Tapas & Vino

Tapas & Vino is located on the bar-street (Suur-Karja str.) of the Old town in Tallinn. Recently opened wine-bar, meaning snacks and wine in english, is actually a cozy and quiet place as opposed to its neighbours, Nimega and Nimeta bar and Avenyy.
It's not a restaurant, so don't go there being very hungry. The menu is out on the counter: some mushrooms, beans, salmon salad, lamb and bacon rolls. Mediterranean olives and tuna pie. From these things, you can mix and match your own tapas plate for 60 kroons + you can have free grissinis (italian snack breads) with wine.
Fortunately the wine list is a little-bit longer, I think more than 100 different names. 4 reds and 3 white wines are sold by glass (40 kroons). The selection is quite good, something for every taste. If you'd like to have beer instead, there's 3 choices (Saku, San Miguel and I can't remember the 3rd one).

Tapas & Vino is a place to go when you're planning a romantic date or just a quiet night-out with friends. On weekends they have live-music and a possibility to dance, on other days they play some jazz or easy-listening.


Tapas & Vino, Veinimaailm 


Tapas & Vino, Veinimaailm 

Blogs

While surfing the web and looking for some interesting blogs I came to some awesome sites. Manhattan Waitress is, like the name says, a weblog by a waitress in Manhattan, NY. Quite interesting and fun to read. The other one, Waiter Rant is about the everyday life of a waiter and his funny colleagues. Lot of dialogues, funny situations. Really entertaining and amusing reading.
If you have some time, go check it out. Might be interesting to know, what your waiter or waitress is thinking while serving you. Don't get too scared though:)

Madisson

Madisson is a cafe in the Radisson SAS hotel in the centre of Tallinn. It's expensive, but the food is more or less OK. Madisson is usually quite empty, so you can enjoy a little privacy, except in breakfast or lunchtime. The waitresses are friendly, but sometimes quite disturbing, coming to the table very often trying to sell you more and more..
Interior looks like a ship-restaurant to me. Not that there's anything wrong with it, just the furniture and it's quite a big as well.
I wouldn't go there if I had other choices. Just a few steps away is CityGourmet, a much nicer place to have a tea or coffee and a small snack.

Tristan & Isolde

Situated right on the ground floor of the old town hall in Raekoja plats, it's a must for all the visitors who are interested in medieval times. A lot of old city tours offer a chance to climb up the Raekoda (town hall), which has probably more stories than any other tourist attraction in Tallinn. After that trip, a nice cold beer or a hot cup of good coffee would be nice, right? In that case, Tristan & Isolde is exactly the right place to go. They offer a variety of coffees and teas, Estonian beer and cider and several cold drinks. They also have a range of very delicious cakes. In winter, Tristan & Isolde has the best mulled wine in Tallinn, a little bit spiced up with cinnamon sticks.
The atmosphere is medieval, dimly lit with a lot of candles and an old stone wall. Since the old buiding has no ventilation, it's for non-smokers.
Tristan & Isolde is perfect for cold evenings with close friends and even if you don't find anything to talk about - they have chessboards and cards for customers use. It's not the cheapest place to go, but it's worth it, open every day from 8 am - 11 pm, Friday and Saturday till 1 am.


Mulled wine in Tristan & Isolde 

Bestseller

I have good news for everyone shopping in Viru Keskus. On the third floor, there's a new bookstore Rahva Raamat and a little while ago, a cafe was also opened as a part of this store. The new cafe is called Bestseller and it's managed by one of the best and most famous chefs in Estonia, Imre Kose. The first positive thing I noticed was that the chef was actually there, unlike some of the other places hiding behind famous names. Some of the other features that I liked - it's completely smoke-free and the waitresses look really nice and stylish.
I tried mushroom soup (35 kroons) and espresso (20 kroons). Soup was good, although a little bit spicy. Espresso was good as well, (they use Illy coffee-beans) but they didn't bring a glass of water with it. By the way, they are using Villeroy & Boch dishes, which are beautiful, classy and funky at the same time.

Dish of the day...

If you're wondering where to go when you want a cheap and quick lunch, visit the website Päevapraad . They have information about special-lunch offers in pubs and restaurants of Tallinn and they update it every day at noon. Unfortunately it's only for estonian-speakers, but another cool thing is they have a wap-version as well, http://wap.paevapraad.com.

BabyBack

Tabasalu is about 20-30 minute drive from the centre of Tallinn (near Rocca al Mare and Oismae). You've probably never been there - however, now there is a reason to go. Two new restaurants were opened there last year. One of them is a posh spanish restaurant Manolete and the other is an american steakhouse BabyBack Ribs & Barbeque. I went to BabyBack and came back with great mood and full stomach. I suspect one of the owners has lived in America, because it very authentically resembles the highway diners in the states. I myself came from Florida about a month ago, and we've been disussing with friends about Estonian food and restaurant culture - just a place like BabyBack was missing. A lot of good food with incredibly friendly atmosphere. There are a couple of minuses as well - the location, the prices and availability. It's always full and if you want to go, you should probably book in advance. Prices are one the highest among Tallinn restaurants. For example, we had a full rack of BabyBack BBQ Ribs and it was 312,- (about 20 euros), also Creole Gumbo, a seafood soup (which I wouldn't recommend) for 48 kroons (about 3 euros) and House Burger De Luxe XXXL for 165.- (11 euros). Ribs were delicious, but I'd really like to talk about the burger. It was the biggest and best burger I had ever seen. Three nice oven-warm golden buns, a lot of salad, fries and about half a kilo of meat. As the waitress said, no-one has ever managed to eat the whole burger.
BabyBack also has a decent drink-list, a bottle of Corona is 40 kroons (3 euros) and Bud is 30 kroons. Unfortunately they don't have Coors (which is in my opinion the best american beer).
The last nice thing I noticed about this place - they give you a doggy-bag, meaning you can take your food leftovers at home. I believe BabyBack is the only place in Estonia offering this.
Alltogether - I definately recommend it, a really cool place.


Ribs in BabyBack 


BabyBack 

Paat

Paat, is a really nice beach bar-pub-restaurant in Viimsi. It's right on the coastline, next to the old open-air museum. It has a shape of boat, a lot of windows, and the view form there is fantastic. Paat is actually an estonian word for boat. In the menu there is a variety of soups, salads and meat dishes to choose from. The service is a little bit slow, but friendly and this is anyway not a place to hurry. The prices are not very high, the most expensive dish is 120 kroons. Paat is a nice place for romantic date or a family dinner.


Paat 

Novell

Novell is a nice restaurant in Narva mnt, right in the centre of Tallinn and next to my schoolbuilding (Concordia). The design and architecture inside are very modern, but the place is still quite cosy. The service is always good and the waitresses really nice and friendly. The prices are a little bit too high, but foods and drinks are good. You can get Caffe Latte for 30, Peppermint tea with lemon and honey for 25 and mushroom soup for about 60 kroons. The soup, by the way, is really tasty. Novell also offers a complimentary WiFi (wireless internet connection for laptop users).
However, the best feature of Novell is their coffeshop. The prices are cheaper and I believe that they offer the best coffee you can take-away in Tallinn. For example: a small Latte is 17 kroons (about 1 euro) and it's actually quite big. A big cappuccino is 23 and regular coffee 15 kroons.

Club Prive: Cream

It's supposed to be the hottest party spot in Tallinn on Saturday nights. And indeed it is - you can always find some happy friendly faces and the best dance music - hip-hop and r'n'b. However, if you don't like 50 cent, Kelis, Beyonce, Usher, Toe Tag etc, you might not like it there. The first thing before you go - find someone who is in the family list, or sign yourself up (send a mail to family@clubprive.ee with subject:cream and your name in the message). That guarantees you a half-price entrance, 75 instead of 150 kroons. A little discount is always nice, especially if the drinks inside are almost the most expensive ones compared to other clubs. For example: a vodka shot is 50, vodka coctail is 70, cider 40 and beer 35. They also have a thing called oxygen bar, which is supposed to be handy when you drink too much. The interior of the club is cool, dark colours, nice furniture, comfortable chairs, pillows and sofas. The only thing that might bother is too much old men from foreign countries, but ignoring them is quite easy. I definately suggest you to go, at least once. It's every Saturday in Club Prive, located in Harju street, close to Stereo bar and Moskva cafe. See you there:)


Club Prive