Gastro Pub Duvel's — Local services in Riga

Oh my, what a rare bird! A "gastro pub" that truly deserves the name.

First of all, let's start out with the "pub" part of it. Being a "Belgian" pub Duvel's obviously gravitates towards Belgian brands, as far as beer is concerned. They have a surprisingly broad selection of Belgian draft beers, including such perennial favourites as Leffe Blond and Grimbergen Blanche, as well as a number of more obscure choices. For me, a novel discovery was Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc witbier, which turned out to be surprisingly pleasant and refreshing. Duvel's also has an even broader selection of bottled beers, but frankly, for me those always are at best a side show.

The "gastro" part is even more titillating, though. I'm really not accustomed to the same place serving great beer AND great food, and Duvel's is certainly it. I visited Duvel's during a horrible heat wave of 2021 summer, so I was hardly in any mood for a hearty lunch. Therefore I ordered a "classic" (no protein, that is) Caesar salad, and a steak tartare.

My salad was good, but it's really difficult to go above and beyond in a plain Caesar. I mean, what's even in it, apart from the sauce? The sauce was done right, and that pretty much sums it up.

Steak tartare, though, was absolutely out of this world. It's one of my favourite starters - or main dishes, if I'm not in the mood to eat much, - so I consider myself to be pretty well acquainted with the ways to get it right, and with the ways to screw it up horribly. Duvel's interpretation, while fully traditional, was just perfect. Everything on my plate was top-notch fresh, awesomely flavourful, and worked together wonderfully.

The serving times, in my experience, are fairly short, but note that none of what I ordered required any cooking per se. Note that both the beer and the food are somewhat on the expensive side, though nowhere near the price tags at fine dining restaurant.

Given my impressions, I'm definitely planning a repeat visit, and a more thorough sampling of...

We spend 4 days at Riga and we had an excellent experience at this pub for 2 days. We had a great waiter with glasses, he really knew what he was talking about and knew exactly which beers to prefer. Because of these great experiences we’ve decided to celebrate my husband’s birthday here. We’ve asked the waiters if they could do something special for his birthday and they could arrange some candles and stuff. The day we arrived for his birthday, we had some really great food, but a really bad service! We have waited more than 1 hour for a new drink and our plates to be picked up. The waiter completely ignored us and was walking like he was really busy. At the moment we waved for another drink he took our order. 15 min after we had our drinks he came with te receipt because there were closing in 30 min (one hour earlier as usual). We paid as soon as possible and I’ve told him that the food was delicious but the service was really bad this time and he could keep the change. He got irritated and gave me the change back and insisted me to take a drink from the house (gift of €15,- he said, arrogantly). I didn’t ask for a drink on the house, I just wanted an amazing night for my husband with a great service. This review is just written for the “older” waiter. The other experiences were absolutely amazing. Definitely try this pub, but look for the waiter with the glasses and the...

Considering it's location directly below in the "Cat House" building, you may think it's a tourist trap. You would be mistaken. It's a lovely venue with evident Belgian influences in its menu and beer selection, however it has various other European influences.

We tried to get in the night before, but it was full, so we ended up going for lunch the next day. This was actually really beneficial as it allowed us to make the most out of their very affordable lunch menu. Although you have limited options, there is more than likely something on the menu you could enjoy. The soup of the day was goulash and was really wholesome for a cold day. The fish and chips were also brilliant, as too my partners chicken breast with mozzarella and pesto. For dessert, the waffles (the dessert similarly was an "ask on the day") was delightful. We also had 2 beers and 2 cokes between us. It came to less €48 which felt a steal for what we got!

Our waiter was kind and professional. He didn't seem confident with his English (despite being really good at it!) but tried really hard to make us feel comfortable. He's been the only waiter I felt deserved a tip on our trip to Riga so far (understanding it's uncommon to do so in Latvia!)

The decor of the place is also really cool. It reminded me of an 80s saloon and was almost dark and musky (but in...