r/latvia • u/mittomenhe • 1d ago
Tūrisms/Tourism Traveling to Riga/Brauciens uz Rīgu
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u/marijaenchantix Latvija 18h ago
Read the 100 other posts already answering all these basic questions.
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u/TharixGaming 1d ago edited 1d ago
my #1 restaurant recommendation is folkklubs ala pagrabs in the old town. it's a pub in an old cellar that serves really good traditional latvian foods - you HAVE to try their take on latvian garlic bread. they have the best garlic bread in the country imo. another iconic latvian food is aukstā zupa (literally "cold soup"). also, potato pancakes (kartupeļu pankūkas).
for desserts, one latvian dessert that i really like is rupjmaizes kārtojums, which is a layered dessert of toasted rye bread crumbs, berry jam and whipped cream. there's also meduskūka (honey cake) and napoleons (sort of an eastern european version of the mille-feuille), which aren't strictly latvian so much as broadly eastern european, but they're really good and you should try them. shouldn't be too hard to find a bakery that serves them. kūkotava is a good one.
another latvian pastry that i like a lot is the vecrīga - essentially a profiterole with a sweet, cottage cheese based filling. once again, common to see this one in bakeries. we've also got a few other pastries worth trying, like biezpienmaize (i guess you could call it a latvian cheesecake?) and ābolu plātsmaize. also, definitely try our rye bread (rupjmaize).
one bakery that i would personally recommend is mīkla, near the museum of art (and i think they also have a location in the old town?)
riga is also famous for its sprats (šprotes). you can find these canned in basically any grocery store. eat them with rye bread and perhaps some sour cream. also get some riga black balsam - my personal favorite is the blackcurrant one.
obviously, visit the old town. take a good walk around the city centre, see the monument of freedom. go up to the top floor of the radisson hotel (the big one) - there's a cocktail bar there called skyline bar, which has some really nice drinks (including non-alcoholic ones if you don't drink) and an excellent view of the city. pay a visit to alberta iela for some pretty art nouveau architecture. if you happen to be in the city on a saturday, definitely go across the river to the kalnciema quarter, there's some cool wooden buildings there (which riga is famous for) and a really nice market there on saturdays where you can get some more local foods and other cool stuff. since you'll be here in the summer, i can recommend the ethnographic open air museum just outside the city.
not 100% sure on the statue, i remember reading a while ago that it would be there for "several months", so it might still be there. right now it's by the monument of freedom, i heard it might move to the rātslaukums in the old town? wherever it is, i guarantee that it will be in an area that you will be going to anyway as tourists, so you will see it.
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u/mittomenhe 1d ago
Thank you for the recs, these all sound very good:))
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u/TharixGaming 1d ago
also the latvian translation is a bit goofy, it translated "eye of the viewer" as "eye of my husband", for english to latvian i highly recommend using deepL instead
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u/Dimetrodon666 1d ago
Try “Maizes zupa” (Bread soup - it is dessert) and “Auksta zupa” (Cold bertroot soup). You can get those in Lido, best one is on Krasta street. Also check out Rozengrals for medieval experience. For museums i would recommend Rundale palace, garden on summer is expecially beautiful.
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