Ariran Restaurant — Restaurant in Tallinn

If you are looking for good Korean food, go elsewhere. If you expect to be treated like a paying customer, go elsewhere. If you expect to not be ripped-off, go elsewhere.

The owner seemed very displeased from the moment we entered the restaurant. We had a stroller and asked if it was OK he said yes but was very reluctant.

On the menu you will find a few different Korean dishes and salads, soups, but you will be able to order only a few of those. Some of them took too long to prepare, we were told so they wouldn't sell us, while other items were simply not available. After going through the list the owner then decided that he would tell us what dishes to order, and although he said that it was his "recommendation", at the moment it felt a lot like coercion. Especially in the moment when he told us that he has had his business for 34 years now and I was there for the first time so I didn't know anything about it... Fair enough I guess. We still managed to order some of the dishes we wanted although we took his "recommended" salad.

The food was mediocre at best. The Kimchi had a very strange after-taste although it was not too briny nor too spicy. The salad also did not taste fresh at all and we did not finish it. While I can appreciate that several Korean dishes are fermented most what we got served tasted off to put mildly.

Also, you will get ripped-off on the drinks. We paid almost 15 euro for one local beer and a can of Korean soda. I can't tell exactly how much each costed because when we asked for the bill we only got a number from the owner and at the time I only wanted to go away from there. If you pay with card they charge you extra but if you pay with cash they will shortchange you.

The place is rather small and quite shabby looking and whilst to me that would add to the atmosphere, unfortunately this time it was not enough to offset the whole experience when the owner was so unpleasant during the time...

On 12.11.21 my friends and I visited Ariran restaurant at Telliskivi 35. My friend ordered kimchi soup and asked for it without meat, the cook confirmed his request. The soup turned out to be with meat, though. My friend asked to change the soup for a salad, but the owner took it very seriously and persisted in convincing us that it was not meat. At one point, I couldn't stand it and sided with Lev and said that we just wanted a change of dish because there is meat in the soup and my friend is a vegetarian. At this he grabbed the glass of water that was on our table and swung it at me, started shaking it in my face and then rattled it on the table so that it broke into shards and threw the mask in my face. We were really scared and tried to leave, but he started grabbing my friend and poking him in the eye with his finger. When I went to the door he followed me and when I pulled the door he slammed it shut so that he pinned my hand in the doorway.

They wouldn't let us leave as we hadn't paid, but we had no problem paying and we didn't feel safe in the restaurant in question. When the police arrived, they even checked the amount of money on our bills to verify that we were actually able to pay it all.

We wanted to leave because we were insulted, grabbed, kicked, pushed, offered to go out for a one-on-one fight

At one point I had a panic attack. I have an anxiety disorder. It is particularly acute in spaces from which I cannot escape. When I started crying, they were constantly bullying me, calling me an "actress" and the like.

We wanted to take pictures of the table and the soup with the meat to have as much evidence as possible with the police, but they (Sergei the owner-cook and the woman-cook) wouldn't let us, and took the soup into the kitchen. We have video of them attacking us.

The police arrived, but did...

I never write negative reviews, there is always some effort from the chef and other staff members I'm willing to respect. But WHAT is this place? As I can clearly see now from the other reviews, there are TWO POSSIBLE SCENARIOS in this "restaurant". #1 The owner/chef is in a good mood or likes you (or whatever his motives are), in which case you can end up enjoying your food. I personally got #2 the other, completely opposite treatment.

When I walked in there was nobody in here, except of an elderly couple, supposedly owners themselves, watching a TV. I said hello, as politely as I could, and I sat down at one of the tables. From that moment on it turned into the weirdest restaurant experience of my life. First he told me to sit at another table. OK, I did that. Then he reluctantly brought me the menu. I wanted to have bibimbap but he told me they didn't have it and only had about three dishes from the whole menu. But one of them was only with rice, and not with kimchi, as on the menu. With a sour expression, he told me that he would prepare kimchi for me for an extra charge. But I pissed him off the most when I didn't want anything to drink (because I had a beer in nearby Telliskivi a while before). I was informed that since it was evening I would have to pay in advance. But I already understood that I really don't want to eat here - it was clear to me from the person's tone and behavior that I seriously will not pay a person IN ADVANCE for a meal that he does not want to prepare.

I got up, said my goodbyes politely (considering the circumstances) and let them continue watching on TV.

Luckily they treat some customers according to scenario #1, if they treated everyone like me they could close the business.

I leave it up to everyone if they want to...