Estonia - Rataskaevu 16

Hello there!

I'm just back from Estonia and wanted to do a blog post to share about my dinning experience in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. However, i've decided to dedicate one blog post to Rataskaevu 16 because of their top-notch customer services and traditional estonian dishes. Do stay tune for my Estonia - Foodie Alert coming up real soon.

Rataskaevu 16

Yes, the name of the restaurant is the address of the restaurant, easy to remember right? With its cosy and warmth atmosphere, friendly service and affordable dishes Rataskaevu 16 has occupied a space in the locals' heart. Not only it is popular among the locals, Rataskaevu 16 is well located at the heart of Old Town, about 5 minutes away from the tourist information.

Rataskaevu 16 might not catch your eye on the outside, however it's a whole new world inside the restaurant. The interiors are well-decorated as shown below.

We had a full 3 course meal each, resulting in a slightly more expensive meal for budget exchange student. However, i got to say it's 45 euros well-spent for the top-notch dishes and extremely good services provided.

Starter 1: Avocado - Zucchini salad

Damage: 4.90 Euros

As the name suggest, the main ingrediants are Avocado and Zucchini with Goji berries and drizzled with sea-buckthorn sauce. The big avocado pieces are presented in perfect ripeness, having a creamy and luscious green interior. Although the Zucchini are thinly sliced, this does not affect the cruchyness of it. Lastly, the sea-buckthorn sauce was entirely new to me, i've not tried such a salad sauce before. It was sticky, slightly sour and orange in colour.

Starter 2: Fried Baltic Herring Fillets

Damage: 5.20 Euros

Although this starter is not a hot favourite among all the other starters, we ordered this to satisfy our cravings for fried snacks. It consist of Baltic Herring, Pearl onions, fresh salad, roasted breadcrumbs and cottage cheese sauce. The herring looked like sardine but tasted way different, it also did not have a strong fish smell. The breadcrumbs provided a nice complement to the fish as the fish tasted a little too salty on its own.

Main 1: Crispy skin chicken chest

Damage: 8.20 Euros

Sun dried tomatoes, potato mash, rose cabbage, leek-garlic sauce

The chicken chest is one the best chicken chest I have ever eaten. Unlike the usual breast meat chicken found in Singapore, this one was very tender and well cooked. It is also not as dry as those found in Singapore, the seasoning of the chicken was nothing fantastic but the chicken meat itself was extraordinary at least for a Singaporean like myself. As I do not like the chicken breast meat in Singapore, I have avoided ordering chicken here in Europe but after this experience maybe I should start.

Main 2: Braised Elk Roast

Damage: 14.90 Euros

This dish was highly recommended by the waitress, and i decided to try something that i've never had before. Elk is part of the deer family and are not breed for their meat. Thus, the elk served was found in the wild and was braised for a full 6 hours to ensure that the meat are of the right texture and degree of doneness of the Elk steak. The main is accompanied by some celery puree with beet, carrot, black currant sauce. This is defintely not something we can find in Singapore, so if you're here you MUST must try this.

Dessert 1: Frozen bluecheese cake

Damage: 3.90 Euros

This frozen bluecheese cake is surprisingly good, but it could be better if it's defroze for awhile more. Personally, i think the passionfruit sauce was a perfect match for the bluecheese cake, where the sweet and sour are distinctively separated, yet providing a well-balanced flavour to my taste buds.

Dessert 2: Warm chocolate cake

Damage: 3.90 Euros

Essentially, warm chocolate cake is equal to chocolate lava cake. This chocolate cake is lightly crips on the outside with warm and spongy cake wrapping around the rich and creamy chocolate ganache at the center of the cake. Paired with a genrous scope of Vanilla ice cream with raspberry sauce, this dessert is defintely a good way to end our dinner.

Drink: Coffee Frappe

Damange: 4 Euros

I've always thought coffee Frappe was ice blended coffee, but i was wrong. In Estonia, coffee frappe was just ice coffee. Shouldn't have made assumption on my part, so if you're unclear, just ask the waitress. I'm sure they will be more than happy to explain it to you! Well, this coffee was rather ordinary.

The customer service here is really A++++. Apart from giving us recommendation, the waitress responsible for our table made an effort to ensure our dinner was comfortable. Some gestures include helping me with my outerwear and hanging it on the wall, refilling our water, informing us about the estimated waiting time for each dish and the most memorable one was the handwritten note on our receipt when we called for the bills. Would defintely recommend everyone to visit Rataskaevu 16 when you're at Tallinn.

Tip 1: Make your reservation early, at least two week in advance. Could do it either by email or facebook message.

Tip 2: If you really forget to make reservation, try your lucky on Sunday night, it's usually the least crowded night of the week.

Total damage: 45.70 Eur

Address: Rataskaevu 16, 10123 Tallinn, Estonia

Phone:+372 642 4025

Website: https://www.facebook.com/Rataskaevu16

Hope you'll get a chance to visit Rataskaevu 16 when you're there. Do feel free to comment or drop me an emails to share with me your dinning experience!