Latvian cuisine

Where and what to eat in Riga, how much it costs. 

Beer in Riga

Latvian cuisine will offer you any extraordinary gastronomic dishes, it is quite simple, but at the same time, all the dishes are hearty and tasty. You would probably not fall in love with the dishes, but you should definitely try. Riga cooks most often cook dishes made from purely local products, such as Baltic fish, pearl barley, chanterelles and seasonal vegetables and fruits.

The most common Latvian dishes that we think you should try in Latvia are the following:

• gray peas with smoked pork brisket served with kefir. That’s a true Latvian dish. It was given to peasants for breakfast in the old times. Since the dish is very satisfying and gives energy, after such a breakfast, people could work productively all day long. The dish is not tasty and rather dry, but still it was one of the first national dishes. Kefir is served separately, we don’t recommend mixing, otherwise it will play a bad joke with your stomach;
• salted herring with potatoes, curd cream and crackers. Served as an independent dish for a snack;
• soup from sauerkraut with pork. A classic Latvian dish, served in a bread loaf. Very tasty soup, like nothing special, but simply tasty;
• those who love unusual stuff can try a milk soup with potatoes and herring. A rather unusual taste. And on a hot summer day you can cool with cold Latvian soup, it is also called cold borscht. This soup resembles our beetroot soup, or maybe it is a beetroot soup, who knows, because Latvian cuisine was influenced by Lithuanian, Estonian, German and Belarusian cuisines. And as everyone knows, Russian cuisine is very similar to Belarusian;
• from the main courses you can select the widespread fish dishes, especially from the Baltic herring, flounder, trout, mackerel, cod and herring. As well as meat dishes as a separate piece of meat, and in the form of homemade sausages. They are served most often with side dishes of stewed sauerkraut and (or) fried potatoes;
• baked fishis also popular in Latvia, you can try it in any restaurant of national cuisine. As well as blood sausage, dairy products (yogurt, etc.) and homemade cheese. I'll tell you about cheese right away, local Latvian cheese have a rather bland taste, so we don’t recommend buying each cheese separately, it’s better to order a cheese plate from local varieties and try them all at once;
• a very common dessert is rye bread with cream and cranberry sauce. You can also try cakes with wild berries, mainly cranberries and raspberries, and cakes with a light curd cream filling;
• national drinks: bread kvass, kissel and a drink with a very original taste, made on the basis of honey, birch and maple juice. Among the alcoholic drinks: Riga balsams, Mocha and Cranberry. Read more about Latvian alcoholic beverages here.

Also you can try a variety of pastries and pies, everything is quite tasty. And, of course, no gastronomic journey around Latvia can do without the famous Riga Sprats. You will not find sprats in cafes and restaurants, but there are a lot of them in supermarkets and in the markets, with various names, manufacturers and size.

As you can see, all the dishes of Latvian cuisine are rather high in calories and nourishing. And such dishes are common in Latvia for a reason of a rather cold and damp Baltic climate and the energy needed to be able to work in such climatic conditions that played their main roles in shaping the national Latvian cuisine.

Almost all of these and many other local dishes can be tried in the center of old Riga. It is in the center of Riga, the old town, with lots ofcafes and restaurants, offering their visitors national Latvian dishes. We’ve been in some of them.

Most of the restaurants, with a large assortment of national dishes and tasting menusare located near the Town Hall Square and the House of Blackheads and on Kungu Street. By the way, below we will tell about the tasting menu in Riga.

We tried national cuisine dishes near the House of the Blackheads at the Salve Restaurant. The restaurant is quite cozy, with a pleasant interior and what we liked most was that waiters were more than polite with us. Our waiter not only asked what we would like to have, but also told about each local dish, how it is cooked and where it came from. And when ordering local alcoholic drinks, he told about each of them in details.

The Salve restaurant is located in a historic building near the House of Blackheads: Ratslaukums 5, Riga, LV-1050, Latvia.

We ordered a local dinner: green vegetable salad with soft curd cheese, seeds and honey-mustard sauce; classic Latvian sauerkraut soup with pork in a bread loaf; gray peas with smoked pork brisket, fried onions and a glass of kefir; as well as homemade sausage from beef and pork with stewed sauerkraut and roasted potatoes. All portions were of decent size, enough for two people.

The total check was 40 euro.

All the dishes were delicious, especially the salad and soup. It seems like there is nothing unusual in a sauerkraut soup with pork. But in fact, itwas incredibly delicious. Pork is cut into small pieces and without fat. Gray peas with smoked meats, as already mentioned above, are dry, but squeezed with kefir, were fine to us and even tasted more pleasant. Home-made sausage with a side dish, was nothing extraordinary, just like in the Czech Republic or Germany.

Trying local alcoholic drink sindeed worth it;we tried all the main national alcohol at a time and even got some tips. Most of all we liked the Azula liqueur, although it is 40 degrees, but it has a pleasant moderate sweet taste and easy to drink, you don’t even have to bite. We also wanted to order dessert and coffee, but after all that was eaten and drunk there was no place left in the stomachs, and we decided toput it off for later. Trying local alcohol costs 8 Euro.

Tasting menu in Riga

If you don’t want to order all the dishes of local cuisine separately, you can try national dishes in a small amount as a tasting menu. Each dish will have two spoons per serving. The cost of the tasting menu is from 25 euro, depending on the restaurant.

The tasting menu as usual includes the following dishes, but may vary depending on the particular restaurant:

• salted herring with potatoes, curd cream and rye crackers;
• gray peas with smoked pork;
• classic Latvian sauerkraut soup with pork;
• homemade sausage from beef and pork with stewed sauerkraut and roasted potatoes. Or fish, or homemade fishcakes, also with stewed sauerkraut and stewed potatoes;
• rye bread with plums and lingonberry sauce.

On the streets of Riga, at restaurants and cafes o you can see the menu with prices, come up, look and choose the restaurant you like, without going into it.

Other food in Riga

So, you’ve tried the local cuisine and you are full, where to go next?

Those who like other food you can come across restaurants with dishes from various cuisines of the world along the streets of Riga. You can try Italian, American, Mexican, Turkish, Japanese, Cuban, etc., as well as various cafes, pubs and bars. There are even restaurants where dumplings are served.

The prices are average for the Baltic countries, for example steak costs from 20 euro, kebabs from 3,20, menu - kebab, french fries and a glass of soda 4.50€, pasta and pizza from 7€, snacks from 4€, salads from 5.50€, desserts from 5€ and so on.

Coffee and pastries in Riga

For people who love natural coffee and fresh pastries, there are a large number of pastry shops and coffee shopsin the old city of Riga, both networks and local. To feel the flavor and taste deeper, it is better to go to the local bakeries and coffee shops.

We really liked one pastry shop, and we went there a couple of time. This is the restaurant calledRigensis, located in the very center of old Riga, not far from the Dome Square and the Dome Cathedral: Tirgoņuiela 8, Riga, Latvia. Although they position themselves as a restaurant, but in reality it is far from it, it is just a simple coffee shop, pastry shop or bakery.

Walking along Tirgoņustreet, you will definitely not miss this coffee house. The restaurant has a beautifully decorated glass showcase, behind which a variety of pastries pleases your eyes. It just invites you to get inside.

The inside interior is also quite pleasant, designed in the old style with a predominance of pastel and brown tones.

The restaurant sells baked products, both sweet and bread, coffee and tea, as well as pies and cakes. The average bill for two people was about 6-10 Euros.

Beer in Latvia / Riga

We did not like beer in Latvia, no matter where you drink it, either in the tourist center or outside the city. You get in, pay 20 euros for two glasses of beer and snacks, and get no pleasure, neither from the taste nor the process of drinking.

We drank beer in the center of old Riga, which is not tasty,we thought that outside the city it would be better, but not at all.

So we surfed the net, found very positive reviews about one beer shop-restaurant (bar and shop at the same time) called Valmiermuizas in the city center (full name ValmiermuizasAlustirgotava Riga) located at: Aristida Briana iela 9, Riga, LV-1001, Latvia. We headed there, it’s about 3 kilometers from the old city of Riga, and what we got…

We tried different kinds of beer, all turned out to be bitter and watery. Unfiltered and absolutely non-tasty.Having shot 2 glasses we could feel like our head is blowing up at night.

Beer costs from 3.20 euros per 0.5 liters, the snacks are at the same price.

People on the web also feedback positively about cheese, crackers and other snacks of this restaurant.So, we gave it a try! We liked the cheese, but the beer crackers left us disappointed, because there was too much oil.

And the overhyped cookies from malt at 1 euro price for a small bag we could barely finish eating when we got back home.

To avoid misunderstanding, I would like to remind that this is only our personal opinion about Latvian beer and the restaurant Valmiermuizas, maybe there is someone who like it.

P.S. The main tourist life in Riga is concentrated in the old town and its surroundings. There is the largest number of cafes and restaurants for every taste and budget. So we advise you to stay in Riga in the old town, or close to it. It’s better to book hotels, guest houses, hostels, etc. beforehand. The fact is that Riga is a touristiccity, there are many tourists at any time of the year.