Caffe Centrale — Restaurant in Tallinn

I was at this place this month, and I just have to leave a review because I still wake up in a cold sweat from the nightmare of it. Seriously, I’ve seen a lot of bad things in my life, but the way the staff treats guests here? That’s a whole new level of torture. These people—if you can even call them that—don’t even try to hide their disrespect. Whispering behind my back, staring at me like I owe them money. Etiquette? Respect? They probably don’t even know what those words mean.

And if that were the only problem… Their appearance is a whole other horror story. I don’t know what’s going on in their personal lives, but judging by how they look, I don’t even want to imagine what’s in their heads. Who the hell hired them? Is there any kind of hiring process in Estonia, or do they just pick up anyone who can hold a plate? I just hope they at least have medical clearance, or this could be a serious health hazard.

Now, the food. Some of it is decent, but not all. You get frozen garbage on one plate and decent homemade stuff on another—it’s a gamble every time. The prices? A joke. A bad one. Charging this much for that? Even for the city center, it’s a rip-off. And the coffee? Either the staff has no clue how to make it, or they’re using the cheapest, most disgusting beans they could find in a dumpster. Maybe both.

But the worst part? Hygiene. Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me, but I swear I saw mold in the display case. Mold, Carlo! The tablecloths were filthy, the cutlery looked like someone just licked them clean, and they give you, what, three napkins for the whole table? And the balsamic vinegar… it looked like something was growing in it. Oh, and the smell in the dining area? Like something died in the walls and no one cared to check.

And the atmosphere? Total chaos. Everything’s thrown together randomly, the place feels cramped, and there’s no sense of space—like eating in a storage room.

This place could be decent if the owners actually gave a damn. Get real staff, enforce basic hygiene, control the quality—something! But no, why bother when you can just scam clueless customers out of their money? Bottom line: I wouldn’t just not recommend this place—I wouldn’t send my...

Went there yesterday after our tour around the city. We had a burger, a pizza and a few beverages. At the end I ordered a double espresso and we also had a carafe of water. The coffee was charged as two single espressos, 5.50 each (last two entries in the receipt) because "they didn't have any other way to charge it!". This makes the coffee, which was bad by the way, more expensive than the pizza and a large beer and, at 11€, close enough to printer ink. The carafe of essentially tap water with some slices of orange thrown in, was another 5,50 because "they ran it through the machine (?)". I am not referring to bottled water. Tap water in Talinn is excellent and does not need filtering. The pizza was ok but the burger uninspiring. Both charged what one might expect from a restaurant in a tourist area. I would not recommend this place, as they try to find ways to scam you and there are lots of other...

We were three persons and spent over 90€ for: 3 local beers and a lemonade tagliatelle al salmone (the portion was extremely small, so even our little one left the place hungry. The pasta was overcooked.) a greek salad (not greek at all except for a bit of feta cheese, two quarters of a tomato and two little slices of cucumber - the rest was ruccola - no dressing, no oil/vinegar, salt pepper whatever served) a soljanka soup, which was a small portion too but at least well done. The lady who served us was unfriendly, never looked in our eyes while we were talking to her, did not even say thanks for the generous tip we gave (which we regret). For fairness, we have to say: another waiter was really nice, and the two musicians were good…

But all in all, our recommendation is: avoid this place, there are MUCH better ones around. We will certainly never come back to...