Sale Pepe Italiano - Riga

We had some spaghetti carbonara, and an authentic one, actually! No inventive ingredients, a simple and tasty pasta. The house wine (white in our case) was quite good and we recommend. A good Panna Cotta to close it all. Atmosphere and service were good and quick (it was a quiet day when we went).

Beautiful small Italian Restaurant in Riga! Kind Service, fair prices and nice location away from the crowdy Tourist Spots. Carbonara and bruscetta was great.

The restaurant looks very nice from outside and inside. However, we were disappointed with the food. I ordered a risotto with mushrooms but it was nothing like a risotto. The bruschetta was the best part, however it was misexplained in the menu how it would be charged. I thought I was gonna be charged around 4€ but instead it was almost 12€ for 3 bruschettas. The food was also delivered very very slowly but the waitress was nice. I don't recommend this place.

We were so looking forward to having dinner here. Sadly we were very disappointed. We came here a year ago and the pizzas were amazing, they still are, but the rest of the food that we had was very different. My teenager son was so looking forward to lasagne, his favourite dish. When it came out it looked awful, reheated, dry and over cooked and had no resemblance to the pictures on the website. Unfortunately our young person didn’t want to make a fuss, so he wouldn’t let us say anything, but he gave it a 3 out of 10. My husband ordered carbonara and it was was a very small portion and didn’t look that great, topped with a few pieces of crispy bacon which he had to stir through. There were items on the menu which weren’t available, including wine etc. This is understandable, but it’s quite a small menu, so we were surprised. Our puddings we’re ok and looked nice, but I don’t think my Tiramisu was authentic, it tasted of lightly whipped cream and was very sweet and loose, not tasting of mascarpone which I’d have expected. The Panna Cotta was good, but let down by the burnt caramel, which was very bitter. The service was ok, but our server was very meek, understandable if newly employed and inexperienced, but then someone experienced should have been supporting. We had to ask for black pepper (it’s the restaurant’s name) and Parmesan (served in a bowl, old clumpy lumps,which I would have expected freshly grated) all should have been offered in an authentic Italian restaurant. It just didn’t fill us with confidence and the wobbly table we were sat at outside (same one we sat at a year ago) still hadn’t been fixed and really caused a problem when trying to cut anything. This is easily fixed and we couldn’t believe it hadn’t been done. The table leg falls down a drain! The best part of the meal was my pizza and it really was gorgeous, really authentic, wonderful flavour and the base fantastic. I really enjoyed it, but felt so guilty for the others in my party having such a mediocre meal. I hasten to say we will not be returning. Keep it as a pizza restaurant.

Definitely place to avoid. One of the most expensive pizzas I have ever had in my life and far from being the best one... I think there's a huge gap between the salaries in Latvia and the prices this restaurant puts which are the prices you could find in cities like Paris or London... But that was not all. Despite of already 15 euros for a pizza with mozzarella and parmesan, the waitress when we were going to pay told us that the service (10% was not included so she added automatically 10% on the total bill. So for example, if you pay 50€ for the food, you need to count you will pay 5€ more in the end...