Latvian

I was meeting my friends in Riga for lunch and Olga and Arturs suggested we meet in Kasha/ Gourmet, which is one of their favourite cafes in Riga. Kasha is located on the corner of Brivibas and Stabu streets, and the word Kasha means porridge in Russian. From the outside the place does not look like much and also the inside is quite casual (apart from the great children’s corner which has a lot of interesting things for children) but the menu is very creative.
 

Pie Kristapa Kunga (which means in Latvian – ar Mr Kristaps’ place) is a Latvian traditional restaurant which features also some international dishes. It is a good value for money place where to have a quick lunch or dinner, not a gourmet restaurant. When you go to their website they tell you a strange fantasy story how Mr Kristaps was a very good man, a lord and a knight so one of the rooms features “his shields and swords”. Also as Mr Kristaps was a “globe trotter” and brought many various things home with him, you can see these in the restaurant. This is also where he got his international recipes from. He also has an “Eastern room” in the restaurant that is dedicated to his trip to the Arab world. I did like the middle-ages décor, that ever room is slightly different. It is always nice to eat Latvian food in a traditional looking restaurant and I liked the wooden tables and high ceilings and also the open kitchen where you could see the chefs cook.

Le Dome is a fish restaurant in Le Dome hotel and spa, a 5 star hotel in the old town of Riga. I first read about Le Dome in an Air Baltic magazine. People that have been to Latvia will know that Air Baltic, our national carrier, is one of the ways how to get to Riga, and I frequently fly with them to go home. Le Dome places advertising in the Air Baltic magazine which I sometimes flick through and says they are one of the best fish restaurants in Riga, tempting tourists to go there. Apparently in 2010 it was voted the best fish restaurant in the Baltic states by a survey in the Baltic Times publication. I did not go there though because I had read the magazine or Baltic Times, but because my friends booked this restaurant for dinner. One of my best friends Baiba’s boyfriend Emil loves this place and it is one of his favourite restaurants in Riga. Le Dome uses fish caught by the local fishermen and all other produce sourced from Latvian farms.

36. Linija (or in English “Bar & Grill 36. Line”) is a wonderful restaurant in Jurmala, one of Latvia’s seaside resorts, around 30 minutes’ drive from the centre of Riga. Jurmala is the most luxurious sea side area in Latvia where you can see some very impressive houses, which means the clientele of 36. Linija, which is arguably the best restaurant in Jurmala is equally wealthy and you will see many designer handbags and luxurious cars when you go there (36. Linija also feeds many of the wealthy and famous Russians that come to Jurmala for the famous summer festival “New Wave”). The name of the restaurant is very clever, and in Jurmala at one point streets don’t have names, but are called “lines” and the last line is number 35, so the restaurant calls itself after an imaginary next street that could have been there. 36.

This was such a wonderful discovery. Mekes Krogs is located on the Riga-Tallin highway, on the 51^st kilometre, and the only reason why I came across it, was because I am building a house quite close to this restaurant. Mekes Krogs is one of those traditional restaurants, that is located on a highway and where you can stop if you are traveling long or short distances on the highway and serves Latvian traditional food. The place has history (which you can read about, as it is described on the paper mat that you get under your plate), and Meke is not a traditional Latvian name, and the place is named after landlord van Meeke (who by the name I assume was German), and the restaurant is located in Meeke’s old barn where he used to keep 20 goats. The place is open daily from 10 in the morning until 10 in the evening and I stopped there with my brother and my dad for lunch.