The 50 best restaurants

This year's rankings of the restaurants in Tallinn are special. We are finally ready to acknowledge the good even if it's not of local origin. One third of the rankings is occupied by newcomers. For the first time, one restaurant has returned to the rankings which has never happened before.

It's as if the rankings have come alive. Belonging here is a sign of the restaurant's quality and level. Making it into the rankings becomes more and more difficult by every year because the number of good eateries is fortunately growing and growing!

Last year was a year of soul-searching for the restaurants in Tallinn. It's pointless to run a restaurant as a hobby or an investment. A good eating establishment – that means vast amounts of work and full dedication, meagre profit and no free time. Running a good restaurant has become a lifestyle and that's how it's going to stay.

Ranking
1. Chedi
2. Moon
3. La Bottega
4. Sfäär
5. Museum
6. Neh
7. Bocca
8. Ribe
9. MEKK
10. Platz

Restaurant Mekk is moving firmly towards the top. Last year MEKK held position nr 11, this time nr 9.

MEKK – THAT'S OUR KIND OF TASTE

The tiny Estonian cuisine has advocates galore. In the media, in books, in conversations with one another... But the highest level of Estonian kitchen can only be the best Estonian restaurant.

And making a restaurant is no chitchatting. When counting the competitors of MEKK, even one hand has too many fingers. The chef Rene Uusmees is working calmly and deliberately like a real Estonian. Simple, well-known and not particularly respected tastes are reborn in his dishes.

Modernizing Estonian cuisine is above all stubbornness, then work and only then talking. That's the order in which business is being done at MEKK. And when Rene is talking, others are normally quiet.

www.eestimaitsed.com