Located in Northern Europe, Estonia's four seasons are the creative inspiration for the connoisseurs of good cuisine who are keen to prepare and enjoy food made from fresh, flavourful seasonal ingredients. Local cuisine in Estonia is mainly made up of pork, potatoes and garden vegetables. The main culinary influence came from the Germans, who ruled here for centuries. Foods that you will commonly find on an Estonian's table are pancakes, beet salad, honey, herring, pickled pumpkin, and crayfish.
One Estonian version of bon appetit is jätku leiba, which literally means, 'May your bread last!'
After you've been Shopping in Estonia check out restaurants and food guide below to find out more about Estonian cuisine, as well as the best places to eat at. Relax and experience our local delights.
Estonia Restaurant & Food Guide
Throughout history, the cuisine of many other nations has influenced Estonian cooking. This has been beneficial in many ways. Among other things, it has strengthened the Estonians' determination to retain their own unique cooking and eating traditions, keeping only that, which has stood the test of time and of quality.
Spring Cuisine in Estonia
Spring, the beginning of which is always greatly longed for, returns with spring lamb and veal; goat's cheese, rhubarb, wild leek, and fresh sorrel; and perch from clean inland waters.
Summer Cuisine in Estonia
With the arrival of the energy boosting and flourishing summer, comes time to enjoy all the wildest, headiest flavours imaginable. There are herbs, berries from the garden and the forest, chanterelles and new potatoes; and ever-popular fresh perch, eel, and crayfish. These play the lead in Estonia's midsummer symphony.
Autumn Cuisine in Estonia
When autumn arrives, there are opportunities galore to make what is good even better. From bushes and fruit trees come wild cranberries and boysenberries, hazelnuts and the black salcify. From the farmer's barnyard comes the traditional goose and fish lovers can choose from lamprey, dwarf herring, and plaice. The best part of autumn is, however, the hunting season. It is hard not to be impressed by the variety of game available in primeval forests and on coastal islands: pheasant, elk, boar, and wild goat all enrich the Estonian dining table.
Winter Cuisine in Estonia
During winter, Estonia experiences very little sunlight, meaning almost constant darkness. During these stark winter months, people take solace in warm comfort foods. Some staples during these months include traditional black pudding, smoked meat, roasted roe deer, Christmas blood sausage, sauerkraut, and sweet gingerbread. And no cold night would be complete without some mulled wine and local spirits!
Typical foods in Estonia
Leib or black bread: Estonians regard their leib very highly , almost allowing it to take on a sacred quality. It is so prized that some Estonians refer to meat only as 'something to go with the bread'.
Kartulid or potatoes: Were introduced here in the 1700s, and are now part and parcel of virtually all genuine Estonian meals.
Kotlet is a hamburger patty with onions.
Verivorst is the famous blood sausage. An acquired taste, to say the least.
Sült isjellied meat: As with Scottish haggis, it's better if you don't know what's in it!
Kohupiim like cottage cheese: Often used in cakes and pastries.
Kringel is a sweet German-style bread knotted and sprinkled with nuts and raisins: A standard at Estonian birthdays.
Restaurants List
African Kitchen
African Kitchen menu contains a wide selection of African native foods with a twist. Authentic African cuisine, the upstairs patio is ideal for warm-weather days, while by night the lounge-like rooms inside make for a cosy retreat. Dishes feature flavourings of coconut, peanuts and red pepper, with a good selection of meat, seafood and vegetarian options.
DJ every Friday and Saturday
Amarillo cooking is a delicious combination of Mexican heat and the intense but more subtle tastes of the American South. Amarillo serves rich, spicy and tasty food in large portions. Southwestern dishes go down best with icy beer or spicy wine.
Balthasar - the first garlic restaurant in Estonia was opened in 1999 in the medieval building of the Town Hall Chemists. The restraurant windoiws open to the Town Hall Square offering a magnificent view. Dishes flavoured with garlic - from appetisers to desserts- are the house speciality but the chef has not completely forgotten those visitors who do not particularly fancy garlic either.
The Lost Continent is the only Australian restaurant and lounge in Estonia, where you may discover yourself on an Australian beach, in a rainforest or sitting on a crocodile skin. Our main goal is to offer you and your friends a memorable experience - a spirited pastime in a cosy milieu, good servicing and pleasing gourmet moments. Our establishment has up to 200 seats.
The Caucasian mountain people want to pamper their guests with the best food they have to offer: courses made of black sheep.
Typical for Caucasian kitchen are different shashliks of beef, lamb and poultry grilled on charcoal, and for vegetarians different courses made of eggplant, squash, beans, etc.
Our wine list contains legendary wines like Saperavi, Mukuzani and Kindzmarauli.
This one is way off the map, but it's the only place, we've found that makes Georgian food like they do in Georgia. The rstaurant's cosy, country tavern interior gives it a kind of downmarket authenticity, and You if can't decipher the menu, just look at the pictures.
Caucasian
Üliõpilase tee 1, Nõmme district Tallinn
00 372 6 393 246
gioest2000@yahoo.com
09:00
to 01:00
St. Michael Cheese Restaurant
Monks and cheese - always an unbeatable combination. The Imperial Hotel building was once part of the St. Michael Nunnery, so naturally waiters in monks' garb preside over its smart, medieval style restaurant. Choose from cheesy mains like chateaubriand with feta or mushroom tagliatelle with bleu cheese. Be warned though that they're on the heavy side.
In homage to the Estonian House around the world where émigré Estonians meet to feel the close to their homeland, the publisher of Global Estonian magazine opened this casual, family style restaurant, made even more inviting by the friendly, stuffed dolls that inhabit each room. The menu is filled with Estonian favourites like marinated eel, sauerkraut stew with pork, blood sausage and, of course omelettes.
Heaven for pork-lovers, at the Golden Piglet Inn the cooks even put bacon in the bread! This country-style restaurant undeniably caters to the tourist crowd, but we really liked the bright, folk-art motif. And the menu is just as original, offering old witch's mushroom soup and sometimes called 'big pig head cheese.' Despite the carnivorous theme, a good-sized selection of vegetarian dishes is available.
True to its name, Grandma's Place treats its guests to a warm welcome and a cosy dining room filled with antiques. Take heart that there's no sign of the big, bad wolf here, though wild boar is occasinally on the menu. Elk roast is a regular feature and the lamb with bleu cheese comes highly recommended. Reservations are a good idea for Friday and Saturday evenings.
Estonian
Rataskaevu 10/12
00 372 6 269 080
vanaema.juures@mail.ee
12:00
to 22:00
Cathedral
Restaurant Cathedral constantly shows up on Tallinn short list of romantic restaurants. It is definitely the delicacies of our chef. Perhaps it's also the Tallinn's quiet atmosphere and attentive staff. Or maybe it's the private alcove booths and pretty Plaza view. A great wine list and excellent food probably have something to do with it as well. The menu changes frequently, but focuses on French and Russian cuisine with some international influences. A business lunch or a romantic dinner is an excellent introduction to Cathedral. The restaurant offers many special events throughout the year, such as wine tastings, prix fixe meals and great live music performances. Cathedral also hosts dinner parties where guest chefs create menus based on various international themes.
In Le Chateau you travel in time straight to the 17th century France. Louise XIV and his Royal kitchen has just introdused a new style of cooking and displaying dishesh. The best chefs from around the country prepares intresting new dishesh from local and imported food stuff. The feasts of the Sun King and the new cuisine in Versailles will soon also be presented in other good restaurants and trakteers. The new trend was called the Heute Cuisine and it is the base of the traditional kitchen even today.
Join the locals in this traditional Tallinn bar and restaurant at the Scandic St. Barbara hotel, serving award-winning German cuisine. Drink draught beer and feast on Lumberjack's sandwiches by the fireplace. Try the roast pork shank or go for a Bavarian hunter sausage.
In keeping with its beer-drinking theme, the menu at Tallinn's only microbrewery lists eight different kinds of sausages (pizza and kebabs also available). The real reason to stop in though is the beer-hall ambience and the unpasteurised, home-made brew, which includes a Pilsner a Märzen and a Dunkles.
Beautiful decor from the entry foyer's antique wrought iron staircase to the sparse erathy sheik furnishings make it a place to linger over your meal. The sophisticated East meets West style also extends to the menu, offering a wide selection of innovative, carefully prepared dishes.
The candelabras in the windows and the formal table decor might give the impression that this restaurant is aiming a bit too high, but it all becomes clear once you realise that this is a homage to the Du Nord of the 1930's. Head straight to the more romantic back rooms and order from the short, but wide-ranging menu.
Despite being named for one of Estonia's hardest-to-pronounce vowels, Ö is well worth seeking out. Here tie-clad lunchers discuss business in an atmosphere of stylish, charcoal-coloured furniture, with dove-wing chandeliers overhead adding an artistic touch. The menu is inventive and modern with seafuud learnings.
Neither the cute lizard (sisalik) on the sign nor the quiet, tasteful interior give any indication of what category of cuisine is served here. The menu leans decidedly towards the French (actually, part of it is in French) and includes choices like chicken provencale and frogs' legs. On the other hand, there are also decidedly Spanish tapas as well as Italian tagliatelle on offer.
An awe-inspiring affair where the decor is a combo of medieval stone retro and 21st-century chic. Immaculate sushi is server on banana leaves, and sake cocktails flow freely. Theres even a cigar room hidden inside here somewhere. If you were looking for a way to impress someone, you've found it.
A smart, slick establishment where you'd expect to run into super-chich members of Tallinn's A-list, or maybe a supermodel or two. Bocca delivers formal, professional service and an inventive array of pastgas and filletos (fillets), all under the glow of gigantic lamps that look like an artist's representation of the sun. The attached loungy bar is a swank place for post meal cognac.
In St Catherine's Passage in the theart of the medieval Latin Quarter of Tallinn Old Town you will find a fascinating place called Controvento. Good traditional Italian food and a charming interior will make your visit to Controvento an unforgettable experience. Come and visit us!
Just off the square, this sleek and trendy sushi spot has made a big splash with those who are willing to spend. All varieties of the dish are available - maki sushi, baked sushi, spicy sushi, etc.
Named for the 'May Count' of Tallinn's medieval days of yore, this respectable establishment hidden under Town Hall Square hints at old-style regality all the while providing a decidedly modern and down-to-earth dining experience that won't bust your budget. The menu is international, dominated by fillets with a couple of pastas thrown in for good measure. Delicately prepared food and professional service made the experience come off without a hitch.
Olde Hansa was established to honour the Hanseatic League and our forefathers and foremothers. We have dedicated ourselves to this task in order to take you on a journey to Tallinns golden age.
Olde Hansa is the home of a rich merchant. His house is built in so to increase the enjoyment of the happy moments in the life of a Hanseatic merchant. Not just for eating delicious food and savoring good drinks, but also for the enjoyment of good music and the homely warmth of the Hanseatic times.
When you see the sack of pepper dangling over the front steps, you'll know you've found Peppersack, but the restaurant is in fact named for one of this historic building's 15th-century owners, not the spice. The cuising is European, tending toward hearty meat dishes, while de decor is decidedly 16th-17th century Tallinn. Peppersack is now undergoing expansion; the 'granary' room is the newest addition to the vaulted main dining room. Every night at 20:00, guests are entertained with swashbuckling swordfights, with Oriental dancing mixed in Thursdays through Saturdays.
If it's an aristocratic Russian experience you're after, Klafira, strategically located on Vene tänav (Russian Street), is the perfect place. Beautifully decorated to take you back to the wealth of 19th-century Russia, the cosy, old style atmosphere and friendly service more than makes up for their pricy food. All the favourite Russian delights can be found on the menu and a few more exotic ones for adventurous diners. Live Russian music will keep you entertained if your company isn't doing the job.
One of Tallinn's must-see cellar restaurants, Troika wows its clientele with a cosy, old-style Russian decor and a singer who belts out folk songs from a balcony from time to time. But the best thing about this place is the food - excellent bliny and pelmeni as well as a selection of traditional main courses.
"Cantina Carramba" is a pleasant and stylish Mexican restaurant in Tallinn, Estonia with 56 seats.
We are located in Kadriorg, at the corner of Weizenbergi and Poska streets, near Kadriorg Park.
Visit us and enjoy spicy Mexican dishes, marvellous desserts, our strawberry Margarita, as well as Mexican
E. for Egoist above the door and D. for Demjanov on the silverware. The man behind Tallinn's elite Gloria restaurant has gone all out to satisfy the egoist in us all - those who can afford that is. An exquisite three-course meal, excluding wine, costs 480kr. The man named Estonia's finest sommelier in 1998 will help you choose among 1,000 wines. Ring the bell to enter.
Gloria has been synonymous with class and style since it opened in 1937, and once you get a look at the intricate, pre-war interior, you'll understand why this was a restaurant of choice for the Pope and several visiting heads of state. In case you need more convincing, Conde Nast named Gloria one of the world's 100 best.
Karl Friedrich's ground floor is an elegant, eclectically-decorated fish restaurant, where walls are literally covered with paingings of, well, fish. The even more formal upstairs is decidedly geared toward meat-eating clientele on a higher budget.
Our menu is based on the traditional French cuisine combined with new winds. We try hard and develop with care the basis created by our French chefs, in order to offer you a unique experience. Numerous heads of state and other top politicians as well as well-known business and cultural persons have not been our guests without a reason. We dare to guarantee that you shall never forget le Bonaparte's prized culinary experience combined with the equally prized authentic 17th century milieu.
Named after the matriarch of Estonian poetry, Lydia Koidula, this swank establishment near Kardiorg park sets a romantic mood with elegant wood panelling, soft green fabrics and light jazz. The classical European menu offers some intriguing combinations like ostrich fillet with blackcurrant sauce.
This innovative, three-storey restaurant overlooking Niguliste Church has already made quite a mark on Tallinn's dining scene with its daring menu of world cuisine and progressive interior design, but Pegasus stays in the limelight with its constantly-changing selection of dishes. It only takes one bite to confirm that the London-trained kitchen staff really know what they're doing. Stop by the bad on a Friday night to hang with Tallinn's movers and shakers.
The Schlössle Hotel's venerated cellar restaurant is an elegant refuge decorated with colourful swatchs of cloth that bring to mind a fairytale castle. Everything from the fresh-baked bread to the crayfish soup is right on the mark.
Surrounded by glass, the Radisson SAS' grill-bar bears closer resemblance to an aquarium than it does to a restaurant. Maybe this is supposed to encourage customers to drink like fish at the upstairs vodka bar. Despite its playful slogan, 'bread and fun,' Madissoni still radiates formality.
The name in Estonian means 'market' and that's exactly what this theatricaly-decorated cellar restaurant looks like inside - a classic, outdoor market square, complete with overhanging eves and a tree. That doesn't mean you can haggle over menu prices though. The food on offer is of the affordable international style, tending towards the Eastern European. Based on our experience, the people in the kitchen really seem to know what they're doing.
Though this gay cafe enforces a members only policy on some weekends, that hasn't made it any less of a hot spot for Tallinn's trendy set (both gay and straight). The crowd from the Angel nightclub downstairs makes its presence felt in the evenings. Tricky 'hetero' and 'homo' labels on the WC's notwithstanding, the interior here is old-school - brick and wood. Pastas and tapas and an extensive cocktail menu are on offer.
A cafe inside a book shop normally wouldn't rate, but this one happens to be set up by one of Estonia's top chefs. It has become a popular lunch destination, offering an original selection of light brasserie-style meals like pumpkin risotto and parma ham-wrapped chicken breast. Surprisingly cheap for this level of quality. Try the imported cider.
Lunch cafe by day and noisy cocktail bar by night, Island seems adept at cornering two markets. As a place to eat, the Greek salads and lasagne it offers might set it apart from the typical Tallinn eatery, but the food is nothing spectacular and the overall establishment is easily forgettable.
Cafe
Narva mnt. 7 Tallinn
00 372 6 109 900
cafe1island@yahoo.gr
08:00
to 03:00
Moskva
The ground floor serves coffee and pastries in standard cafe style, but head up to the infinitely trendier second floor for some casual gourmet. A variety of salads are available, as well as a few inventive mains, like chili-mango chicken fillet. More important than the food is that you're in the right place, being seen by the right people.
It should come as no surprise that the town's most upscale hotel is also home to its most exclusive restaurant. Ammende Villa serves a variety of creative French and Mediterranean-style dishes in its three elegantly restored, early 20th-century rooms. In summer, guests can also opt to dine in the garden, where classical concerts are held every Thursday evening.
You are welcome to an elegantly furnished guesthouse with all modern conveniences in the heart of Parnu, cozy and safe place to spend a night. The peaceful and quiet Alex Maja provides good atmosphere for successful and effective business meetings.
Perfect for gourmands and history buffs alike, the respected Hotel Victoria serves stately dishes like duck fillet in wok-fried vegetables and Chateaubriand in its 1920s-style restaurant - a nod to the restaurant of the same name that operated here during the first independence. Diners are graced with performances on the grand piano on weekends, and visitors can also sip coffee and sample the excellent creme brulee in the more cafe-like section of the Grand, closer to the lobby.
The Best Western Hotel Parnu offers a warm welcome to anyone looking for a classy meal in an international atmosphere. Choose from items like elk meat and chanterelle salad or balsamico marinated lamb fillet, then have a nice glass of wine while waiting for the Saturday night band to start.
It advertises itself as Estonia's biggest tavern, and the historic, 1890s-era Kuursaal near the beach is just that. Dozens of long, wooden tables accommodate scores of diners who can chose from menu categories like 'big bellyful of fish,' or 'big bellyful of meat.' A popular stop for beach-goers.
Cheerfully decorated and festooned with strands of garlic, the Generous Magyar offers satisfyingly huge Hungarian dishes in intimate, relaxed surroundings. Nowhere else in town are you likely to find Transylvanian lamb ragout.
This fun, downtown restaurant continues to hold its place as one of the busiest (read most popular) places in town. While the food at Mõnus Margarita might not be as authentically Tex-Mex as some would have it, the fun-loving, cantina-style decor is elaborate enough to make you forget all of that and just order another round of tequilas. Look out for a hot, Latin-music-inspired cabaret show, which happens every Saturday night at 22:00.
You are welcome to taste the magnificent Slavonic kitchen, enjoy the nostalgic music and pleasant atmosphere, hosted by cheerful waiters who invite you to take a look at the wide assortment of different drinks and cocktails, especially recommending the speciality of the house, the unique beer 'Emperor'.
For a unique journey back in time, enjoy a relaxing and reviving meal in the a la carte restaurant, which serves exactly the same dishes as it did in the 1930s. During the summer months the hotel also boasts a 30-seat terrace restaurant, with a perfect view onto the sandy beach.
Much more a real, full-fledged restaurant than a typical pizza joint, Steffani serves salad and pasta dishes as well as countless kinds of thin-crust and pan pizza. On any given summer`s evening, the front courtyard will beckon you to stop and linger, but the nicely-decorated interior is just as pleasant.
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