POSITION IN THE TOP 30. Telegrafas, located in the legendary part of the city, overlooking the Vilnius Cathedral, does not leave the top 30 restaurants of the country list from the very start, and every year gets a great number of votes from the members of the academy. True, this year it climbed the Top 30 list only by one position. However, it is likely that a more significant impetus will occur next year - Telegrafas head chef changed quite recently.
NEWS. So, of course, the biggest news is that Javier Lopez left Lithuania and Telegrafas, while Vytautas Alekna has accepted the position of the head chef. He is the first head chef from Lithuania in the 76-member counting Kempinski Hotel group.
CHEF. V. Alekna's chef's career started eight years ago in the restaurants River Side and La Esperanza. Since the opening of Telegrafas, he has joined Kempinski Hotel Cathedral Square team and has been successfully climbing the career ladder for almost six years. Vytautas completed a traineeship in the one Michelin star restaurant Kinn Kinn (Copenhagen) and attended many other training sessions.
MENIU TRUMPAI. The menu created by Vytautas has been introduced in Telegrafas already this spring. And after official announcement that he takes over the wheel of this restaurant, the summer season menu has been presented. The greatest inspiration for the chef this time, as always, was the nature. The ideas in the new menu relate to the impressions experienced during shorter or longer trips: "I've been fishing since 4 years, and since 9 years old I've been a boy scout - these hobbies are a big part of my life when I'm not in the kitchen“. Memories from childhood also give V. Alekna an inspiration to create new dishes. This is how numerous dishes from the summer menu were created.
RESTORANO IŠSKIRTINUMAS. The Telegrafas menu is a subtle attempt to capture still slowly emerging character of the Lithuanian modern cuisine in every dish by introducing local high-quality products as accents. But at the same time, without forgetting what the world and Europe in particular can offer - after all, the restaurant located in one of the most popular and luxurious hotels in Lithuania not only needs to satisfy various tastes, but also not to be afraid to surprise its guests with local solutions!
CULINARY HITS. Treasures of Samogitian forests (30 Eur) – is a venison dish from the Samogitian forests that has become the king of the restaurant’s menu and the only indispensable dish for already few years. True, Vytautas already has on his mind a recipe for another dish that may replace this longtime signature dish.
SPACE. Since 1948, the central Vilnius telegraph has been situated in the Kempinski Hotel Cathedral Square building. After renovation, the hotel restaurant maintained its connection with the history of Vilnius city - the historical name has been restored. Also, without changing the history too much, the interior of the restaurant is dominated by stone, wood and metal. The coziness of the restaurant is created by wooden floors, Venetian-style decoration, special lighting, fragments of the historically important 16th-century defensive wall and a view of the Vilnius Cathedral.
