OGLE — Restaurant in Riga

Our family visited the old town and planned to have a nice dinner yesterday ( 1 Aug 2023), we saw this fabulous place and we decided to enjoy a nice meal, unfortunately it turned out to be a mistake later...

The very polite and helpful waiter came to take our order, it was a very pleasant start. I ordered a Ribeye steak, which is the most popular choice for any meat/BBQ lover. As a BBQ chef, it's also my most favorite cut to grill.

Then it came, the plating was nice, but as soon as I made the first cut into the steak, I noticed something is not right... In this particular cut, there are full of tendons inside the meat, everywhere, my wife who seated opposite side of me could even hear it when I cut through the meat with the proper steak knife... some parts are a bit over cooked so it's hard to chew, and some parts are under cooked... When our waiter came to kindly ask how's everything going, I just can't help to point out the issue ( to tell the truth); and he's kind enough to tell and asked the shift manager lady to come as well; I stated the issue and she understood fully ( and she can see the meat very well too)... So she decided to offer me a tenderloin free of charge, as a good will and compensation, I gladly accepted it 👍

Then the tenderloin came with nice plating again. I really wished it's gonna be good so we'll have a good final memory for the dinner and trip... Oh boy, it didn't turn out well as I wished...

The first cut already showed this went wrong again... And from the side look, it showed very clearly the down side was not cooked at all, so about 60% of the meat was not cooked. The top and sides are cooked, but has been left on the grill too long, so they are hard and dry. The kind young waiter came again and I just had to show what it was, then the manager lady came and she quickly understood the situation and what went wrong with the meat. I can see the disappointment in her face ...

At this point I told her I was sorry too about what had happened and I didn't wish to get any other compensation, we can just get the bill and pay.

It was kind that they decided to take my original order, the ribeye steak, off the charge. But I'd rather enjoy a nice steak and happily pay for it!

Please notice, one star out of these two was given to that nice young waiter who attended our table. I felt bad to put him between this awkward situation. 😓

Really wish they figure out the issue and correct it quickly, all...

A very disappointing experience – completely unprofessional service

At first, the waitress seemed quite pleasant. We ordered food and cocktails, but when the order arrived, we immediately realized it wasn’t what we had asked for. We ordered a four cheese pizza and got a prosciutto pizza instead. We also specifically requested that the carpaccio be made without onions.

I politely asked the waitress if perhaps there was a mistake with the order, only to be met with an annoyed expression and an argument. She insisted that we had ordered exactly what was brought, completely ignoring the fact that four people at the table heard the correct order. She acted as if I was making it up or too forgetful to know what I ordered. Honestly, what if I were vegan? Serving the wrong pizza with meat would’ve been more than just a mistake—it could’ve been offensive or even dangerous. This is not how you treat customers.

Eventually, she said she could change the pizza, but did so with such a visibly irritated attitude that I actually started to feel guilty for even bringing it up. Not exactly the kind of energy you expect from service staff in a restaurant.

Regarding the carpaccio, again no apology—just excuses. She said the kitchen was too busy because “two restaurants were working together today.” That’s not the customer’s problem, and again, what if my friend had an onion allergy? The lack of care was honestly alarming.

To be clear: the waitress didn’t take any notes when we ordered. Maybe she thinks she has a great memory, but clearly that’s not the case. She made multiple mistakes and instead of taking responsibility, tried to argue and guilt-trip the customer.

Later, when we ordered another cocktail, she brought it over and practically dropped it on the table without a word. On top of that, the cocktails were full of ice and barely had any actual drink in them. Total rip-off.

Unfortunately, I don’t know the name of the waitress, but she had dark blonde hair tied in a ponytail, a bit curly. If the management reads this — please take note, because this level of service is unacceptable.

Is this what a "nice" restaurant in the city center is supposed to look like? Completely lacking professionalism and basic respect for guests. We won’t be...

One of the absolute worst dining experiences I’ve ever had. To start, they “don’t offer” tap water, forcing you to buy bottled water instead. Ha, that’s a rare combo — greed combined with a complete disregard for the environment. We should have fled then. Whatever, everything else on the block looked equally dreadful (our own fault for being in the tourist centre) so we were desperate by now. We ordered baba ganoush and two bowls of beef goulash. The one dip and two soups took, no joke, forty minutes to arrive. In hindsight, again, we should have just left by then, but we attempted to eat the food. Not only was the soup barely lukewarm, the “baba ganoush” was not baba ganoush but actually just hummus. I guess the logic is that, Riga is so far from the Mediterranean that surely nobody will be able to tell the difference between puréed chickpeas and puréed eggplants?? The waitress clearly didn’t know the difference either when we pointed it out. The “goulash” was watery broth with one single 10g piece of beef in it. This was true for both bowls, so it wasn’t just the result of a single unlucky ladelful.

Additionally, above each table was the absolute worst interior lighting choice of any restaurant I’ve ever entered: imagine trying to eat dinner under the type of LED lighting one typically finds in a dentist’s office with other LED spotlights shining into your eyes from the ceiling fixtures. Like I said, we were desperate and recognised the tourist trappings of the area, so we walked in with quite low expectations. Ogle managed to surprise us nonetheless. In the end, we paid for a baba ganoush with no eggplant and a beef goulash with no beef. How this place is in business and has 4.2 stars is a testament to the poor taste of the drunk tourists to which this block clearly caters. Tl;dr: AVOID...