When I saw first saw this restaurant on Tripadvisor, I thought ‘Man, it’s a bit far out from the old town of Riga (where we were staying)’, and so I wasn’t sure if we should pay it a visit. However after further discussions with my travel mates and some planning of our sightseeing such that it could factor in nicely into our route, we decided to check out this top-rated restaurant.

We were not disappointed. The restaurant was nicely decorated, with an overall clean white colour scheme that I like, at least for the area that we were seated; and the warmth of the place was a great welcome from the weather, which was getting chilly.

Everything on the menu sounded great, so we decided to choose different items to get an overall taste of their food.

Before we began our meal, we were surprised by a lovely amuse bouche of scrambled eggs on toast with some truffle shavings sprinkled over it – and cooked at a live station in front of us too! Already an impressive start.

Due to too much overeating on the first day of our holiday the day before (portions were rather large), we decided to share an appetiser between the three of us – the delightful sounding Foie Gras Ravioli with 27-year Aged Balsamic Vinegar (27 euros).

Now I rarely order foie gras just so I don’t feel bad about the poor geese that have to endure force feeding to produce it, but well, it is really difficult to resist it and so I have it once in a long while.

And it was so good. The rich fatty liver permeated the firm, fresh tasting ravioli it was wrapped in and gave the dumpling an intense, savoury flavour accentuated by the slightly sharp vinegar. Absolutely lovely.

For mains, I had the Hand Dived Norwegian Sea scallops (30 Euros) and my friends K and S had the Roasted Free Range Chicken (28 Euros) and Grilled Rack of Lamb (31 Euros) respectively.

I enjoyed the scallops, they were light and refined, cooked to a nice sear and firmness. They could have been a tad bit juicier and rich, the way I like it, but these would probably satisfy most seafood lovers.

The chicken breast was succulent and covered in a delicious porcini sauce. I really love that Latvian food seems to come with lots of roasted or grilled root vegetables, which did dish had as well.

The lamb was rather lovely too, juicy and rich in flavour.

Thankfully the portions here were not too huge and we were able to still fit in dessert, and so we shared two desserts (12 Euros each) amongst the three of us. And was I glad that we did, because they were so very delicious!

I particularly liked the Creme Caramel with pear ice cream and some sort of jelly inside, as the cold and fruity pear complemented the sweet, rich cream really well and left a most pleasant taste in my mouth. The soft and chewy jelly also added a nice layer to the overall experience.

The Amedei Chocolate dessert was also really good, with rich chocolate pieces that were warm and oozed into a pot of cream, berries and a refreshing lemon sorbet to balance it out.

Overall, the food was tasty, the service was delighful and coupled with the little fancy, interesting extras thrown in between courses, made for a really enjoyable dinner for all of us. Vincents has earned its good rating on Tripadvisor, I feel!

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Restorans Vincents
Elizabetes iela 19
Riga, Latvia 1010

Tel: +371 67332830
Website: http://www.restorans.lv/