When I went to Latvia, I started and ended my trip in the capital city: Riga. As a vegetarian travel foodie I’m always on the look out for good vegetarian food. On this page I’m sharing my personal best vegetarian friendly restaurants in Riga. All these restaurants are either completely vegetarian or have great vegetarian options. Some of these also have nice vegan options, if they do I’ve mentioned it in the description.
1 Terapija
Terapija is a a 100% vegan restaurant in Riga. They’re open for lunch and dinner from Monday to Saturday and for brunch on Sunday. For dinner they have soups, salads, 4 different vegan burgers and several other vegan main dishes. They have good falafel and a very comforting chili sin carne.
2 The Beginnings
The Beginnings is a vegetarian and vegan friendly lunchroom. They don’t have any meat and dairy on the menu, so apart from a few dishes with fish everything was suitable for vegans. You can go for a healthy bowl or one of the burgers. I went for the Guacamole burger and my boyfriend went for the Falafel burger. We also got some sweet potato fries to go with it. Although that wasn’t really needed as we also had a dessert so we were quite full afterwards.
It’s worth to leave some room for dessert though, as they have a big variety of vegan cakes like Snickers, brownies and matcha cake.
3 Rocket Bean Roastery
Rocket Bean Roastery is a coffee house that’s open from early in the morning until 9pm. They have really good coffee there with blends from several countries. It’s a really hip place that makes you feel like your in Portland rather than in Riga.
4 Stars
Although it sounds like an English name, in Latvian Stars means ray of sunshine. Stars is a bit hidden as you have to go down one floor in a street where you won’t expect a hip coffee place. But it’s worth the search! They have delicious coffees and teas and you can also have a light lunch or good breakfast here. Just a bit hungry? Then go for the banana bread!
5 Vest
Vest is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I especially love them because they serve breakfast until 3pm. So even if you had a late night the night before you can enjoy scrambled eggs or an English breakfast. They also sell salads, soups and appetizers throughout the day. Besides their main dishes they also serve tacos and burgers for dinner, with both a good vegetarian option.
6 Gutenbergs
We had dinner at the Restaurant Gutenbergs of the Gutenbergs Hotel. You have dinner on the 11th floor with glass walls all around. You have a great view over Riga’s Old Town while you enjoy your food. As a main dish I had fried muscat pumpkin with celery root puree, cabbage croquettes and a yogurt-quince sauce.
7 Index Café
Index Cafe focusses on healthy food so they’ve got plenty of vegetarian options. They’re popular for take-out but you can also sit in to enjoy breakfast, lunch or dinner. They’ve got delicious pancakes for breakfast. For dinner they’ve got a vegetarian pasta of beetroot tagliatelle with portobello mushrooms, oyster mushrooms and Parmesan cheese. They also have a nice vegetarian burger with mozzarella and tomato salsa.
8 Uncle Vanya
Uncle Vanya is a Russian restaurant in Riga’s Old Town. Not only the menu is inspired by Russian cuisine, but the interior and music are as well. We asked for a vegetarian 3-course meal. We had Latvian forest mushroom cream soup as a starter and Baltic Dumplings as the entrée with potatoes and fried chanterelles. For dessert we had the Latvian flag made of raspberry cream served with vanilla sauce from homemade dairy cream.
9 Fat Pumpkin
Fat Pumpkin is a vegan restaurant in the Old Town of Riga. They’ve got a 100% vegan lunch and dinner menu. From vegan burgers to vegan pasta’s, they’ve got it all at Fat Pumpkin. Besides the savory dishes they also have a wide range of vegan cakes. If you’re lucky they have their vegan chocolate cake. They also have several raw dishes.
10 Nirvana
Nirvana is a raw-vegan cafe in Riga. They offer plant-based food that isn’t heated above 45 degrees. They have all kinds of raw and vegan dishes on the menu. They also have several raw and vegan cakes. Besides the food they also have a big assortment of fresh teas.
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