Riga Restaurant Week reaches highest quality rating to date and sets new attendance record with 22,000 visitors

Author: Madara Oga
Source: Liveriga.com

This autumn’s Riga Restaurant Week has become one of the most successful editions to date, with attendance and feedback from both participating restaurants and their guests reaching a new record of 22,000 visitors. This confirms that Riga’s culinary scene continues to flourish and that Restaurant Week is steadily strengthening its position as a key event in the city’s cultural life.

This season, Riga Restaurant Week took place from 27 October to 9 November and brought together more than 60 restaurants across the city, which shared their results and impressions of the event.

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“Both the organisers and participating restaurants note that the level of this year’s offerings was exceptionally high — in terms of chefs’ creativity as well as execution. This reinforces our confidence that the concept introduced this year, where a specially selected jury evaluated the participating restaurants, has delivered the desired results. The quality bar for an event where food plays the leading role has truly been set very high,” said Fredis Bikovs, Director of the Riga Investment and Tourism Agency.

Restaurants also expressed genuine satisfaction with the event, highlighting it as a highly anticipated occasion. Responding to the question of what went best during Restaurant Week, a representative of LeDome remarked: “Overall, we managed to attract even more people to Restaurant Week, and after hearing the feedback, I realised that the overall standard of the Restaurant Week menus has risen.” A representative of Whitehouse added: “Our team’s collaboration in using and showcasing local ingredients truly paid off — from Kotiņi split pea risotto to apple and celery compote, to the Latvian herring and goat cheese duo — all without relying on pumpkin or honey.” Meanwhile, restaurant Flo highlighted the success of early promotion: “The advertising was very well organised — the phones were ringing, and reservations were coming in from day one. We can conclude that these were guests who came because of the campaign, not through personal recommendations.”

This autumn, restaurants particularly praised the timely and visible advertising campaign and communication strategy. Early publicity across social media, traditional media, and urban environments ensured broad visibility, created a unified and appealing visual identity, and encouraged guests to choose—and book—their preferred restaurants well in advance. The Riga Investment and Tourism Agency, the organiser of Riga Restaurant Week, also partnered with well-known social media influencers, who promoted the event in engaging, entertaining ways. As part of the marketing campaign, short video stories featuring Riga’s chefs were produced, achieving high engagement across digital platforms.

This season also succeeded in reaching a significantly broader audience: not only regular food enthusiasts but also many first-time visitors, who discovered new flavours and may well become regular guests in the future. Particularly noteworthy is the increase in foreign visitors — according to participating restaurants, 10–15% of all guests this autumn were international visitors who actively sought out contemporary Latvian cuisine.

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