Restorāns John — Restaurant in Riga

We chose this place after hearing about its Michelin status and went for a Sunday breakfast with friends.

Regarding the food:

I was served a burnt potato waffle, hard and charred. I couldn’t eat it, and it left a bitter aftertaste. When I mentioned this to the waitress, she said it wasn’t her responsibility but rather the kitchen’s. I asked to speak with a manager, but she replied that no one was available as it was their day off and offered no help.

Service was severely lacking:

There were only two staff members managing the entire service. One girl was making drinks, and they forgot to bring the glass of prosecco I had ordered. After reminding them, they finally brought it out—but it was warm.

The double espresso I ordered came as an americano in a large mug.

There were additional service issues as well: no salt or pepper was brought to the table, the check took a long time to arrive, and the wait for food was unusually long.

As for the food quality, it was equally disappointing. The bacon toast was on soggy bread, and the syrniki were tasteless.

We spent two hours on breakfast (still amazed by our patience), with no apologies or acknowledgment of the...

Superb experience. Food is top notch, especially ostrich tartare, beef tenderloin and honey cake. Service is also outstanding with impeccable English, smiling and friendly attitude with respect to boundaries. My wife was also touched by the custom card signed by the staff for her name’s day, which is a big deal in Latvia.

Pricy? Certainly, but this is what you should expect visiting such a place.

Then why 4 stars? I hope that this is only distinctive for the particular night we visited, but we had to wait for around 80 minutes for being served the main dish after finishing the starters, and one can relate that it is not desirable to consume main dish after 21:30.

The staff indeed apologised for this delay and offered complimentary desserts to make up for it, but still, this was not a pleasant experience. Overall, I hope that the restaurant will learn from this lesson and will not repeat it in the future. Will be happy to visit the restaurant again and again in the future, provided that this will not...

Gather around my foodie friends, I have a story to tell.

I went to this new restaurant targeting their tasting menu, but forgot to mention this in my reservation e-mail (which you should do unless you want to miss it), but I was very lucky to be still able to experience a near-perfect pairing of food and wine (and from what I hear, the tasting menu is about to become available without pre-mentioning it soon enough).

The dishes were all excellent, but were I asked to highlight I would specifically mention the mackerel, the zander, the beef ribs and both of the desserts.

The wine pairing is also something very special - in some cases (again, the mackerel), the wine and the dish pair so well, you're bound to shed a tear at the beauty of it all.

And a very special and grateful thank you to the manager Linda for convincing the chef to take on the tasting menu and picking the...