History

Potato pancakes are common across the Baltic and Eastern Europe, with each tradition holding small differences. The Lithuanian version is thicker than the Polish placki and crisper than the German Reibekuchen. Senoji Trobelė and Gusto Blynine cook the canonical Vilnius versions, and the Žemaičių blynai variant (Samogitian, mashed-potato-based) is a heartier alternative.

Common allergens: Eggs

Make it at home

Yield 4Hands-on 20 minTotal 35 minDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 1 kg starchy potatoes
  • 1 small onion
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 0.5 tsp black pepper
  • Sunflower oil for frying
  • Sour cream and chopped dill to serve

Method

  1. Grate potatoes finely; grate onion. Squeeze the mixture through a cloth to remove excess liquid.
  2. Mix grated potato with eggs, flour, salt and pepper.
  3. Heat 5 mm of oil in a heavy pan over medium-high heat.
  4. Drop heaped spoons of batter into the pan; flatten with the back of the spoon to about 8 cm rounds.
  5. Fry for 3 to 4 minutes per side, until golden and crisp.
  6. Drain on kitchen paper. Serve hot with sour cream and dill, or with the mushroom-cream sauce from cepelinai.

Tip from the editors. Squeeze the potato dry; wet batter steams instead of crisps. Use sunflower oil; butter burns at the frying temperature.

Where to eat bulvių blynai

Bulvių blynai in Vilnius

Gusto Blynine ★ 3.9

Lithuanian€senamiestisMon-Sat 09:00-21:00, Sun 10:00-20:00

Gusto Blynine on Aušros Vartų sells a plate of potato pancakes with sour cream and bacon for €5 to €7, the affordable Lithuanian-pancake Old Town counter.

Try: Bulvių blynai potato pancakes

Tip: Take-away cuts the cost; bench seating along Aušros Vartų in summer if you eat outside.

Aušros Vartų g. 6, Vilnius

Etno Dvaras (Aušros Vartų) ★ 4.0

Lithuanian€€senamiestisDaily 11:00-23:00

Etno Dvaras on Aušros Vartų cooks dishes certified by the Lithuanian Culinary Heritage Fund in a cavernous cellar with street-level windows on the strip.

Signature: Cepelinai, Bulvių blynai potato pancakes, Šaltibarščiai

Order: Cepelinai with bacon-mushroom sauce; pair with a bowl of šaltibarščiai cold beet soup.

Tip: Heritage Fund certification means every dish must be 100 years old by recipe. Touristy but real.

Aušros Vartų g. 2, 01303 Vilnius

Senoji Trobelė ★ 4.2

Lithuanian€€naujamiestisMon-Fri 11:00-23:00, Sat-Sun 12:00-23:00

Senoji Trobelė on Naugarduko is a family-run Lithuanian room with painted ceilings and a 75-percent Žalgiris mead balsam fermented for two years.

Signature: Cepelinai, Vegetarian potato dumplings with spinach, Žalgiris mead balsam

Order: Cepelinai with curd cheese; finish with a glass of Žalgiris mead balsam.

Tip: Twelve minutes uphill from Vokiečių. Order the daily-baked linseed leaven bread to start.

Naugarduko g. 36, Vilnius

Forto Dvaras (Pilies) ★ 3.7

Lithuanian€€senamiestisDaily 11:00-24:00Until Daily 24:00

Forto Dvaras on Pilies stays open to midnight every night, the Old Town's reliable cepelinai-after-the-bars option with Lithuanian draught until last orders.

Try: Cepelinai with bacon-mushroom sauce

Tip: Last food order around 23:30. A solid post-Alchemikas Lithuanian-classics meal on Pilies.

Pilies g. 16, Vilnius

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