Description: Named after one of Korea's best known national parks, Soraksans is Riga's only Korean restaurant.
Although it's in the Old Town (near the castle and Dome Square on Miesnieku iela), Soraksan's prices are not as high as you'd expect. Open from noon to just before midnight, set lunches start at under four lats and evening mains like bibimbap and barbecued beef average around five or six lats. There are cheaper options such as Pokumbap (a filling dish of fried rice and vegetables) for two lats fifty, lots of gimbap (Korean sushi) and seafood, and a small number of vegetarian options. The Korean national food, the ubiquitous kimchi, is available as a stew or as a side dish (one lat). The food was more authentic tasting than I expected, the kimchi just the right mix of salty, sweet and sour and the bibimbap a barely manageable portion of rice and tender vegetables served with dollops of hot pepper sauce.
The decor is as impressive as the cuisine, the walls decorated in folk handicrafts and hangul, although the tables are a little cramped if you're in a group any bigger than four or five (a private room for ten is available if you don't mind sitting Korean style on the floor).
The only downside of Soraksans was the service, which was friendly but painfully slow. There were only two other parties there when we visited on a Friday night but we waited twenty minutes between getting the menus (in English and Latvian) and placing our orders, and more than the same again before the food arrived. If you're not in a hurry and have had enough of Lido, Soraksans is a great choice.
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