Estonia’s modern cuisine scene is quite young and the leap taken during past 10 years has been a truly great one. None of the local restaurants has earnt Michelin travel guide stars just yet, but the quality is improving at the speed of light and new top class restaurants are being opened each year. For several years now, Estonia has earned its place among the top 20 countries to participate in the Bocuse D’Or and a few of the local restaurants have been suggested as being among the top 200 best restaurants in Europe.
New restaurants are being opened every year and existing ones refresh their concepts, so choosing among the wide selection of options can be tricky.
“The 50 best restaurants” quality programme is here to assist you in finding the very best places for fine dining as well as getting to know the authentic local produce available throughout Estonia.
Each year, our gastronomic elite (restaurant managers, chefs and cooks, and sommeliers) choose 50 of the best restaurants. Taste, use of local quality produce, a new approach, technical quality, uncompromised dedication, sustainability and tradition – these are all important factors in determining the ranking.
Taverns, cafés, pubs, restaurants, manor houses and modern city centre eateries: there are plenty of options to choose from and fortuantely, the 50 best restaurants in Estonia do not focus only on fine dining and modern cooking. From 2010, the selection was widened from “restaurants” to dining places in general and the winners are chosen in 4 different categories:
- Fine dining: The winner of the fine dining category is also crowned the best restaurant in Estonia and the ranking is no longer reflected regionally. The best restaurant in 2011, for the second year running, is Alexander in Pädaste on the island of Muhu. Second and third were the Tallinn restaurants Tchaikovsky and Bordoo.
- Best in Tallinn: As you might expect of a national capital, Tallinn’s food culture is diverse and exciting. Declared the city’s best restaurant for the first time in 2011 was Chedi, which offers modern Asian cuisine. Second was Moon in Kalamaja and third was La Bottega on Vene Street in the Old Town, whose menu focuses on Mediterranean cuisine.
- Best in Tartu: This university city’s advantage is considered to be first and foremost freshness and constant variety in menus. The top three restaurants in Tartu in 2011 are the centrally located Café Truffe, the Italian restaurant La Dolce Vita and Crepp.
- Authentic Estonian: Anything and everything that not only helps keep our roots and food traditions alive, but sees them thrive. 14 restaurants all made the final cut in this category in 2011, with no ranking being made. They are located all over Estonia, from the island of Saaremaa to the Seto region in the south-east of the country, and are worth visiting however far you have to travel to get there!
How are the 50 best Estonian restaurants chosen?
Final ranking is composed after all individual votes have been collated. The process itself is very democratic; each nominated restaurant also has a chance to vote and recommend. This method ensures a comprehensive and professional judging panel and impartial results: chefs are known to watch closely each action taken by their competitors. Are you starting to cut corners or trying to save by sacrificing the quality? Have you changed your team and renewed the concept, menu or techniques? Who else but another chef can spot the smallest of changes, both good and bad, before any of the customers even get a change to tell the difference?! Each key judge gets an opportunity to choose 5 of his/her favourites, votes are summarised and the overall winner of the ranking is crowned as the restaurant of the year.
