Mazā Terapija — Restaurant in Riga

First, a disclosure: I'm not a vegetarian but I do enjoy an occasional animal-free meal, so this review is not based on my convictions, rather on the actual experience (subjective still, of course). In any case, here's the explanation for the 3/5 rating: -1 star for an extremely lengthy wait between the order and the actual food; minus another star for the "English breakfast" dish which tried way too hard to imitate some kind of a meat-and-egg based breakfast (not the titular one in its classical sense, though). The funniest example is the veg-sausage thing you can see on one of the photos - it was so similar in smell, appearance, and even taste to a real sausage that it fell easily into the "uncanny valley" of imitations where it ended up very close but (creepily) not quite close to its prototype. Now everyone might have a different goal, but when I go to eat a vegetarian meal that's because I specifically don't want to eat meat or be reminded of it; not sure I understand the entire imitation game if one could be at least as creative with original plant-based dishes, as amply demonstrated by some other veg places in Riga (which will remain unnamed here in order to avoid sounding biased). In any case - Maza Terapija is lovely hygge'ish place in itself, and some food is quite alright. If you're okay with the things I described above (which you probably are), it's still a decent resto to have a meat-free meal in the...

Really tasty and reasonably priced. Staff was incredibly kind/friendly and patiently explained menu options and shared recommendations. The space itself is not the coziest and we found it too chilly in the winter. We tried the herringless bowl, potato pancakes with mushrooms, small toasts with cottage “cheese,” and the raw blueberry cheesecake. Everything was generously portioned, fresh and flavorful. Specific thoughts for improvement: the bread for the toasts wasn’t great — not great taste or texture. A dark rye bread would have worked much better. I also thought the herringless bowl had too much pickled onion and lacked other more filling /flavorful toppings like the potato and eggplant. Otherwise, we really enjoyed the dishes and appreciated being able to try vegan versions of local dishes and flavors. Finally, their blueberry cheesecake is spectacular and a must try. I usually dislike raw desserts but this one exceeded all expectations and then some. It’s not your typical coconut or cashew raw cheesecake but probably made with something like silken tofu instead, so the texture is really nice and the flavor of berries really comes through. It’s also the perfect level of sweetness— a bit tart, even. Highly,...

I love vegan places and i wish there was more of them. Honestly, we have given this place more chances than we would any other because we always thought that we were just unlucky or something. Some of the times it was the flavor, some other times it was other conditions (like there was one time when the water was not working at all (including the WC) so couldn't order coffee). Today the food was cold which is such a disappointment. Oven-baked potatoes were completely cold. Well to be fair, we did ask the waitress to warm them up, therefore in the end we had mildly warm oven-baked potatoes with warm salad on the side.

To add (since i can't reply to the reply): he was not waiting for my food, he was considering not eating the food at all because he was upset that the potatoes were cold (why would i even write the review if it would have been his fault??). He's shy and doesn't like to complain and i had to talk him into asking the waitress to warm the food up. To be honest, I'm not even that fussy with the temperature of the food but those potatoes were cold. Not even a little a little warm. I'll probably go again since the risotto was good but It's certainly not going to be my favorite place...