Valguma Pausale-Smarde (Latvia)

It’s a coup de coeur because I thought that the food was really excellent, which wasn’t always the case on this journey when it came to finding average/ fine dining food, but this place is bucolic, and everything stems from there, the bosses are artists in spirit, and put all their heart in what they do.

Careful: it’s located 12 km away from Tukums, so it might be a bit complicated without a car.

Valguma Pausale is located in an exceptional setting, right in the middle of nature, in the middle of a forest, by a lake. It’s a hotel and restaurant, they also do wedding receptions. It’s funny, a Japanese guy got married here the week before my visit; funny because it’s hard to imagine that there are actually quite a bit of Japanese people that come to visit Latvia. Eating in a room surrounded by glass windows isn’t bad at all:). It’ll cost you 60 euros a night for a double, and a shared bathroom.

The boss and his wife are real characters, he’s an old sports photographer who authored and published numerous books with his wife, and he also did the editing I believe. There’s a large table with all their books in the entrance, he told me about all of them, but between his English, my fatigue, and the crazy story itself, let’s just say I didn’t understand everything:). Either way, he showed us a book of Latvian landscapes that he put together, very pretty.

The food was a treat, they only use local and seasonal ingredients.

Main

Grilled beet salad, goat cheese and chestnuts

Dessert

You’ll have to forgive me, I forgot a few of the elements, but I know it was a meringue with a berry ice cream

Latvia needs more places like this one: excellent, refined local food, with spirit, quality service, and all of it in a magical setting, there are so many out there, just perfect.