Latvian food I loved and the one I didn't: 2026 edition

The honest premise

I spent two weeks in Riga and the Latvian countryside in August 2026 with the specific intention of eating my way through Latvian cuisine seriously. I had an excellent food guide (a Latvian friend’s mother who took personal offence when I suggested stopping for lunch before trying her soup) and access to the Central Market, several traditional restaurants, and a small farm outside Cēsis.

This is the honest account. Latvian food is not globally fashionable in the way that Scandinavian cuisine became after Noma, or Georgian food has become in the last decade. It has not been exported, branded, or Instagrammed into a movement. It is also, in several specific instances, extraordinary.

What I loved: rupjmaize (Latvian dark rye bread)

This deserves to come first because it affected everything that followed. Latvian rupjmaize is made from 100% rye, fermented with sourdough starter, baked in a rectangular loaf, and sliced thin. It is dense, slightly sweet, slightly sour, with a deep brown-black crust. The crumb has a distinctive grain and chew.

I am saying this plainly: it is the best bread I have eaten in Europe, and I have eaten a lot of bread in Europe. The version from the bakery Fazer (widely available in Riga supermarkets) is good. The version from a small bakery on Stabu iela in the Quiet Center was better. The version baked in a wood-fired oven on a farm outside Cēsis was in a different category from both.

You can buy it at the Central Market, at bakeries, and at supermarkets. Buy it fresh, eat it with butter and smoked fish or cold cuts. The tourist-market compressed souvenir version in the vacuum pack at the airport is nothing like the real thing; do not judge by it.

What I loved: the smoked fish at Centrāltirgus

The Central Market (Centrāltirgus) fish pavilion operates as it has for decades: fresh and smoked Baltic fish, hawked loudly by vendors who have strong opinions about their product. The smoked sprats (sprotes) and smoked eel (zutis) are the standards. The eel in particular — smoked over alder wood, sold by the piece, eaten standing at the counter — is one of those market experiences that justifies the travel.

The price in August 2026: smoked eel pieces at €3-4 each, smoked sprats by the tray at €4-6. Bring cash. Eat at the market rather than taking it home; it is better fresh from the vendor’s hands.

The Central Market food tour takes you through all five pavilions with a guide who knows the vendors personally. If you want context along with the tastings, this is the best way to do it.

Riga: Central Market traditional food tour in a small group

What I loved: pīrāgi (Latvian bacon rolls)

Pīrāgi are small yeasted rolls filled with smoked bacon and onion, baked to a golden brown. They appear at every Latvian gathering as a default provision — the bread basket Latvia brings to every event. They are sold at bakeries throughout Riga, usually for €0.50-0.80 each.

The texture is the thing: the dough is soft and slightly enriched, the filling is salty and smoky without being heavy, the whole thing is smaller than a fist and takes three bites. You will eat six and not notice until the sixth.

The best pīrāgi I found in Riga in 2026 were at the Central Market bakery section (the one run by the older woman on the left side of the main hall, if she is still there — these things change). Second best at Innocent Cafe on Dzirnavu iela.

What I loved: borscht and other cold soups

Latvian cold borscht (aukstā zupa, literally “cold soup”) is a summer dish — chilled beet soup, pink-purple, with chopped cucumber, hard-boiled egg, and sour cream. It looks alarming. It tastes clean and vegetable-forward and slightly earthy, and on a hot August day it is the right thing to eat.

Ordering it in English is sometimes a challenge (pointing works). It costs €3-5 as a starter. Do not skip it if you see it on a summer menu.

Cold kvass soup (cold bread-fermented soup) is more polarising — it tastes like diluted dark beer mixed with sour dairy. I liked it. Many people don’t. Try it once.

What I loved: grey peas with bacon (pelēkie zirņi ar speķi)

The national dish and a source of genuine Latvian pride. Dried grey peas (a specific Latvian cultivar, slightly larger and earthier than normal peas), cooked until tender, served warm with smoked bacon pieces and onion. That is all. No sauce, no decoration.

It sounds like rustic poverty food, which is exactly what it is historically. It also tastes magnificent when made properly — the peas have a slightly nutty, earthy depth that no green pea has, and the smoked bacon fat coats everything in the right way. The best version I ate in 2026 was at a small farmhouse restaurant outside Cēsis. The best city version was at Lido (the Latvian self-service restaurant chain on Elizabetes iela), which is not a glamorous recommendation but it is an honest one.

What I loved: Jāņu siers (caraway cheese)

Consumed mainly at Jāņi (midsummer festival) but available year-round, this is a semi-soft yellow cheese with caraway seeds. It is made by curdling milk with buttermilk and pressing it into rounds. The texture is between cottage cheese and mild gouda. The caraway seeds give it a distinctive anise-adjacent flavour.

I ate it with dark bread and butter every morning for a week. The wheel from the farmers’ market stand at the Central Market was noticeably better than the supermarket version. If you are in Riga near midsummer, buy the fresh-made seasonal version.

The one I didn’t finish: blood sausage (asinsdesa)

I want to be fair about this. Asinsdesa is a traditional Latvian blood sausage, made with pig blood, barley, and pork fat, formed into a fat sausage, and either boiled or smoked. It is dense, dark, slightly mineral in flavour.

I ate half of it and could not continue. This is a personal failure, not a failure of the dish. Blood sausages across Northern Europe (Finnish mustamakkara, Swedish blodpudding, Irish black pudding) are all variants on this tradition. I can eat black pudding without difficulty. Something about the specific barley-heaviness of the Latvian version and the portion size (it was a large sausage served with boiled potatoes and no sauce) defeated me.

Latvians eat this regularly and with apparent enjoyment. If you are a blood sausage enthusiast, seek it out — it is genuinely traditional and appears on Latvian Christmas menus (asinsdesa with sauerkraut is a Christmas standard). If you are uncertain about blood sausages generally, start with something else.

Where to eat Latvian food honestly in Riga

• Lido (multiple locations, main one on Elizabetes iela): self-service, genuine Latvian food, reasonable prices (€8-14 for a full meal), no tourist premium. The food is cafeteria-style in the best sense.
• Folkklubs Ala Pagrabs (Peldu iela 19): medieval cellar, live folk music on weekends, pork ribs and grey peas and dark beer. Leans tourist but retains authenticity.
• Pelmeni XL (Kalku iela, Old Town): Soviet-nostalgic, cheap dumplings (pelmeni not technically Latvian but thoroughly embedded in Riga culture), packed with locals, €5-7 for a full bowl.
• Vincents (Elizabetes iela 19): fine dining, contemporary interpretation of Latvian ingredients, €50-80 per person, genuinely excellent and worth it for a special meal.

See the Riga restaurants guide and best Latvian foods guide for the full picture.

Riga: Latvian food cooking masterclass with a chef