURANT’S UNIQUENESS. First of all, it is the story marked by an incredible customer loyalty. Often, guests returning to this place are the ones, who fifteen years ago were still children: now visiting the restaurant with their own kids. Some of them order what they ate in their childhood, and the kitchen prepares it for them. Among the favorite customer dishes are: Sicilian fish soup, duck soup with boletus mushroom, octopus, as well as the legendary tiramisu.
MENIU TRUMPAI. When creating the dishes, Raimundas does not use one particular cuisine as an example. He likes experimenting, however, in so doing, he never forgets gifts of Lithuanian nature. Customers coming to the restaurant usually have tried gourmet dishes in their life, so it is difficult to surprise them with such dishes. While experiments with local products, which could seem usual, however, combined in a creative way, could impress customers quite a lot. R. Dambrauskas also likes to combine well-known cuisines of the world – such combinations also get a lot of interest. For instance, the traditional French cuisine is combined with that of South-Eastern Asia or Indian cuisine, etc.
The head chef is also very fond of preparing tasting dinners from the micro seasonal products and catches (whichever is the freshest at the time). Such dinners take place at the restaurant's working time upon the guests’ request, but with full confidence in the chef's fantasy and being ready to be surprised.
CULINARY HITS. Sicilian fish soup (2 people) – 30 Eur, duck soup with boletus mushroom – 13 Eur, Mediterranean octopus – 18 Eur.
CHEF. Raimundas Dambrauskas moved from Kaunas to Palanga in the fall of 2016 and introduced his order right away: „I threw away the crockery and changed the menu“, – tells us chef, smiling. R. Dambrauskas likes the most recent gastronomic trends. He used to work in Monte Pacis, a Kaunas-based restaurant, as chef’s Ernestas Viršilas main assistant chef.
SPACE. The interior of the restaurant is decorated with natural teak wood and exotic plants to create a light resort atmosphere. Panoramic windows overlook the pine forest. It is an ever-changing and irreplaceable "decoration" of this restaurant's interior.