Staying for a night in this new and modern hotel just outside of Riga.

http://www.elefanthotel.lv/

Having seen the menu, it was good enough and very versatile to make the easy decision not to go out to find a restaurant, this should do for tonight.

Strange enough it was very windy in the restaurant, air conditioning blowing at full speed and that was just terrible, together with this there was a more then unpleasant lighting in there, almost felt like a factory in stead of a cozy restaurant. It also was made clear very quickly that the inexperienced staff was undermanned as well. Bad bad start.

There was a choice of many Italian influenced starters and I liked the choice of antipasti either for wine or for Vodka…:

 

As you can see I had to take something else, a bit boring I know, Carpaccio again, I know, but they had met at truffle oil…

Food lovers around the world should be able to see the quality of the meat, I think it was dead for a long long time, which is a good thing. I tasted and smelt like ripened meat and was tender and melting on my tongue. Salad, parmezan and croutons were all good and fresh but what happened to the truffle oil? last drop of the bottle perhaps? decreasing budget? I don’t know but there was 1 maybe 2 drops somewhere, but next time, don’t mention it if you do not plan to use it…. Luckily the quality of the meat was so good it did not need anything but still it was a mistake in my opinion…

For the main course I had a choice of grilled zander fillet with a white wine sauce or an oven baked dorade with fresh tartar sauce or chiken Tikka Massala, fried duck with an apple honey sauce or with foie gras with asparagus  many good possibilities. For me, drinking an Italian Pinot Grigio and having an Italian starter, I went with the Pan fried parmezan chicken a la Milanese. I should have known what it was, but was a little confused, because I thought a la Milanese meant it was pan fried coated with parmezan, so this was double up and not clear.

This what I got:

A nice fresh, beaten to death piece of chicken with cold tomatoes, rucola, fresh onions and Balsamic vinegar. It was not so bad at all, I like my chicken a bit thicker but the crust was very nice and tasteful  I just hate cold vegetables on warm meat but besides that overall taste was good. Good thing price was good with 17 euro total.

Service: 5

Coziness: 4

Price:9

Food:7

Overall: 6.3