Brasserie Vivien — Restaurant in Riga

I would avoid this place. We wanted what we hoped was a nicer meal and since it was slightly outside the Old Towne the more affordable prices made sense. From the reviews, it seemed like a newer restaurant and a little hit or miss but we still wanted to try. We had a reservation on a Saturday night and were led to a table that wasn't the table we reserved and was still dirty. They quickly reset our table (but did not give us napkins or utensils). We ordered sparkling wine and were refused tap water when we asked for it, even though every place we have been to in the past 4 weeks in Riga has had no problems giving us tap water. We ordered bread, French onion soup and oysters. The oysters were fresh and tasty. The French onion soup was lacking in flavor until the very end and was probably one of the 3 worst I've had in my life. The bread and butter was mediocre. We had the chicken and steak au poivre for our mains. The chicken skin was not rendered and, while pleasant, tasted like something I could have cooked at home. The steak was cooked perfectly but the au poivre sauce lacked richness and salt. We ordered two sides, neither of which were hot when we received and we sent back. When we got them back, one was still not hot and seemed like it was from frozen vegetables, not fresh. We had chocolate mousse for dessert which was rich and tasty as well as the house red wine which was decent. Our server was new and doing her best but didn't seem to have been trained well (we got different size glasses for our wines, didn't get bread plates, had to flag her down regularly, and I'm not sure we can be refused tap water). There was a lovely piano player for the first part of our evening there, which we really enjoyed. Overall however, this was the most disappointing meal we have had in our 9 months of traveling in Europe and I would encourage people to look elsewhere while in Riga. There are much better places to...

I usually try to avoid giving bad reviews but I wouldn’t recommend this place at least for now. From good things: It looks good and has a nice atmosphere. Prices are very reasonable compared to other places in Riga. Things that disappointed: Restaurant opens exactly at 18:00. I was there 17:50 and waited with other guests behind closed doors accompanied with some drunks sitting on the bench next to the entrance (this doesn’t influence my review since it’s my fault for being early, but I would recommend opening doors a little bit earlier and offering at least drinks). When we got to our table, we tried to ask for menu to order drinks and food but were told to wait because printer has run out of paper.. weird, but not the end of the world considering it’s a relatively new place. When we got menus, we ordered food only to be later told that most of us have to change our order since they don’t have it (would be nice to be informed about this beforehand). For appetisers we asked for recommendations and waiter suggested two dishes saying that it would be enough for 8 persons - it definitely wasn’t. I’m not sure why he said that, because we were ready to order more appetisers. Probably others were not in stock? I ordered mussels for my second course - there was no tray for empty shells, no bread included, no water or wet napkins to clean hands. There were quite a few empty mussels and some were closed. Normally chef would remove them before serving guests. For dessert we had ordered a birthday cake a week in advance but it was not there - I was not the one who ordered it and don’t know how it was forgotten but it was a bit disappointing. We did get a tasty apple pie instead, thanks for that! I hope this place will improve and get better over time, since it has...

From good things: very good and tasty cocktails, very affordable prices, friendly waitresses. Cozy interior.

But. This place can be whatever but totally not french restaurant. Cant call it restaurant at all. First of all the main courses totally are not what they should be. I am sure a French person would faint if would see that. Just look in google how Bœuf Bourgogne should look, and look on my pic how it looks there. Cheapens pasta from Maxima probably, swimming in swimming pool of hot water without taste and some meet on top. After this we totally didn’t have any wish to try desserts or anything more. I understand there is general shortage of staff in the country and they probably take whoever apply to work. Waitress we had, she was totally nice and polite, but in very general staff was not schooled at all what is it to work at restaurant. Staff has chit chat and swearing about the work behind the counter, so that we could hear them in entire space. Plate change and removal of done courses also slow. Then at one moment for longer time there was literally no staff. Then they return in one group from smoking in the yard. Whoever calls this place sophisticated, definetely hasn’t been to real proper restaurant with restaurant culture. I would call this better bistrot attached to supermarket by quality of main courses and taste....