Food & Cuisine in Riga
Food info sections | Eating locally
Riga offers the best range of eating establishments anywhere in the Baltics. From restaurants serving traditional, hearty Latvian cuisine to the full gamut of international cuisine, Riga offers something for every palate. With the increasing flow of international tourists, there is both a greater number of restaurants and a greater quality of restaurants than ever before, making Riga a great place to eat out.
Don't forget to check out the top things to do in Riga.
You can join Riga Urban Adventures to taste the real Riga flavor. Book online Riga Taste Tour.
Food & Cuisine in Riga
Typical Latvian food is not for the faint hearted or the calorie conscious. It is for the compulsive foodie and food connoisseur. Latvian cuisine, unlike Asian and other European cuisine, is yet to find its place under the sun. However, it is slowly and surely getting its due with Riga becoming a popular tourist destination. Don't forget to check out our great range of Riga Hotels!
As a cosmopolitan city, Riga offers cuisines from all around the world, including Japanese, Italian, Vietnamese, French, Indian and Greek, as well as more regional restaurants, such as Polish, Russian and German. Dining out is very popular with Latvians in Riga, and as such many of the restaurants can be extremely crowded, especially on weekends. It is best to call ahead to check if possible.
A good value place to eat is at the various Riga hotel restaurants. The upmarket ones, especially, normally have quite good restaurants for reasonably value, and may often have lunch-time specials. Major credit cards are accepted at most of the better restaurants, but it's better to check in advance to avoid any confusion or embarrassment (or washing of dishes) at the end of the meal.
Latvia caters to both vegetarian and non vegetarian palates. It is highly influenced by Polish, Russian and German gastronomy, with generous helpings of pork, potatoes and cabbage. It also has its own interesting version of the East European dumpling called 'piragi'.
For the fast food freak, there is little choice of the international brands but a refreshing variety of local fast food. Dumplings, pastries and pancakes are dished out from eateries on every street. Of course the ubiquitous pizza is the most popular food and pizzerias are everywhere.
You don't generally need to book tables in advance at restaurants, unless it is summer, and most menu cards are in English. A 10% tip is reasonable for good service.
Latvian Food
History reveals centuries of rule by the Germans and Russians. So it does not come as a surprise that the traditional Latvian cuisine is laced with German and Russian influences.
The standard meal includes bread, potatoes and sauerkraut. Pastry favourites are bacon-stuffed pirags, apple or rhubarb pie, sklandrausis – pastry filled with carrots or potatoes and éclair. Some of the typical delicacies are cabbage soup served with trotter and potatoes, asinsdesa – blood sausage with cowberries sauce, and marinated herring fillet served with curds and potatoes. An ideal way to kick start your Latvian gastronomy experience is with Klingeris and Kiselis. Klingeris is saffron bread covered in raisins and almonds and kisels is a jelly soup of fresh fruit served with milk.
Thanks to Latvia's green nature you will easily find a wide range of ecological and organic food in small local shops or markets. In summertime you can get fresh blueberries or mushrooms collected in local forest. Or even you can try out collecting it by yourself. Just make sure you find out which are the good and the bad mushrooms beforehead.
Drinking in Riga
Latvia has its own home grown brand of beers and liquor. Some of the popular brands of beer are Uzavas, Bauskas, Piebalgas, Cesu and Aldaris. The beer gardens are opened till late at night in summer. Most favourite beer gardens are located in Old Riga - in the centre of Dome Square and Livu Square.
A traditional Latvian herbal liqueur is called Riga Black Balsam (Rigas Melnais Balzams). It’s made off various natural ingredients mixed in pure vodka and is considered to be a good cold remedy.
If you are young, raring to go and a football fan don't miss the Irish pubs. That's where all the action is, especially during Irish festival holidays. We offer a great selection of Cheap Hotels in Riga, close to all the action!
