Eating in Tallinn: The Places That Actually Deliver
It's easy to get Tallinn wrong. I learned this the hard way on my first morning, when I wandered into a tourist trap near Town Hall Square, convinced I was about to taste authentic Estonian cuisine. The menu listed "Estonian Fish Soup" for 12 euros, but the bowl was a pale imitation of what I'd later discover was a hearty, smoky broth made with local herring. I left feeling like I'd been sold a postcard, not a meal. But then I found Kõrve, a tiny spot on the corner of Pikk jalg 22, where the owner, a woman named Liina, greeted me with a nod and a cup of coffee before I'd even ordered. The menu was handwritten, in Estonian and English, and the prices were shockingly fair: 5.50 euros for a traditional black bread sandwich with smoked salmon and dill cream, a dish that tasted like the Baltic Sea itself. I sat at the counter, watching her prepare the bread with a wooden knife, and realized this was the real deal. She told me she'd been serving this same dish...