Three

This restaurant (set up by three chefs, hence the name) is in a narrow street in the old town of Riga. We ate on the ground floor but there is also a separate dining room upstairs. The focus here is on "forest cuisine", making use of ingredients that occur in the forests of Latvia, such as mushrooms though also more exotic things such as smoked beaver (though this was unavailable today). Bread was made from scratch and today there was a dark rye bread and also garlic bread fingers, which both had good texture (15/20).

There was a five course tasting menu at €39.90, a seven course tasting menu at €49.90 as well as a full vegetarian tasting menu at €34.90, which was a nice touch. For dinner, starters were €6.90 to €16.90, with main courses €12.90 to €29.90. The wine list ranged in price from €22 to €154 and had labels such as Fairview Pinotage 2015 at €29 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for about €14, D’Arenberg Dead Arm Shiraz 2010 at €68 compared to its retail price of €33, and Achaval Ferrer Finca Altamira La Consulta Malbec 2012 at a very fair €90 for a wine that will set you back around €73 in a shop.

A traditional Latvian winter dish is a kind of stew of grey peas with onions and bacon. Here this local stalwart was given a more upmarket update with forest mushrooms made into a fluffy foam. This worked well, the peas good and the smokiness of the bacon working nicely with the mushroom flavour - comfort food with a restaurant twist (13/20).

Mushroom pie came with black trumpet mushrooms, kale and celery foam, along with a skewer of duck that was given a finishing touch of being smoked at the table. The duck had good flavour and the pastry was nicely made, the combination of the elements good, the kale an effective foil for the richness of the duck. The only slight negative was a heavy hand with the salt on the black trumpet mushrooms (13/20).

For dessert, cheese with raspberry sorbet and black balsam crisps was a little less convincing, though pleasant enough. For me the raspberry flavour was a bit subdued relative to the balsam, though the textures were fine (12/20). Service was excellent, friendly and efficient. I was being taken out on this occasion so did not see the bill, but a typical cost per head with moderate wine for dinner might come to around €60 (£51) per head. Overall I liked Three, which made good use of local ingredients and had a friendly, welcoming atmosphere.